Bryson Named New Microsoft U.S. Channel Chief
Microsoft this week announced Tyler Bryson as the replacement for the departing David Willis to run the company's U.S. channel operations.
Bryson is officially corporate vice president of the U.S. One Commercial Partner organization.
"As I step into this new role, I look forward to deepening the relationships in our ecosystem and helping us all grow together," Bryson said in an introductory blog post.
In a nearly 20-year career with Microsoft, Bryson has led sales, marketing and services teams in the United States, India and Latin America. His most recent role was as vice president of the Microsoft U.S. Small, Medium & Corporate Segments. Bryson said he worked closely with Willis in that role on initiatives related to digital transformation.
According to Bryson's LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Brigham Young University in 1992 with a degree in accounting and went to the Wharton School for an MBA in finance in the late 2000s. He also spent six years at QuickStart Technologies in sales and marketing roles.
To U.S. partners, Microsoft's U.S. channel chief is arguably the second-most visible role at Microsoft after the worldwide channel chief job held by Gavriella Schuster. Due to Microsoft's organizational structure, Schuster and Bryson report into different departments and have more of a dotted-line relationship than at many other companies where country-level channel chiefs report to the global channel leader.
Bryson updated his LinkedIn profile with a description of his role and responsibilities:
My team is responsible for Microsoft's US Partner business including strategy, management, and overall partner ecosystem health. The team works with US partners to develop strong practices aligned to Microsoft's workload and industry priorities and delivers these solutions to customers to help them maximize business benefits from their investment in Microsoft technology. My organization is comprised of Partner Management, Channel Sales, Go-To-Market (GTM), and partner-facing Technical Specialists and Architects.
Willis, a fixture of the partner community for much of his 28 years at Microsoft, announced in early December that he would be leaving Microsoft after assisting with the transition to his replacement. While he didn't specifically say he was retiring, Willis said he was looking forward to family time, leisure activity, travel and volunteering.
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 21, 2021