CRN June 2021 - Issue 1403

ISSUE 1403 • JUNE 2021

crn.com

WOMEN OF THE CHANNEL Honoring those who stepped up and stayed strong when business was anything but ususal PAGE 18

SOLUTION PROVIDER 500 NEWS, ANALYSIS AND PERSPECTIVE FOR VARs AND TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATORS

Fast-forwarding to the future PAGE 92

Clash Cloud Titans OF THE

As the cloud battle heats up among Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, solution providers divulge the biggest pros and cons of the three top platforms—and reveal why it’s anyone’s game to win PAGE 12

CRN_Jun2021_Cover_fnl.indd 1

5/27/21 9:29 AM

Computer Reseller News

June 2021

Columns 6 The Final Cut

By Steven Burke

94

On The Record

By Robert Faletra

Features 8 In The News

Clash Cloud Titans OF THE

With NWN’s acquisition of Carousel Industries in the books, CRN speaks with NWN Carousel CEO Jim Sullivan about why having ‘national scale’ is so key to future growth.

10

Tech 10

Check out these 10 hot identity and access management products that secure internal and external identities, authenticate users through multifactor authentication or single sign-on, and safeguard privileged accounts.

12 Staying Strong The pandemic ushered in a year like no other, and this year’s Women of the Channel honorees are a class unto themselves as well—over 1,000-strong. They all proved the power of resilience and quick thinking in a time when business was anything but usual.

The Future Is Here

For reprints and plaque requests, please contact The YGS Group at 800.290.5460 or http://crnlicensing.com CRN (ISSN 1539-7343), also known as Computer Reseller News, is published 14 times a year (February, April, June, August, October, December and 8 Special Issues) by The Channel Company, One Research Drive, Suite 410A, Westborough, MA 01581, and is free to qualified management personnel at companies involved in the reselling/distribution of computers/networking systems, software and services. One-year subscription rates for all others in the United States are $209.00; Canada $234.00. Overseas air mail rates are: Europe $380.00; Mexico/ South America $380.00; Africa $380.00; Asia/Australia $480.00. Please mail all subscription inquiries along with checks or money orders to The Channel Company, Dept: CRN Subscriptions, One Research Drive, Suite 410A, Westborough, MA 01581. For renewals or change of address, please include the mailing address label appearing on the front cover of the publication. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA, (and additional offices, if applicable). POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Channel Company, Dept: CRN Subscriptions, One Research Drive, Suite 410A, Westborough, MA 01581. FOR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES go to crn. com/subscribe Copyright© 2021 by The Channel Company. All Rights Reserved.

Registered for GST as The Channel Company, GST No. R13288078, Customer No. 2116057, Agreement No. 40011901. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: APC Postal Logistics, LLC PO Box 503 RPO W Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill ON L4B 4R6

CRN_June2021_TOC.indd 5

14 18

92

The Solution Provider 500, ranking the largest companies by revenue in North America, puts a spotlight on the largest global systems integrators to the smallest local PC shops.

And the one thing they all have in common? They know there’s never an end to innovation.

5/27/21 9:31 AM

There’s More Online Most-Read Stories

1. Superstar Sanjay Poonen

Is Leaving VMware, Fallout From CEO Pick

2. Virtusa Founder, CEO

Kris Canekeratne To Exit After 25-Year Run

3. Cisco Names Luxy

Thuraisingam Head Of Global Partner Marketing

Carousels

Videos

Apple MacBook Pro (M1) Vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

Optiv SVP: Identity/ Access Management Is Critical Scan here to watch the video on CRN.com

Follow CRN On Social For Real-Time Updates • Be the first to know about breaking industry news.

• Uncover the latest IT channel trends and happenings in real time.

• Network and connect with other CRN® followers and industry experts.

4

JUNE 2021

Online_TOC_June2021.indd 1

5/28/21 12:19 PM

UNLOCK YOUR CUSTOMERS’ CLOUD POTENTIAL There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to cloud. Our lineup of cloud offerings can transform your customers’ businesses, delivering the solutions that support the business results they want.

We can help you every step of the way with the programs, services, training, and tools YOU need to support your customers wherever they are on their cloud journey. Get everything you and your customers need, now and in the future, from:

scansource.com/avayacloud

THE FINAL CUT

Everything-As-AService Sales Spread THE PAY-PER-USE CHANNEL REVOLUTION IS HERE

By Steven Burke THE EVERYTHING-AS-A-SERVICE pay-per-use channel revolution is taking off like a rocket.

The global pandemic has kicked the powerful channel model into the stratosphere–effectively compressing three years of channel change into a single 12-month period.

This model has been kicked into high gear by customers fed up with an increasingly complex, unsecure, multivendor, multi-cloud IT landscape. They are anxious to ink deals with trusted strategic service providers who can build, manage and provide a single pay-per-use bill for IT services from the edge to the data center to the cloud.

That end-to-end Everything-as-a-Service model includes telecom services, internet connectivity, SD-WAN, application support and service-level and security agreements.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise partners, who have been selling the GreenLake payper-use cloud services model for several years, say the demand for Everything as a Service is a perfect storm given the rush by customers to accelerate their digital transformation and cloud services adoption in the wake of the pandemic.

Dell Technologies launched its all-out as-a-service charge with the release of its Apex cloud services portfolio at the Dell Technologies World conference in May. Cisco, which has powered partners through massive technology transitions and has bet big on SaaS-based subscription offerings, told partners at its Cisco Live event in March that it was committed to delivering the majority of its portfolio as a service.

But it’s not just HPE, Cisco and Dell. Every vendor is looking at how to adapt their channel model to win in a consumption-based, Everything-as-a-Service, SaaS world. They know that if they do not move to the new model they are destined to be left in the channel dust.

