Channel Shocker: Marius Haas Is Out At Dell

'Marius' contributions to Dell Technologies will far outlast the seven years he has been with the company,' says Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies.

Dell Technologies President and Chief Commercial Officer Marius Haas—who helped establish Dell, EMC and VMware as a combined channel and technology powerhouse—unexpectedly stepped aside Monday morning.

Dell Technologies announced that Haas, who helped drive massive channel sales growth over the last seven years, is retiring at the end of the current fiscal year.

Haas, who is widely credited with successfully integrating the Dell and EMC channel organizations, was unavailable for comment.

Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y.-based solution provider Future Tech, No. 101 on the CRN 2019 Solution Provider 500, said he was surprised and disappointed that Haas is stepping down.

“He will be sorely missed. Marius’ customer acumen was the best in the industry, and his dedication to the channel and its partners was second to none. I consider him a friend. In this industry there are a lot of acquaintances and not a lot of friends,” said Venero. “I am so sad to see Marius retire, but he has earned his time to relax and pursue some later life goals like the Austin FC Major League Soccer franchise.”

Haas’ ability to drive strong channel relationships, as Dell Technologies combined the Dell EMC channels along with tight alignment with VMware, helped drive massive channel storage sales growth. That storage charge was a critical factor in Dell EMC’s ability to pull ahead of Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the worldwide leader in storage.

"Marius' contributions to Dell Technologies will far outlast the seven years he has been with the company,” said Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, in a statement. “I thank him for his leadership and wish him all the best as he begins this next chapter.”

[Related: Marius Haas On Dell EMC Besting HPE And 2019 Channel Partner Strategy]

Haas played a critical role in uniting Dell and EMC’s channel community after the two companies combined in 2016, helping to drive sales synergies and partner program unity. His leadership over his seven-year tenure elevated Dell Technologies into a $91 billion leader in servers, storage and hyperconverged infrastructure.

Haas is officially “retiring from the company” at the end of Dell’s fiscal year, which ends Feb. 3, 2020, Dell said in an email to CRN.

One of the most vocal channel supporters in the industry, Haas was responsible for Dell Technologies’ global go-to-market organization, delivering innovative offerings to commercial customers, as well as leading Dell’s channel partners and public and federal institutions worldwide. He was a keynote speaker at many of Dell’s largest customer and partner events over the years.

Haas was recently a keynote speaker at The Channel Company’s 2019 Best of Breed Conference, where he spoke at length about the opportunities ahead for channel partners. “When we show up with our partners, nine times out of 10 we win,” Haas said.

Taking over Haas’ responsibilities is Bill Scannell, Dell’s president of enterprise sales and customer operations. Scannell will add commercial and partner sales to his responsibilities when Haas departs in February and will become the new president of the combined sales organization.

"Given this change, we have the perfect opportunity to consolidate our sales organizations under the leadership of Bill Scannell,” said Michael Dell. “Bill is an outstanding leader, known for his customer-first mindset, who will ensure the best experience for our customers and team as we make this transition."

A Dell spokesman said Scannell was unavailable for comment at this time.

Haas came to Dell in 2012 from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), serving as Dell’s chief commercial officer and president of Dell’s Enterprise Solutions Group responsible for strategy, development and development of all data center and cloud offerings globally. Prior to KKR, he was senior vice president and worldwide general manager of Hewlett-Packard's networking division.

Haas is also a member of the board of directors of the U.S.-China Business Council and a former competitive soccer player, recently becoming an investor in the new Austin FC professional soccer franchise.

Venero said Haas deserves the credit for bringing together the Dell, EMC and VMware channels under a single united organization.

“When you look at the Dell-EMC-VMware trilogy, there was nobody better to integrate those organizations and make it successful for the channel than Marius,” said Venero.