Leveraging e Channel’s Wealth Of Talent

The IT industry and the channel entered 2023 with perhaps the greatest economic uncertainty in decades, creating more challenges for channel executives and the partner programs they develop and manage.

“Partners are choosing their line cards very carefully,” said Frank Rauch, global channel chief at Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel-based Cato Networks. “The economy is probably not where we need it to be, and this is a time of choice for some channel partners even though they may be very, very comfortable with some of the vendors on their line card right now.”

As it does each year, CRN has assembled the 2023 Channel Chiefs, a list of the pre-eminent channel executives in the IT industry. Within the list are the 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs of 2023, an elite group drawn from the larger pool of honorees who drive the channel agenda and evangelize the importance of partnerships. The 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs are recognized on the following pages with a star.

At Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware, the 2023 channel strategy has two prongs: One is to get solution providers to take on higher-level services and the second is to drive more opportunities to partners, said Ricky Cooper, head of worldwide partner and commercial sales. That includes VMware’s new Partner Connect 2.0 program, slated to launch in the first quarter, that will place more emphasis on partners becoming technically proficient, offering systems integrators points for services as well as test and development work.

“We will make a huge effort to ensure that we’re passing as many services opportunities as we can to our partner ecosystem, and you’ll see a huge change there,” Cooper said. “Things are really opening up [for partners].”

11:11 Systems

Koorosh Khashayar

VP, Global Channel Khashayar merged the channel programs of four companies acquired by 11:11 Systems. From legal contracts to compensation structures to new product announcements, he unified every detail of the programs and on-boarded partners.

8x8

Lisa Del Real

Global Channel Chief

Del Real completed her first full year leading the 8x8 global channel program, launching the new 8x8 Elevate Partner Program and the benefits available to tiered partners. She is continuing to build the partner support team.

By CRN Sta

There is sometimes a knee-jerk tendency to pull back from channel investments in uncertain economic times, but “smart” vendors leverage the channel’s wealth of talent, said Scott Winslow, founder and president of Winslow Technology Group, Waltham, Mass.

“We have sales, engineering, marketing, finance services, managed services folks that we are employing on our payroll that are available to our [vendor] partners. What better way for them to become more efficient themselves than to do more with a channel?” Winslow said.

Also looking to win more partner mindshare is Seattle-based Amazon Web Services. The company is forming strategic collaboration agreements (SCAs) with more partners, laying out its commitment to train and pass along customer opportunities to partners if they agree to invest in areas such as hiring AWS professionals, growing their AWS portfolio offerings and winning new customers.

Innovative Solutions, Rochester, N.Y., recently signed an SCA through which AWS is investing to help it build new sales teams that are business-outcome-oriented versus transactional, quickly train and certify new hires, and offer dedicated AWS salespeople to work hand-in-hand with the solution provider.

“AWS wants us to help drive 1,000 net-new AWS SMB customers over the next four years, which is a huge lift that we wouldn’t be able to do without them,” said Justin Copie, Innovative Solutions CEO. “As part of the SCA, we’ll hire 200 new people. … Even in this economy, we’re hiring—not firing.

“They need armies of partners that are aligned to the core values of AWS,” Copie said. “They’re really looking to see where their most strategic partners can lead customer journeys instead of AWS leading those journeys. The opportunity is just so massive.”

Abnormal Security

Bertrand Yansouni VP, Worldwide Channels

S ince joining Abnormal Security in early 2022, Yansouni has built the channel sales organization by attracting strong talent. He has grown the team 4X since the start of 2022 and continues to recruit and hire for key positions.

Accedian

Kevin Baranowski

Sr. Director, Global Channels

Baranowski launched the MSP Advantage methodology that combines business consulting, product line management and sales enablement to identify, guide and execute new services for the company’s MSP and MSSP partners.

Accedian

Sergio Bea VP, Global Enterprise, Channel Sales Bea funded and led the initiative to implement a disruptive Digital Sales Enablement offering that partners can leverage to map and enhance the buyer’s journey. He also built new enablement tracks for partners.

Acer

Philip Burger

VP, U.S. Channel

Burg er’s team collaborated to build an education road map this past year centered around premium, higher-spec devices, which was a winning strategy. The team embraced new technologies and educated the partner base on new service offerings.

Addigy

Jason Dettbarn

Founder, CEO

Dettbarn has been hard at work educating partners on the Apple device management opportunity. He launched an integration with Malwarebytes whereby partners can deploy Malwarebytes OneView directly from the Addigy portal.

Alegeus

Karen Thomas Chief Growth Officer

Thomas led efforts to achieve a partnerfirst focus at Alegeus. By aligning to partner objectives in providing customers with the best benefit options, the company and its partners are collectively creating operating leverage.

Amazon Web Services

Pratt Dey Director, Strategic Partner Collaboration, Governance

With a sharp focus on partner transformation, Dey achieved a pivotal AWS sales and marketing goal by signing multiyear strategic collaboration agreements across five key industry verticals.