By the way, the Everything-as-a-Service channel revolution is not a big surprise.

The Channel Company detailed the dynamics of the strategic service provider model in 2015, outlining the paradigm shift in which solution providers sell strategic business outcomes with sales strategies focused on CEOs, CFOs, CMOs and business unit leaders. A lot has changed since then, and the global pandemic certainly has speeded up the adoption of the Everything-as-a-Service model.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the multi-cloud, multivendor expertise that is the heart and soul of the channel. Call them strategic service providers, cloud providers or VARs, these Everything-as-a-Service providers are fierce trusted advisers for customers, taking away the multi-cloud complexity and the security nightmare that threatens every customer.

One big danger vendors will face as they move to the Everything-as-a-Service model is just how committed they are to building an Everything-as-a-Service channel. It’s a heavy load and one that is going to require them to make sure their compensation and sales organizations are structured to support Everything-as-a-Service providers. Just as importantly, they need to make sure they stay sharply focused on driving technology innovation with world-class products, services and software.

There are sure to be many bumps along the way as vendors accelerate their Everything-as-a-Service models. The key will be channel commitment, communication and cooperation.

But make no mistake about it: The global pandemic has accelerated the Everythingas-a-Service model. Those that get that will prosper. Those that don’t will perish. n

BACKTALK: How has the Everything-as-a-Service revolution changed your

Women of the

Channel

Leadership Network

The Women of the Channel Leadership Network is an online community dedicated to helping women across the IT channel thrive professionally and personally.

• Embrace the power of community • Network and foster relationships with women from across the tech industry • Gain peer insight through live discussions, online forums and interactive networking groups • Connect with community members to gather best practices and advice for solving business challenges • Explore content for thought leadership and professional development • Utilize the platform to build your personal brand and establish yourself as an industry leader • Discover how to improve company culture, while unleashing the power of inclusion

Join at: thechannelcocommunities.com/

business? Let me know at sburke@thechannelcompany.com.

6

JUNE 2021

CRN_Jun2021_Burke.indd 1

5/28/21 9:18 AM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Brightlayer Solution Solves Supply Chain Stress Q. What’s your perspective on the current state of the world’s supply chain and how is it impacting partners?

A. The demand surge for a variety of imported goods, including IT infrastructure

hardware, is causing worldwide component constraints and major logistical challenges in the U.S. ports. We are seeing 10 times the typical number of vessels waiting to dock and most of them are mega-container ships, which take longer to unload and put on trucks or trains for distribution. The delays still seem to be persisting, impacting supply and driving shortages. As businesses resume normal operations and partners can go on-site to install new equipment, they potentially will be impacted by these new hardware shortages. Partners should take advantage of digital or preventative maintenance offerings to fill these revenue gaps and keep operations running smoothly.

Q. How does Eaton’s software suite, Brightlayer, allow Eaton partners to focus on customer automation, control and preventive maintenance, without having to worry about the supply chain?

A. Eaton’s software can enable partners to have the capabilities to remotely monitor

and control their customer’s environment. It also seamlessly integrates with top IT vendor’s platforms, such as Dell EMC’s VxRail and Nutanix Acropolis. This lab-validated integration allows for the automation of specific policies, like initiating a sequential shutdown or powering down VMs and clusters when a power problem is detected. All these capabilities let the partner remain sticky with their customer and it doesn’t require new hardware.

Q. What are the two ways partners can deliver this solution to their customers and what are the benefits of each?

A. For Eaton partners, we help build up their technical capabilities around these

tools, or you can leverage our Eaton resources to help build out the right solutions for your customers. We offer free on-site power assessments both in person and virtually.

Either way, partners can leverage these tools as managed or professional services.

Eaton continues to find ways to help partners increase margins and demonstrate value to their customers.

Q. How is Eaton helping new and current partners get support and drive incremental revenue, especially in today’s market?

A. It starts with education and outcomes-based investments. Education can be done

virtually or in-person, allowing partners to develop the necessary understanding of the solutions and build value for their customers. Investments have shifted to digital marketing more and more. Today, we are encouraging our partners to leverage them in order to acquire net-new customers or nurture their install base.

Curtiz Gangi

Sales VP, U.S. Channels, Datacenter Vertical, Eaton

”

We offer free on-site power assessments both in person and virtually. Either way, partners can leverage these tools as managed or professional services.

Eaton continues to find ways to help partners increase margins and demonstrate value to their customers.

”

Join the PowerAdvantage Partner Program at www.poweradvantage.eaton.com.

CRN_Eaton_June2021_HowTo.indd 1

5/27/21 3:01 PM

I N TH E N EWS

NWN Carousel CEO Jim Sullivan On Why Having ‘National Scale’ Is Key WITH NWN’S ACQUISITION OF CAROUSEL INDUSTRIES NOW COMPLETE, SULLIVAN TELLS CRN IN AN INTERVIEW THAT THE COMBINED COMPANY IS READY TO ACCELERATE ITS GROWTH IN THE FAST-MOVING CLOUD COMMUNICATIONS MARKET

By Kyle Alspach

How did this acquisition come about and what is the vision behind it?

We started on this transformation journey a couple of years ago. We focused on these five core offerings—around unified communications, contact center, security, Device as a Service and then the infrastructure to support that. And then the Experience Management Platform—EMP—wrapping all around that. It’s worked really well. We grew 20 percent per year, every year, added a lot of customers, expanded customers. And then the marketplace is a $70 billion marketplace in North America, and everybody during COVID has been moving to work from anywhere—and all of this has led to cloud communications being adopted faster and becoming really a must-have.

