Leanne Buer (Cisco)
Leanne Buer has been appointed the country manager for Cisco in New Zealand, Cisco has confirmed.
Buer, who won the Reseller News WIICTA in the Achievement category in June, joined Cisco in 2016 as the general manager for partners and commercial, a role she held until becoming the country leader this July.
She had previously worked for Spark New Zealand as the head of collaboration. Prior to that she worked for Gen-I, a Spark company, and Telecom New Zealand, also acquired by Spark.
She also worked for Microsoft as a programme director between March 2007 and December 2008.
The appointment comes two weeks after the networking giant announced the departure of country director Dave Wilson, who is heading to California to lead global sales of IoT after approximately four years leading the NZ business.
"As this new chapter and adventure begins, I close the chapter on near nine years with Cisco A/NZ," Wilson said on LinkedIn.
"It has been an amazing experience and time in my life. I have made life-long friends and it will be the hardest role and team I’ve ever had to leave."
Wilson has led the transformation of the Cisco New Zealand operation since 2015, according to the vendor. Under his leadership the business achieved consistent growth at the same time he helped evolve the culture of the team.
He has also been instrumental in supporting key community initiatives such as NZ Rescue Run where Cisco raised significant funds for emergency services, and most recently with Youthline, to shine a light on mental health and support them to scale their important services across NZ, Cisco said.
“Dave has transformed the culture of the New Zealand team, building significant growth, and guided our customer and partner relationships," Cisco ANZ vice-president Ken Boal said.
“Dave hands over to Leanne Buer with the business in great shape. Customers, partners and our employees can have the utmost confidence in Leanne’s ability to drive the next chapter of our growth in New Zealand, which will see Cisco continue to be a major contributor to New Zealand’s technology-enabled future.”
Cisco NZ signed a deed of settlement for $4.6 million on 5 December last year following a transfer pricing investigation covering tax years 2013 through to 2017.
Transfer pricing investigations focus on charges made for goods and services between the local subsidiary of a multi-national company and associated companies based overseas. These are required to be made on an "arm's length" basis, as though the companies are not part of the same group.
The story has been updated at 2PM on 23 July 2019 to include Cisco's comments.
