Cisco appoints Rodney Clark as new global partner sales leader

Cisco has named Rodney Clark as its new senior vice president of partnerships and small and medium business, stepping into the role vacated by Oliver Tuszik earlier this year. 

In his new role, Clark will empower and enable Cisco’s global ecosystem of partners, strengthen its position in routes to market like managed services and cloud marketplaces, and help Cisco and its partners maximize the opportunities in the SMB segment. 

During a nearly 25-year career at Microsoft, Clark held various senior sales leadership positions, including corporate VP, global channel sales and channel chief. Prior to Microsoft, he spent nine years with IBM in sales, marketing, and management capacities. Most recently, he was the CCO at Johnson Controls.

“I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done with our ecosystem of partners over the last 25 years, and the business value that we’ve helped create for our mutual customers. Rodney is the right leader at the right time as we build on that legacy and push our partnerships into a new era,” Cisco EVP and chief customer and partner officer, Jeff Sharritts said.

“Approximately 90 per cent of our annual bookings runs through our partners, and Rodney is the perfect leader to drive our next phase of growth. Our ecosystem of partners is not only our single biggest advantage in the market, but it’s also fundamental to our transformation strategy.”

Clark’s appointment was revealed during Cisco’s annual Partner Summit, which Sharritts said was based on the theme of Greater Together.

Tuszik became Cisco’s global channel chief in 2019 and in August he took on a new appointment as president of Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) region.

In September, Cisco made a move to significantly reinforce its security software portfolio, striking a US$28 billion cash deal to acquire enterprise and cloud protection company Splunk.

Julia Talevski attended Cisco Partner Summit 2023 as a guest of Cisco.