And then Carousel has roughly 5,000 customers, mostly enterprise-type of accounts—a real who’s who of enterprise accounts. They specialize in unified communications, security, contact center. We didn’t have overlap in the accounts—the combined company will have over 6,000 accounts, and there are only 37 accounts that overlap. And the new company will be a $1 billion dollar run rate, and really profitable—great partnerships, great customers. And the model and the vision is really aligned with everything that we’ve been doing. So they’ll begin picking up the EMP platform for their customers.

They’ll pick up Device as a Service. And then they’ve got some really solid other offerings that we’ll pick up. And there’s just a great chemistry with the founders—Jeff Gardner, Jim Marsh—great guys.

How does this help in your efforts to evolve away from being a traditional VAR and into more of a tech-enabled services company?

For Carousel, a really high percent of the business is services, and the management layer. We also have a lot of investment into the Experience Management Platform, and that’s evolved a lot with really strong technology that fits in the cloud—whether that’s billing, fault correlation, asset management tracking. So we’ve really had the technology, and we’ve been deploying it really fast in our accounts. Now this gives us an opportunity to accelerate solutions [with the EMP]. Carousel has had really fast growth with cloud adoption. And now, bringing in our differentiated IP into 6,000 accounts in North America will really give a faster path to market for the technology.

As we come out of COVID, we’ll be entering back into a work world that will most likely be hybrid. You’re going to have work environments where people want to work anywhere—it could be in the office, it could be at home, it could be on the road with clients. And you need to be able to have that secure access into the right types of networks and the right infrastructure to support that. And then, as everyone’s moving from on-prem into the cloud, there’s a whole new set of capabilities that used to be on-prem software that now need to be cloud capabilities—analytics, predictive analytics, fault correlation, billing, asset management tracking, tracking your SLAs, your ELAs, your subscriptions. EMP will be able to manage all these different domains, but also provide that type of capability in the cloud that used to be existing on-prem.

How does this acquisition help while competing in the cloud communications market?

It just gives us the national scale. We’ll have major operations all over the country—from New England and the Northeast, to North Carolina, Texas, California, Florida. So we’ll be a national player.

Why is scale such an advantage in this environment?

It’s a huge advantage. Employees used to be predominantly at one headquarters, and they were all pretty centralized, and the tools and the resources could have been centralized. Now we’re going to see that employees could be anywhere, but they have to have that same experience and security as if they were in that corporate headquarters. That’s No. 1. No. 2 is when you talk about the enterprise accounts, they still will have locations that will be everywhere in the country. And so we’ll be able to handle their locations with technology and people anywhere they exist in the country. And that gives us that scale to help customers meet their business objectives better. n

8

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_ITN_Sullivan.indd 1

5/27/21 9:42 AM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Accedian Expands Partner Market Reach With Skylight 4X Q. Why did Accedian relaunch the Skylight 4X Partner Program?

A. Accedian realizes that the pandemic has changed how business is conducted. We

understand the need for a change. Building on our successful 5-star partner program, Accedian recognized that our MSP/MSSP partners needed something different. The new MSP Advantage addresses the major challenges MSPs are facing: the new service introduction process.

Kevin Baranowski

Senior Director, Global Enterprise MSP & MSSP Channel Sales

Q. What are the Accedian Skylight 4X Partner Program’s differences in the MSP and MSSP space and how do you address their needs? What’s new about it that benefits your partners?

A. The majority of partner programs are not focused on identifying and enabling

partners to build new solutions. Discounts, training and leads are good but they do not help a partner identify new markets and launch new services. New markets and services are singlehandedly the biggest area partners have challenges with when building a sellthrough offer. Accedian addresses this by working with our partners to provide deep insight and consulting to identify new markets and services to launch, while building a true partnership. We assist our partners through all phases of the launch process, from project commit and project launch to controlled availability, general availability deliverables and full sales execution. By providing consulting expertise here, Accedian maximizes new partner revenue streams.

Q. Why are security and analytics offerings important to have in a partner’s toolkit?

A. With the combination of an increased remote workforce and companies experiencing

high growth, IT infrastructures are strained. To make these changes sustainable, the IT infrastructure must grow accordingly. Business-critical applications are now a cornerstone of the day-to-day operations, outreach and commerce with customers.

The growing importance of a secure and operational IT infrastructure means an illperforming application or network can significantly impact brand value, customer relationships and profit. Application availability and responsiveness are no longer just goals, they have become strategic requirements. To fulfill these requirements quickly and reliably, enterprises need to capture the network traffic for analysis. They also must quickly drill down to the source of the issue, whether they are client, network, server or application related, all while ensuring a safe and secure network. This is a challenging task for the IT team and offers an opportunity for a partner to deliver the required tools and expertise.

To learn more, please visit accedian.com/partners.

Accedian 2021_CRN HTS.indd 1

Sergio Bea

VP Global Enterprise and Channel Sales

”

We continue to evolve the Skylight 4X Partner Program to enable our partners to meet and exceed expectations.

Through our training and enablement programs, our system of performancebased rewards, and our market-leading partner support, we make it as simple as possible for partners to help customers with their most frustrating networking and security issues.

”

5/24/21 5:13 PM

T E C H 1 0 : S ECU R ITY

Taking Identity Management Services To The Next Level Identity and access management vendors are providing ever-advancing security capabilities to allow more visibility and control during session authorizations

By Michael Novinson

1. BEYONDTRUST UNIVERSAL PRIVILEGE MANAGEMENT The BeyondTrust Privileged Access Management portfolio provides visibility and control over all privileged accounts and users to simplify deployments, reduce costs, improve usability and reduce privilege risks.

