Mullen calls time on her spell as Dell channel chief

After more than two decades at the vendor, Joyce Mullen has decided the time is right for a fresh challenge

Dell Technologies is starting the hunt for a replacement worldwide channel chief after Joyce Mullen announced her plans to move on.

The current global leader of Dell Technologies’ channel, embedded and edge teams has been in the role since 2017 – a time when the firm has gone through some major changes, moving from private back to public ownership being the most recent among them.

The challenge for Mullen has always been to show the channel that Dell is sincere in its promises of making life simpler for partners and to encourage those that have signed up to sell more of the portfolio and give the vendor a greater share of wallet.

Highlights during her time in the channel leadership position include taking the indirect business through the $50bn revenue barrier. When she took up the role, the money coming from partners totalled $43bn. Now, the target is $70bn.

Another major area which occupied the time and thoughts of Mullen and her team was around the delivery of Dell’s unified partner programme. Announced not long before she took up the channel leadership role, it has been very much her responsibility to deliver and adapt that offering over the past couple of years.

“After 21 years, I’ve made the extremely difficult decision to move on to a new challenge. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed over two decades at Dell and I will miss this incredible team and world-class partner ecosystem,” said Mullen.

“I’d like to thank all of our partners for the collaboration and friendship over the years. It’s all of you who have made my time here so memorable. I will always be cheering for Dell Technologies”
Joyce Mullen, Dell

One of her approaches to leadership has been to build and develop a strong channel team, which should keep Dell in a strong position while the search for her successor is undertaken. The firm has indicated that Bill Scannell, Dell’s president of global sales and customer operations, will pick up some of her responsibilities in the short term.

“I move on knowing that Bill Scannell and our entire channel team will continue to provide partners with industry-leading opportunities and a best-in-class partner experience,” she added.

“On a personal note, I’d like to thank all of our partners for the collaboration and friendship over the years. It’s all of you who have made my time here so memorable. I will always be cheering for Dell Technologies,” she concluded.

Her unexpected departure was first revealed last week after she made the announcement in an interview with the US press. There had not been any previous indications that Mullen was planning to move on from the vendor.

The response from Dell was to thanks Mullen for her two decades-plus service and a statement that the channel commitment remained unchanged.

“The channel continues to be a critical part of Dell Technologies’ go-to-market strategy and our partner ecosystem is of the utmost importance to us. We look forward to sharing more information in the coming weeks about how we will lead our channel organisation,” the firm stated.

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