Ex-Lenovo SMB Exec McBain Joins Autotask

Former Lenovo channel executive Jay McBain is joining Autotask as senior vice president of strategy and market development, Autotask confirmed Wednesday.

McBain is the second high-profile hire for East Greenbush, N.Y.-based Autotask in the space of a week. On Dec. 17, Autotask hired Mark Cattini as its new CEO, replacing Bob Godgart, who is taking on a new role as chief visionary officer.

"Jay is a highly experienced channel, sales, marketing and business development executive who has demonstrated the ability to lead diverse teams of professionals to new levels of success in a variety of highly competitive product categories, cutting-edge markets, and fast-paced environments," said Mark Cattini, CEO of Autotask, in a statement.

Earlier this week, McBain announced he was resigning from his position of director of small and medium business at Lenovo after 16 years with Lenovo and IBM.

Speculation began almost immediately as to where McBain, a popular executive among VARs and seasoned speaker at channel events, would land. On Wednesday, McBain, changed his Facebook profile to include the Autotask logo.

McBain stressed that his move from Lenovo to Autotask was a personal career decision where he is following his belief of where the market is headed.

"It wasn't anything that Lenovo didn't do or Autotask did do. Lenovo is executing really, really well. They are going to become an important player in this pervasive world. For me, it's about joining an impressive management team at Autotask, with a great set of tools, firmly pointed in cloud and SaaS.

"[Services automation] is an industry that I've always been very interested in. In the last couple of years, as I've worked in managed services I've become close to the team at Autotask and know the importance they have for the channel. The channel runs its business on Autotask: quoting, billing, accounts receivable. It’s the glue for many channel partners that holds together the business.

"As [VARs] become cloud brokers, aggregators, and they evolve their business beyond the tipping point, the channel will become a more important player in lot of industries and a lot of adjacent markets than it has been in the past. Autotask, with its TaskFire, VARstreet and other brands, will grow more important in terms of how [VARs] grow the business."

McBain said he expects to work closely with both Godgart and Cattini going forward. "Bob will do what he does best. He's an entrepreneur at heart and he’s looking for new opportunities from a product point of view and a market point of view. I look forward to working closely with both Mark and Bob to drive a larger market opportunity for Autotask.’

ZEWDE YERASWORK contributed to this article.