Following Rejean Bourgault’s departure for AWS Canada, Avaya names a replacement from within, hoping for some stability in the Canadian country manager role.
David Robertson, new Avaya Canada Managing Director and President of Sales
It’s been a year of turmoil for Avaya, with their ongoing Chapter 11 restructuring to reduce their onerous debt load, and the sale of one of their three business units, networking, to Extreme Networks. There has also been much recent instability in Avaya Canada’s senior leadership. Now the company is hoping that it has found the key to success and stability in the north, with the appointment of David Robertson as Canada Managing Director and President of Sales.
The top job in Canada has been filled by many shoes recently. After Walter Andri left Avaya in early 2016, the country manager job remained vacant, and was handled by vice president of Americas International Gordon Blackie. In September 2016, Blackie left the company, and was replaced by Galib Karim, who continued to manage Canada. In October, Rejean Bourgault, a longtime Nortel hand who joined Avaya when they acquired Nortel’s enterprise business in 2009 and who had been running Avaya Canada’s federal business, became the de facto acting head in Canada in October, although his formal appointment was not announced until February 2017. The appointment of the long-serving Bourgault was a popular one among Avaya Canada staffers. It did not last long, however. In August, he left and joined AWS Canada.
Robertson has been at Avaya for a much shorter time, joining the company in 2015. Originally, he was the regional Ontario leader, but in a restructuring Bourgault implemented, he was also given responsibility for the west as well as Ontario. He held the title of Vice President Enterprise at Avaya Canada when Bourgault left.
In his new role, Robertson reports directly to Galib Karim, who remains the VP of Americas International.
While Robertson is not yet speaking with media, Avaya issued a statement of confidence in him, saying that he will be responsible for continuing to drive innovation in Canada while increasing revenue growth and market share.
He will report directly to Galib Karim, Vice President of Americas International for Avaya.
Before coming to Avaya, Robertson spent three years at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Canada, with his final position there being Vice President, Business Intelligence Services. Before that he spent six years at Rogers Communications in B2B roles, including B2B large and medium segment channel leader.