Acer

Jennifer Wadland VP, U.S. Commercial Sales Wadland works with channel partners to grow Acer’s education and commercial business, focused on call center, kiosk and health-care verticals. Partners have seen strong revenue and market-share growth in these areas.

Adlumin

Jim Adams CRO Adams created a tiered channel program that rewards partners for their investment and success with Adlumin. Included in the program was the launch of a quarterly rebate and quarterly MDF funding based on their sales.

Alludo

Jaime Becker Sr. Global Director, Partner Experience

Becker built her team around a clear focus: making it simpler for partners to empower their customers and grow their business with Alludo products. She recently spearheaded the launch of the Parallels Partner Program.

Amazon Web Services

Chris Grusz GM, ISV Alliances, Marketplace

Previously, AWS Marketplace was seen as a tool to automate channel business, but Grusz has spent time meeting with channel teams at some of AWS’ top ISV partners to go beyond that and actually grow their business.

Acronis

Alex Ruslyakov

Channel Chief

Ruslyakov is laserfocused on making sure that Acronis is more partner-driven by improving channel programs. More workloads means smarter AI and better protection so as the number of partners increases, so does the effectiveness of Acronis’ products.

Adlumin

Chris Joe VP, Channels, Distribution Joe launched a comprehensive MSP program, leveraging Adlumin’s purpose-built platform to assist partners in building out or expanding their cybersecurity practice. He also developed a distribution strategy, inking a partnership with Ingram Micro.

Alteryx

Barb Huelskamp SVP, Global Partners, Alliances

Huelskamp updated Alteryx’s partner program to provide more benefits to growing partners. She also created a go-to-market structure focused on the partner type, leading to year-over-year growth in partner revenue.

Amazon Web Services

Jeff Kratz GM, Worldwide Public Sector Partners Kratz’s team has launched Solution Spark, which helps partners build tools; Smart City Competency, which helps partners market solutions; and six Accelerators, which help startups learn to sell to public sector customers.

Act

Lindsay Boullin VP, GM, International Boullin embraced the launch of a new ACT product line and grew top-line performance year over year. He also transferred an add-on marketplace from a partner to Act corporate, enabling the expansion of the company’s ecosystem.

Advantix

Natasha Royer Coons CRO

Royer Coons rolled out a new partner enablement strategy that has been replicated and scaled across an extensive portfolio of partners but especially solution providers moving into wireless connectivity solutions.

Acumatica

CJ Boguszewski

VP, Partner Programs, Strategy

Acumatica has developed its Services Partner Program with the leadership of Boguszewski. He has also reduced pre-existing capacity issues, offered business referrals and restructured the partner margin program to make it easier to navigate.

AireSpring

John Young SVP, Channel Sales

Young has doubled the channel team with a focus on integrity and relationships and introduced several new growth roles into AireSpring’s channel. Young is in the field every week working with partners and channel managers toward collective success.

Amazon Web Services

Ruba Borno VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances

In her first year at AWS, Borno has pursued hundreds of thousands of opportunities with partners. She also has met with over 1,000 partners and customers across geographies, sizes and industries to understand their needs.

Amazon Web Services

Rachel Mushahwar Managing Director, Head of Channel, Partner Sales, N.A.

Mushahwar led a global transformation of the Partner Success organization into Partner Sales to reflect a new responsibility for driving net-new revenue. This evolution positioned Partner Sales as the scaling engine for AWS.

Amazon Web Services

Julia Chen VP, Partner Core

Chen joined AWS in June 2022 and is now defining the company’s global partner strategy and scaling mechanisms to achieve the goal of delivering a more simple, predictable and profitable experience for partners.

Amazon Web Services

Chris Sullivan GM, Global Systems Integrators

Sullivan dramatically increased the company’s focus and investment in distribution partners, resulting in accelerated business volumes and increased capabilities for partners and customers.

Amazon Web Services

Sachin Vora

Global Leader, AWS Partner Network Programs

In June 2022 Vora took on a broader role leading all AWS Partner Network programs, with the charter of simplifying the programs by aligning them to partner journey stages.

AOM/ZPI

Darrel Letcher

President, CEO

With the company’s distribution partners, Letcher spearheaded an initiative to expand a channel-exclusive endpoint device warranty offering. He also garnered support from distribution to grow its focus on diversity spending.

Arctic Wolf

Will Briggs

SVP, Global Channels

Briggs invested in topperforming channel partners while outlining a clear path for partners of all sizes to grow. He is focused on helping partners build out services-based, strategic engagement models that will provide them with recurring revenue streams.

Arrow Electronics

Danielle Post Global VP, Marketing, Customer Experience

Post has overseen strong progress in the global brand awareness of Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business. She also has increased the emphasis on annual integrated business planning.