Privileged Remote Access allows customers to secure, manage and audit vendor and internal remote privileged access without a VPN. And Password Safe gives users complete control over privileged accounts by helping them reduce the risk of privileged credential misuse through automated privileged password and session management.

2. CYBERARK IDENTITY SECURITY CyberArk isolates and stops privilege attacks before they can do harm by safeguarding critical assets and providing users with native access to everything they need. The company empowers workforces and customers with easy, secure access across any device, delivering seamless access through a strong passwordless experience and keeping threats out using AI. CyberArk can also help customers secure non-human identities across application and automation tools in the DevOps pipeline without sacrificing business agility.

3. FORGEROCK IDENTITY PLATFORM The ForgeRock Identity Platform includes full-suite identity and access management and identity governance and administration capabilities and can be implemented across an organization for both workforce and consumer identities. It offers feature parity across all delivery options, including on-premises, any cloud environment, multi-cloud, hybrid and as a service. ForgeRock can also manage and reduce the risk that comes with excessive or unnecessary access of users to applications, systems and data.

4. IBM IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT IBM’s identity tools deliver a frictionless and secure experience for every user, asset and data interaction, providing the foundation for a zero trust strategy.

The technology enables customers to grant access rights, provide single sign-on from any device, enhance security with multifactor authentication, enable user life-cycle management and protect privileged accounts. IBM ensures that the right people have the right access by discreetly verifying user identities when they log in and throughout the session.

5. MICROSOFT AZURE ACTIVE DIRECTORY Microsoft Azure Active Directory is a complete identity and access management offering with integrated security that connects 425 million people to their apps, devices and data each month. It protects access to resources and data using strong authentication and risk-based adaptive access policies without compromising user experience. Azure AD also allows customers to manage all their identities and access to all their apps in a central location, whether they’re in the cloud or on-premises, to improve visibility and control.

10

6. OKTA IDENTITY CLOUD The Okta Identity Cloud is an independent and neutral platform that securely connects the right people to the right technologies at the right time. Okta offers companies one place to manage all their users, groups and devices and can automate all life cycles and any business process for external and internal users. The company can embed secure login and single sign-on for custom applications and also enhances the security of applications with contextual step-up authentication using a broad set of second factors.

7. PING INTELLIGENT IDENTITY PLATFORM The Ping Intelligent Identity Platform allows users and devices to securely access any service, application or API from any device. The platform can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud or both and provides centralized control to optimize the balance of security and convenience. The platform provides single sign-on and intelligent access to authorized services, and allows customers to orchestrate a wide range of authentication use cases with policy-based controls that leverage diverse contextual attributes and signals.

8. SAILPOINT IDENTITY SECURITY SailPoint Identity Security gives businesses unmatched visibility while automating and accelerating the management of all user identities, entitlements, systems, data and cloud services. The technology provides a complete view of all access across an organization, including those hidden or unknown that may pose inherent risk. SailPoint can also replace manual processes with automated workflows to deliver, manage and secure access to every application, system, file share and cloud platform across a customer’s hybrid environment.

9. SAVIYNT ENTERPRISE IDENTITY CLOUD The Saviynt platform centralizes controls and risk management for every human and machine identity across an organization’s hybrid ecosystem, while advanced analytics contextualize risk and automate remediation.

The technology automates application provisioning, access reviews, role-based access, and life-cycle and privileged session management to improve security posture and lower costs. Customers can deploy Saviynt’s privileged access management to any application in their IT ecosystem, including cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

10. THYCOTICCENTRIFY PRIVILEGED ACCESS MANAGEMENT The platform is designed to grant least privilege access just-in-time based on verifying who is requesting access, the context of the request, as well as the risk of the access environment. Secure remote access minimizes cyber-risk exposure for IT admins when accessing IT infrastructure remotely, and privileged users can have granular preventative access enforcement measures implemented. The technology also identifies all service, application, administrator and root accounts to curb sprawl and gain full view of a customer’s privileged access. ■

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_Tech10.indd 1

5/27/21 9:45 AM

Women of the Channel Events 2021 Don’t Miss These One-of-a-Kind Events

These events provide a unique experience for attendees to expand their skills, connect with peers, build new relationships, and get inspired by the women making a significant impact on the IT channel.

Join us for the 2021 Women of the Channel Event Series:

VIRTUAL

EXPERIENCE

+

Leadership Summit WEST

June 9, 2021

November 16-17, 2021

December 6-7, 2021

11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET

Palm Springs, CA

New York City

The Women of the Channel Event Series offers women in the IT channel a one-of-a-kind opportunity to take their skills to the next level, connect with peers, and hear from the women having the biggest effect on the IT channel today. Attendees from across the IT channel benefit from motivational keynotes, networking time, skill development, and engaging sessions that all focus on helping them develop their personal, professional, and corporate goals. These events aim to empower and cultivate the next generation of women leaders.

Learn More www.WomenoftheChannel.com

© 2021 The Channel Company, LLC. The Channel Company logo is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

C O V E R S T O RY

Clash Cloud Titans OF THE

As the cloud battle intensifies among Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, solution providers divulge the biggest pros and cons of the three top platforms—and reveal why it’s anyone’s game to win

By Kyle Alspach

O

NE OF THE EARLIEST and most accomplished solution providers focused on Amazon Web Services, 2nd Watch spent seven years as a single-cloud shop: shifting workloads to more than 100,000 AWS instances, providing managed cloud services and helping propel the platform to its commanding lead in the market.

Then, in late 2018, a large customer came to the solution provider with a problem. Along with running AWS, the consumer-facing brand also operated an environment on Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure. And managing workloads consistently across both clouds, in a single way, had become a struggle.

