Executive Team

Tony White, Managing Director

An innovative and highly effective channel strategist, Tony is the Managing Director and Founder of Birch Worldwide. Tony offers a proven track record of formulating and implementing effective channel business growth and operational strategies at global, corporate and departmental levels.

He is a staff and client centric leader who presents a results-orientated approach to project planning and implementation, optimising performance and channel satisfaction.

Tony brings over twenty years of experience, Tony brings over twenty years of experience working with diverse clients including Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Lexmark, HP and Xerox on projects focused on accreditation, market development funds, rebate, sell-out reporting, and special pricing.

John Stroud, CTO & CIO

John is the Group Technology and Information Officer for Birch Worldwide. He joined Birch in 2003 after 20 years working in various CIO roles in the media industry. John has extensive experience in managing business driven systems development, large scale mission critical infrastructure.

He is an expert in database design particularly the implementation of large volume data management applications.

John has overseen the evolution of the Birch product portfolio to meet the ever changing market requirements, using his experience of managing development on a global business model.

Bill Kell y, Managing Director, North America

Bill has over twenty years of experience in sales, marketing and business development in industries including technology, telecommunications, engineering, and consumer packaged goods.

Bill has worked on projects with numerous technology vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Autodesk, Business Objects, Netapp, Sony, Sun and Toshiba.

Bill was previously the Executive Vice President at a global software development company, where he was instrumental in developing and deploying web-based software application for the management of complex channel programs.

Evan Christensen, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific

Evan has over twenty years experience gained through various channel oriented roles in the technology industry around the world. Clients evolving and expanding their channels in the Asia-Pacific region benefit from Evan’s in-region expertise and background in technology channel marketing.

His comprehension of local and regional markets and business practices are pivotal in designing, deploying and managing effective channel programs in Asia.

Matt Rowland-Jones, General Manager

Matt has worked in the marketing services industry for more than twenty years. He is General Manager of bChannels and has been with the business for ten years. During this time he has worked with a wide range of clients spanning the entire technology sector.

They include Microsoft, Xerox, Samsung, IBM, HP, Intel, Cisco, Sony and many others. He brings to bChannels a specialism in voice and data networking through his work with Avaya, 3Com, Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent.

Phil Gowing, Operations Director

Phil Gowing is Operations Director of bChannels. During his eight years with bChannels Phil has worked with a range of vendors including Samsung, Microsoft, Novell and Avaya on European and worldwide contact centre implementations.

For the past four years Phil has been the lead for bChannels with Intel, managing a wide range of projects associated with Intel's indirect channel in Europe.

Prior to working with bChannels Phil was with the Kingfisher/Comet group.

Chris Bard, Client Director

Chris Bard is Client Director with bChannels. With more than twenty years experience in technology channels Chris has helped to establish the current Partner Program for a number of major vendors, including Avaya, 3Com and Samsung.

Prior to joining bChannels in 2003, Chris was responsible for managing the EMEA Channel for the Xerox Office Business, including the integration of the Tektronix printer business bought out in 2000. Before this he was responsible for product management for Tektronix in Europe and worked with Digital Equipment Corporation.

Chris Marshall, Associate Director

Starting with AT&T in the early 1990’s Chris moved on to work with Lucent, Avaya and Cramer, before joining bChannels. Chris offer extensive experience in the development of indirect and direct routes to market in telecoms, data and software markets in Europe and Asia.

Chris has worked on European assignments for Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent, Vodafone, Ericsson, 3Com, Cisco, Avaya and has managed projects for a range of specialist telecom providers in Eastern Europe and Asia. Chris has additional experience with Microsoft and Dell.

Chris speaks Chinese in addition to French and German.

Keith Purves, UK Regional Associate

Keith has worked with bChannels on go-to-Market model development and implementation for a variety of clients, notably, Samsung, Microsoft, Oracle, Vodafone. He has also worked on Partner Program development for Dell, McAfee, Microsoft and Cisco.

Keith brings twenty five years of senior management experience in global and domestic manufacturing, marketing and sales roles. He worked with Oracle

Corporation, where he was European Channel Sales and Business Development Director. Most recently he has served on the UK Board of Sun Microsystems as Business Operations Director.

Alex Stefanov, East Europe Regional Associate

Alex is the General Manager of Onboard, a close partner of bChannels based in Sophia, Bulgaria.

He has been involved in running a wide range of projects with bChannels, with clients including Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, 3Com and Microsoft.

He also works extensively with Telecom Slovenia and Salesforce.com focused on customer acquisition and partner program management.

Alex and onboard offer a range of specialist services in local language targeting the growing Eastern European economies, as well as markets in Western Europe.