North America Channel Chief Terry Richardson Is Leaving AMD

“It’s a loss for AMD,” said Melillo Consulting CEO Scott Dunsire. “Terry’s 30 years-plus of experience and his network brought AMD a lot of channel connections. Terry has a great reputation and was able to influence partners on who they should partner with on the vendor side.”

AMD North America Channel Chief Terry Richardson, one of the most respected and beloved channel chiefs in the IT industry over the last three decades, is leaving the company.

Richardson, a 30-year-plus channel veteran who has also held top channel jobs at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP and EMC, joined AMD two years ago and helped build a robust network of partners with a program rated five stars in the 2023 CRN Partner Program Guide.

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Richardson’s departure on April 18 comes just three weeks after AMD Head of North America VAR Channels & Commercial Distribution Marty Bauerlein left AMD to take the newly created role of chief commercial officer at D&H Distributing.

CRN reached out to Richardson but had not heard back at press time. An AMD spokesperson confirmed Terry Richardson is leaving AMD and the company is “actively recruiting for his backfill.”

AMD is already listing a senior director, North America Commercial Channel Chief job on LinkedIn.

Partners told CRN that they viewed Richardson, a past winner of CRN’s Channel Madness competition, a sign of his popularity among partners, as one of the best channel leaders in the business. They said Richardson helped AMD achieve a channel footprint it would not have been able to attain without him.

“It’s a loss for AMD,” said Scott Dunsire, the CEO of Melillo Consulting, No. 209 on the 2022 CRN Solution Provider 500. “Terry’s 30 years-plus of experience and his network brought AMD a lot of channel connections. Terry has a great reputation and was able to influence partners on who they should partner with on the vendor side. He is trusted, the channel knows him and he always takes care of partner challenges and issues when they arise. He will be missed. I wish him the best and hope he enjoys his retirement with his family. I hope it isn’t a long term retirement but if it is I wish him the best.”

One of Richardson’s biggest strengths was his “passion” to act as an advocate for partners facing a myriad of challenges that come with closing deals in the sales trenches, said Dunsire.

“Terry was maniacal about making sure he fixed any challenges that were out there for partners,” he said. “You always knew Terry was fighting for you. You could always count on him to get back to you on what ever the resolution was, even if it was not necessarily the answer you wanted. Terry was always pushing to do the right thing for the company he was working for and the partners. It’s unfortunate for partners that he is retiring but he has had a nice long career. He deserves it.”

Rob Schaeffer, president of CBT, a perennial award winner in CRN IoT innovator’s list, No. 343 on the 2022 CRN SP500, said the many channel accolades Richardson has attained over his “esteemed” career puts him at the top of list of industry channel chiefs.

“Terry is not just a friend to me, he is a friend to the channel,” said Schaeffer. “He is so well-respected because of his channel acumen and his ability to influence people, companies and partnerships. He is a channel icon as attested by his CRN Channel Madness victory. That doesn’t happen by accident. The popularity comes because he always does things the right way and he always delivers value to partners. He understands the business of the channel. The channel is going to miss him.”

Richardson was able to get strong results because of his ability to build deep long lasting relationships in the channel sales trenches, said Schaeffer. “People like Terry make you want to do business with a company,” said Schaeffer. “It takes technology but it is more than that. People like Terry make you want to do business with them.”