As it turned out, this customer wasn’t alone. With multi-cloud management needs becoming widespread, 2nd Watch launched an Azure practice and added Microsoft Gold partner status to its credentials, alongside its AWS Premier partner status.

“It was really driven by our customers,” said Chris Garvey, executive vice president of cloud services at Seattle-based 2nd Watch, speaking of the company’s expansion beyond AWS. And then, a third cloud entered the picture. Amid increased demand for Google Cloud, 2nd Watch went on to launch a practice for that platform in May 2020.

“We have a deep partnership with AWS. We always will,” Garvey said. “But ultimately, in the same way that AWS focuses on its customers first, we take the same approach.”

The journey at 2nd Watch mirrors the evolution of the cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service market itself—which has gone from early dominance by pioneer AWS to become a hard-fought, threeway race between tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

As solution providers look to place their next bets in the cloud infrastructure services market—which Synergy Research Group pegged at nearly $130 billion last year—a new CRN survey and interviews with top cloud solution providers reveal some of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of each platform.

12

CRN’s Cloud Barometer survey asked solution providers to rate their satisfaction with the three leading cloud platforms across five key categories listed here in order of importance to them—product capabilities, ease of integration, profitability, maturity of pricing, and support for demand generation and lead sharing (see results on p. 13). The survey received responses from more than 200 solution providers, all of them sellers of cloud IaaS services, who were invited to rate the platform providers they currently partner with.

Survey respondents awarded Microsoft Azure with the highest overall satisfaction rating—giving it first-place finishes in product capabilities, profitability and maturity of pricing.

Meanwhile, AWS ranked No. 2 overall, winning the highest ratings in ease of integration and support for demand generation. Google Cloud, ranked No. 3 in the survey, garnered no first-place finishes.

There’s a good reason that Microsoft edged out its rivals in the survey results, according to Reed Wiedower, global alliances leader and CTO for the Cognizant Microsoft Business Group, a Microsoft Gold partner and Azure Expert MSP. “Their partner programs are much more mature,” Wiedower said. “Microsoft has just been in the business of partners for much longer than Amazon or Google.”

A higher percentage of Azure solution providers responding to the survey—58 percent—said they felt they had a highly strategic sales relationship with Microsoft over the previous three months, taking into consideration elements such as conducting joint sales calls, mutual account planning, sharing customer insight and general sales teaming to grow the business. That compares with 43 percent of AWS partners and 31 percent of Google Cloud partners who felt they had a highly strategic sales relationship with the respective vendors.

More Microsoft Azure solution providers responding to the survey also said they expect high levels of cloud IaaS growth with the vendor over the next 12 months, with 65 percent saying they expect double-digit growth. Fifty-four percent of responding

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_CoverStory.indd 1

5/28/21 9:27 AM

AWS partners said they expect double-digit cloud growth with the vendor, while for Google Cloud it was 44 percent of partners.

Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark said that partners have long been at the center of how the company delivers technologies to customers.

“We view this ranking as an affirmation of our commitment to provide opportunity for partners to build and sell differentiated solutions that help customers migrate to the cloud,” Clark said in a statement provided to CRN. Representatives from AWS and Google Cloud declined to comment.

While survey respondents gave Microsoft the No. 1 ranking in the inaugural CRN Cloud Barometer survey, the margin of victory over AWS was slim. The survey also revealed that third-ranking Google Cloud is picking up new partners at a rapid clip—and is not far behind the other two platforms in terms of overall partner satisfaction. For the foreseeable future, the clash of the cloud titans is shaping up to be a fierce battle in the channel.

Cloud Surge All three vendors are investing heavily in their cloud platforms, from product updates to channel program enhancements. In the IaaS market of 2021, “competition is indeed intense,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy.

As of the first quarter of the year, AWS maintained its lead with a 32 percent share of enterprise spending in the cloud infrastructure services market, according to Synergy. AWS’ market share has stayed essentially flat—hovering between 32 percent and 34 percent—for the past four years, Synergy reported.

By contrast, Microsoft Azure has leapt from an 11 percent share of the market four years ago to 20 percent market share today, the research firm said. And Google Cloud now has a 9 percent share of the market, up from 6 percent four years ago, according to Synergy.

Already one of the most lucrative professional and managed services opportunities for partners, the cloud has surged due to widespread business uncertainty and the need to enable remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enterprise spending for cloud infrastructure services reached $39.5 billion during the first

quarter of 2021, a 37 percent spike from the same period a year earlier and up $2 billion from the prior quarter, Synergy reported.

For the three biggest cloud infrastructure platforms, offering a unique value proposition is as crucial as ever, said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner.

The fact that multi-cloud deployments are increasing is “all the more reason they need to differentiate,” Nag said. “It puts pressure on the individual cloud providers to be best-in-class in everything.”

In interviews with CRN, executives at cloud solution providers detailed the biggest pros and cons they see with Azure, AWS and Google Cloud across the five categories of the survey.

Microsoft Azure: Leader In Product, Profits And Pricing In the survey, product capabilities ranked as the most important category for partners—and Microsoft’s Azure platform received the highest satisfaction rating there.

Azure is a natural fit for many customers due to the widespread use of Microsoft’s other cloud platforms—Microsoft 365, which includes Outlook and Teams, and Dynamics 365 for CRM and ERP, according to solution providers.

“Because it’s part of the Microsoft organization, Azure already has an immediate relevance with many of our customers,” said Bob Bailkoski, CEO of global solution provider Logicalis Group, a Microsoft Gold partner and Azure Expert MSP. “There’s a natural affinity.”

While Logicalis is also an AWS Consulting partner, the company does significantly more work with Azure than AWS, Bailkoski said—and the Azure business at Logicalis saw triple-digit revenue growth during the company’s fiscal year that ended in February.

