Networking giant Cisco has made several new key appointments in its Channel Partner Organisation across Africa.

The company has appointed Brendan Cuthbertson as channel lead for its Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) partner organisation. His appointment will build on his current role as lead of channel sales for Southern Africa.

In his new role, Cuthbertson will ensure the company achieves its mission to drive adoption of Cisco products and services in SSA, while strengthening relations with channel partners.

In addition to Cuthbertson, Cisco made the following appointments:

Kuda Mlingo, in addition to his current role as strategic partner business manager for gold partners in East Africa, will lead the partner organisation for the same region.

Isioma Udeozo leads the English-speaking West Africa Channel business, while also leading the perform strategy for SSA, in collaboration with Olakunle Oloruntimehin.

Shain Rahim has been appointed to lead the Business Acceleration and Partner Transformation Team for SSA.

The Cisco Channel Partner Organisation consists of Cisco partner organisations that resell and distribute Cisco products, services, software and solutions. It has over 62 000 partners globally and approximately 85% of Cisco's revenue going through the channel.

Through the Cisco Channel Partner Programme, the organisation offers partners training, solutions, tools and support, to help meet customers' requirements.

Cisco says it made the new appointments to align with the global partner organisation and incorporate partner segmentation. In doing this, the company says it believes in providing opportunities to personnel from within its organisation.

"Digital transformation is changing the world as we know it," says Cuthbertson.

"As Cisco is transforming its business to a software and subscription-focused business model, our partners are transforming with us, so our short- to mid-term priorities are to guide them on this transformation journey through enablement, while helping them build successful and profitable businesses that service the needs of our collective customers."

Cuthbertson joined Cisco in 2006, when he was part of a team that set up and ran Cisco Capital across Africa. Following that, he joined Cisco's Partner Organisation, where he held several different roles.

He will report directly to GM for SSA, Clayton Naidoo.