With the HPE-Juniper Networks deal now closed, the combined company has named Gordon Mackintosh, Juniper’s channel chief for the last five years, as its head of partner ecosystem networking sales for the combined company.
Mackintosh told CRN that he’s excited to have the opportunity to continue to work with former Juniper CEO Rami Rahim, who is now president and general manager of HPE’s $9.6 billion networking business, as well as the extended leadership team.
“I really think that this is a defining moment for the networking industry. HPE and Juniper joining forces; we’re not just bringing technology and portfolios together. We’re going to align behind a full shared vision to lead AI-native network modernization. It’s really a rare opportunity when you can step into a role where there’s a strategy in the market and the timing is all coming together,” Mackintosh said of his new appointment.
Mackintosh, Juniper’s channel chief for more than five years, has already begun working closely with HPE’s worldwide channel and partner ecosystem leadership team, but his new role will be effective Nov. 1.
[Related: New HPE-Juniper Networking Boss On Integration, Competing with Cisco, And the Future Of Juniper Mist]
Mackintosh said that he and the HPE team are going to be creating a platform for partner growth at scale. The combination of Juniper’s strength in AI networking and HPE’s Network as a Service (NaaS) leadership with its GreenLake platform presents huge opportunity for partners, he said.
“I think [with] both partner community communities coming together, we have the opportunity to really lead the charge on data center transformation and network modernization to meet the demands of AI and the next generation of workloads, which is just really exciting,” Mackintosh said. “What we’ll be enabling here is ways to unlock and drive more value and differentiation for the partners. So, rather than just giving them more to sell, we really want to help them lead in spaces that matter most to our customers.”
HPE said that Mackintosh and the HPE channel team are currently setting up a strategy for “bringing our unified channel vision to life.” In the meantime, Juniper’s partner program will stay business as usual while Mackintosh and his team work on a clear roadmap to merge Juniper partners into HPE’s Partner Ready Program.
“We’re going to be introducing new programs to accelerate partner success by simplifying, onboarding, enablement, and some of the cross-sell motions to help partners grow faster and more efficiently,” he said. “I spent a lot of my career working with partners, and there’s nothing more energizing to them than aligning around simplification and growth as well as a whole shared mission.”
Existing partner investments and specializations will be protected, Mackintosh said.
“Our job is going to be to make sure that no partner feels like they have to start over again,” he said. “The goal will be to create a simpler, more profitable and powerful partner experience.”
Mackintosh will be reporting to HPE’s Senior Vice President, WW Channel and Partner Ecosystem,
Simon Ewington, who has been HPE’s partner ecosystem leader since 2023.
A longtime channel leader in the networking space, Mackintosh joined Juniper Networks in 2020 as group vice president of Juniper’s partner organization. He then worked his way up to his current role as senior vice president of Juniper’s partner organization and commercial sales. Before his time at Juniper, Mackintosh served as vice president, worldwide channel and partner-led sales for Extreme Networks for four years. Prior to his time at Extreme Networks, Mackintosh worked at Cisco Systems in a number of channel management posts.
HPE’s long road to complete its $13.4 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks came to an end earlier this month. The closing of the acquisition came four days after the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to settle its lawsuit challenging the acquisition.
Juniper is now a wholly owned subsidiary of HPE.