“Microsoft’s articulation of the opportunity that’s available with Azure is much easier for our customers to understand—especially in the C-suite—than it is perhaps with AWS, which is a slightly more technical, developer-style solution,” he said.

Azure benefits hugely from the fact that Microsoft 365 users already have identities in the cloud platform via the Azure Active Directory authentication service, solution providers said.

While it’s possible to extend Active Directory into AWS, “you

Solution Providers Rate Their Satisfaction With AWS, Microsoft Azure And Google Cloud PRODUCT CAPABILITIES

EASE OF INTEGRATION

PROFITABILITY

MATURITY OF THE CONSUMPTION/ SUBSCRIPTIONBASED PRICING

SUPPORT FOR DEMAND GENERATION/ LEAD SHARING

OVERALL

1. Microsoft Azure

89.44

81.18

75.66

74.07

60.58 (t)

76.19

2. Amazon Web Services

85.56

81.69

72.80

72.42

61.49

74.79

3. Google Cloud

81.80

77.37

70.66

67.87

60.58 (t)

71.66

RANK

Source: CRN Cloud Barometer Survey, November-December 2020; Total respondents = 211; respondents scored only vendors they actively partner with.

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_CoverStory.indd 2

13

5/27/21 9:59 AM

C O V E R S T O RY don’t get Azure AD,” said Zach Saltzman, senior director for the Microsoft platform at FMT Consultants, a Microsoft Gold partner based in Carlsbad, Calif. “And Azure AD is this whole separate beast that brings a lot of productivity features and a lot of security features that no other cloud has.”

The biggest differentiator for Azure is its connection to Microsoft’s other two clouds, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365, Saltzman said.

“It’s like a cloud mesh,” he said. “Microsoft is able to drive these synergies between their three clouds that AWS and Google Cloud just can’t.”

Those synergies are possible because Microsoft is a software company at heart, said Michael Spoont, president of ProArch, an Atlanta-based Microsoft Gold partner.

“AWS was not a software business—they came into the software business to enable them to better manage their product business.

But they’ve never built business solutions. They’ve never built applications. They’ve got an operating environment. But there’s no Dynamics equivalent in AWS, for example,” he said.

And if you use Dynamics 365 or Microsoft 365, you’re already using Azure, Spoont noted. The many points of entry into Azure for Microsoft customers “does separate Azure from the other cloud providers,” he said.

Supporting hybrid cloud infrastructure is another strength for Microsoft, which embraced hybrid cloud earlier than AWS, Microsoft-focused solution providers said.

“Microsoft created the gold standard in terms of operating in a hybrid environment,” Spoont said.

With offerings such as Azure Stack, Microsoft enables customers to leverage their investment in their on-premises environment and fully integrate it with their cloud environment, he said.

Azure Stack was the “holy grail” for hybrid infrastructure when it first launched several years ago, said Jon Thomsen, CEO of Beaverton, Ore.-based Atmosera, a Microsoft Gold partner and Azure Expert MSP. “It’s a key differentiator,” he said. “Azure makes [hybrid] really easy with Azure Stack. Then there’s Azure Stack Edge for storage and AI gateways, Azure IoT Edge for IoT devices, Azure Arc for centralized management and deployment of on-premises infrastructure as well as in the cloud. Microsoft is committed to that hybrid environment.”

One of the newer unique Azure capabilities is Windows Virtual Desktop, which enables multiple users to connect to Windows 10 virtual desktops on a single virtual machine. The offering has been seeing soaring demand as a way to enable the remote workforce.

The pre-existing integration for WVD with Azure Active Directory “means that I can spin that up a heck of a lot faster than I can otherwise,” said Mike Wilson, vice president and CTO of Interlink Cloud Advisors, a Microsoft Gold partner based in Mason, Ohio.

“I can do that because Microsoft already has the user identity,” Wilson said. “It’s not that you couldn’t go do something similar in AWS, but they don’t have the same infrastructure that customers already have in place on the Microsoft platform.”

14

The other categories where partners rated Azure No. 1 in the survey were on profitability and maturity of pricing.

For FMT Consultants, Saltzman said, the profitability of Azure has always been a strength. There may not be substantial margin in licenses—it’s typically about 15 percent—but there are a number of accelerators and additional rebates available, he said. These additional incentives can add another 9 percent, Saltzman said.

“At the end of the day, it’s recurring revenue. And even if the margin is small, it’s very attractive,” he said.

Many existing Microsoft customers also find pricing advantages in sticking with Azure when migrating to cloud infrastructure, solution providers told CRN. For instance, while prices for Azure and AWS are generally similar, Microsoft’s Azure Hybrid Benefit has made Windows Server and SQL Server workloads far more affordable to run on Azure, Wilson said.

“When you’ve already made an investment in Microsoft licensing, you can now transition that and bring that to Azure in a way that you can’t do with AWS,” he said.

In looking at the way that offerings from AWS and Azure are marketed, they can sound very similar, said George Burns, senior consultant for cloud operations at SPR, an AWS Advanced Consulting partner and Microsoft Gold partner based in Chicago.

“But in execution they’re very different,” he said.

The AWS approach, Burns said, is to present all possible components to the user. “AWS is really good at exposing everything to the developer,” he said. But for Microsoft, whose roots are in the Windows operating system, guiding users visually is more its forté, he said.With Azure, Microsoft presents a computing solution that tends to be more user-friendly, Burns said.

“Microsoft has a look and a feel that people are very comfortable with,” he said.

Ultimately, when you invest in the Microsoft ecosystem, “it generally serves you well in your investment if you keep buying into the Microsoft ecosystem,” Burns said. “It’s a great model and it rolls together well. But it really works best for those that buy all in.”

