Former SAP Channel Executive Takes Top Sales Post At GFI Software

Former SAP channel executive Patricia Hume has been named senior vice president of worldwide sales at GFI Software, a Clearwater, Fla.-based supplier of security and office productivity software with a significant channel presence.

Hume will report to CEO Walter Scott and is tasked with expanding GFI's worldwide channel sales program, according to the company.

Hume stepped down as head of SAP's global indirect sales organization in early January for personal reasons. She had worked at the giant Waldorf, Germany-based company for three years, originally as senior vice president of global SME (small and midsize enterprise) channel organization before being promoted late last year to manage all indirect sales.

Before working at SAP Hume managed global channel sales for Avaya and before that spent 17 years at IBM in various research and development, marketing, sales and channel management posts. Altogether she has nearly 30 years of industry experience.

’Pat Hume is a respected industry veteran with chronicled success building and growing profitable sales programs at some of the largest technology companies in the world,’ said GFI Software CEO Scott, in a statement. ’We look forward to having her extensive experience and leadership guiding and expanding our global network of partners and customers.’

’Having successfully managed both domestic and international markets, I look forward to challenging myself again in a setting where I can rapidly contribute to driving company growth and expansion,’ said Hume in the same company statement.

’GFI is poised for success and it presents to me the opportunity I was seeking. The prospect of working closely with Walter Scott and the GFI team made this an easy decision," she said.

GFI has some 5,000 channel partners in North America and was a Five-Star solution provider in CRN's 2010 Partner Programs Guide.

The company develops a number of network and email security products, including GFI MailSecurity and GFI LANguard, archiving and backup applications such as GFI MailArchiver, and IT management tools including remote monitoring and patch management software.

Last year the CRN Test Center reviewed GFI's patch management software, finding it to be an effective product and praising the company's approach of offering freeware versions of the software for very small businesses.