AWS: Leader In Ease Of Integration And Demand Generation In the Cloud Barometer survey, partners ranked ease of integration as the second most-important category—and for that category, AWS received the survey’s highest rating.

That ties back to AWS’ emphasis on providing users with a comprehensive set of components, Burns said. Whereas Microsoft positions its offerings as packaged solutions, “AWS positions all of their offerings well for integration,” he said.

At 2nd Watch, which began working with AWS in 2011, Garvey agreed that the cloud platform excels when it comes to providing users with the full spectrum of services.

“I think AWS has done a great job at providing a large suite of services that are tailored to specific types of transformation needs,” he said.

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_CoverStory.indd 3

5/27/21 10:00 AM

One example is database modernization, for which AWS offers “many different services that cater to different patterns of data usage, and that are driving a pretty strong integration scenario,” Garvey said.

In general, AWS takes a “builder-first” approach in its offerings, he said. “From a development and engineering standpoint, they cater well to traditional full-stack engineers,” Garvey said.

AWS’ greater scale also offers an advantage over competing clouds in numerous ways, AWS-focused solution providers told CRN. “With scale comes experience, knowledge, perfection of product and services,” said Eran Gil, CEO of San Francisco-based AllCloud, an AWS Premier Consulting partner. “At scale, you get to a much better product.”

That scale has come into play on projects that AllCloud has worked on, including one to move BMC’s Control-M on-premises application into AWS so that it could be offered as a service, he said.

Thanks to its scale and experience, AWS has built an entire organization around the capability of “SaaS-ifying” ISV products, Gil said. The organization, AWS SaaS Factory, worked with AllCloud to take BMC’s on-premises application and turn it into a multitenant SaaS product.

“It does take scale to get to build such nuanced teams, which adds so much value,” Gil said. “AWS’ premise is to go and help companies become more native to the cloud. And through scale, they have the experience, knowledge and capability to guide [customers] through that rather long journey.”

Amazon’s greater scale also makes a difference in terms of ensuring that capacity is available, said Josh Quint, senior director of cloud solutions at ServerCentral Turing Group, an AWS Advanced Consulting partner based in Chicago.

For instance, AWS encourages users to buy reserve capacity and has never experienced issues with providing it, Quint said.

Microsoft, however, does not offer any guarantees on Azure capacity and actually faced capacity constraints early on in the pandemic, as well as outages in March 2020 caused by strains placed on some of its cloud services.

“I’ve never run into an issue where I can’t spin up [AWS] resources. We’ve never had an inkling of capacity issues. And performance or ‘noisy neighbor’ issues—I’ve just never really seen it,” he said. “Whereas this last year, [Microsoft] just got hammered by everybody deciding to move into Azure during COVID, and starting to use [Microsoft] 365 and Teams. There were definitely some physical capacity issues there.”

In terms of partner engagement, Quint said that AWS has taken the approach of interacting directly with his company and providing guidance—even when it was a small outfit.

That’s because AWS still brings a startup mentality and has a fondness for “the small and scrappy,” he said.

“Even when we were tiny, we had a rep. We had somebody that was going to come in and guide us through the process,” Quint

said. “Not so much with Microsoft. You have to be a certain size to get that personal touch. It was like pulling teeth to try to figure out where to even start. The best way you could start is to just hire somebody that’s done it, but that’s not easy to do either. AWS will guide you to a certain extent.”

AWS’ inclination toward engaging directly with the channel has also led to a greater propensity for supporting demand generation, according to solution providers. Partners rated AWS the highest in the survey in support for demand generation and lead sharing.

Andover, Mass.-based Navisite is an AWS Advanced Consulting partner as well as a Microsoft Gold partner and Azure Expert MSP, and has seen the difference in how the two companies engage with partners around customer prospects, said CEO Mark Clayman. AWS gets far more involved with providing leads than Microsoft, Clayman said.

At AWS, “they obviously have a very large sales force, but their partner engagement model is as large as their direct sales force.

And once they find a customer that is the right fit for the AWS platform, what they tend to do is go out and find the right partners to engage with them and then help that customer,” Clayman said. “There’s a good relationship between AWS and the partner community to solve that need for that customer.”

Microsoft gravitates more toward leveraging its pre-existing relationships with customers to build momentum with those migrating to Azure, he said. Microsoft has “a lot of good programs, and they have funding, and they want to enable you—but they’re not quite as effective on the street, working directly with our reps and their partner reps,” Clayman said.

By contrast, AWS brings “a very good partner-enabled model,” he said. “And I think really where that came from is AWS was really starting from scratch—they had no existing relationships with customers when they started their platform. So I think that they made a smart move and they started with a partner ecosystem from the beginning.”

Google Cloud: Engaging With More Partners Solution providers ranked Google Cloud No. 3 overall in the Cloud Barometer survey, giving it a third-place finish in all categories except one.

However, it is rapidly expanding its partner ranks, extending its enterprise reach. According to data provided by Google Cloud, the vendor’s channel partner community has grown by more than 400 percent over the past two years. That influx of new partners is reflected in the survey, where 43 percent of Google Cloud solution providers said they have been working with the vendor for less than two years. That compares with 35 percent of AWS partners and 23 percent of Microsoft Azure partners working with those vendors respectively.

Along with bringing aboard top cloud partners such as 2nd Watch, Google Cloud has also added leading solution providers such as Navisite and Chicago-based AHEAD over the past year.

“As the industry continues to mature, we’re seeing a growing

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_CoverStory.indd 4

15

5/27/21 10:05 AM

C O V E R S T O RY demand for Google Cloud in some of our enterprise accounts,” said Stephen Ayoub, president of AHEAD, which is also an AWS Premier Consulting partner and Microsoft Gold partner. “AHEAD is dedicated to partnering with the best-in-breed technology, and we felt it was important to invest in this relationship.”

In the past two years—since the hire of Thomas Kurian as Google Cloud CEO—the platform has been branching out beyond its initial focus on the developer community, solution providers said.

Navisite joined the Google Cloud partner program in March, partly in response to Google’s move to build a go-to-market model that’s more along the lines of AWS, Clayman said.

“They’ve been starting to hire and build out a traditional enterprise sales force,” he said.

Notably, in the Cloud Barometer survey, Google Cloud tied for second place with Microsoft Azure in the category of support for demand generation and lead sharing, its best showing.

“The feeling and the culture that [Google Cloud has] been developing is that they want to share leads,” Clayman said. “They want to have their reps out on the street—finding a new customer and then sharing that customer relationship or that opportunity with their partner community.”

In 2020, partners were involved in three times more customer deals for Google Cloud than in 2018, according to information provided by the vendor—while the number of enterprise customer accounts with a partner attached increased by 50 percent between 2019 and 2020.

SADA Systems, the Google Cloud Reseller Partner of the Year for 2018 and 2019, has seen a “big shift” over the past two years with Google Cloud being included on RFPs that it never was before, said CEO Tony Safoian.

“We’re always given the RFP now.We’re always in the mix,” he said.

Part of Google’s growing appeal derives from its development of key open-source technologies that underpin multi-cloud and hybrid cloud approaches, such as Kubernetes container orchestration and the Anthos “Kubernetes anywhere” platform, according to several Google Cloud-focused solution providers.

And while those technologies are designed to be deployed on any infrastructure—including competing clouds—Google Cloud offers the best-engineered and most cost-effective solution for running them, the solution providers said.

Google Cloud, Safoian said, “invented the standards in which multi-cloud and hybrid cloud exist. I think AWS didn’t say the word ‘multi-cloud’ until last year.”

Los Angeles-based SADA sold its Microsoft practice in early 2019 to focus entirely on Google Cloud—even though the solution provider had won multiple Microsoft Partner of the Year awards over the years.

“We just believe Google’s strategy is the most evolved, most pro-customer, most operationalized—and that it best reflects the market reality,” Safoian said.

On the whole, Google Cloud’s biggest differentiator is its approach around tapping into technologies honed through massive

16

products such as Gmail, the Google search engine and YouTube, said Rajesh Abhyankar, CEO of Princeton, N.J.-based MediaAgility.

“That includes all the developer tools and all the DevOps capabilities—automation of infrastructure, Kubernetes, Anthos and the AI stack,” Abhyankar said. “Google is sitting on so much data because of their free products that their AI capability is way above anyone else.”

MediaAgility—which holds Google Cloud specializations including infrastructure, application development and machine learning—has used Google Cloud capabilities to rapidly increase the processing of data for scientists in biotech labs, for instance.

Projects have included reducing the data processing times for genome sequencing experiments from a day to less than an hour using Google Cloud, Abhyankar said.

“The big difference is that Google has been building planetscale applications—applications for a billion or 2 billion users,” he said. “And the infrastructure needs for those applications are what is baked into Google Cloud’s product.”

Google Cloud’s rankings from partners in the Cloud Barometer survey reflect the fact that some amount of maturing is still needed in the Google Cloud ecosystem, said Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global, a Westborough, Mass.-based Google Cloud partner.

While the AI and machine learning capabilities offered by Google Cloud are among the best out there, the platform’s two big rivals each have a more mature ecosystem, he said.

For Azure in particular, “you’ve got more tools, both from Microsoft and from third parties. And you’ve got a broader range of partners in the community that are doing more with those tools,” said Falcon, whose company is also a Microsoft Silver partner. “Google has made some great strides in the last 12 to 18 months. But I still see the Microsoft ecosystem as a bit more mature. And clearly AWS is a very mature ecosystem.”

For the Google Cloud ecosystem to reach the same level, “it’s going to take time,” he said. “But Google also might need to assess what they could do to accelerate that time frame.”

Along with continuing to add partners, Google Cloud might want to invest in helping more companies to provide partners with development services related to the platform, Falcon said.

“If there were more firms focused on [providing these services] to other partners, then you’d see greater adoption,” he said.

Ultimately, all three of the cloud platforms are positioned to see huge growth in 2021 and beyond, according to solution providers.

While agility and scalability have always been among the biggest selling points for cloud, the pandemic has made those capabilities a business imperative for more customers, solution providers said.

“For a company like us, it’s been an opportunity to really get people to listen to what we’ve been trying to tell them for the last few years,” said Rosalyn Arntzen, CEO of Redmond, Wash.-based solution provider Amaxra.

The Microsoft Gold partner doubled its cloud revenue in 2020, year over year, and expects to do the same this year. “I don’t think it’s slowing down,” Arntzen said. n

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_CoverStory.indd 5

5/27/21 10:05 AM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Area 1 Stops The Rising Tide Of Damaging Supply Chain Attacks Q. Who does Area 1 serve and what is the value-add for performancebased cybersecurity?

A. Area 1 Security serves organizations of all sizes that understand the criticality of stopping dangerous email attacks that lead to 95 percent of all cybersecurity incidents. We’re innovators of the industry’s only cloud-native, comprehensive email security solution for preempting advanced phishing threats, such as ransomware and Business Email Compromise. In 2020, we thwarted more than $317 million BEC fraud attempts for our customers, a number that is expected to grow to more than $500 million in 2021. We provide an easy-to-deploy SaaS solution (our service can be provisioned in less than five minutes) with no performance impact on email flow and operations. With email threats under control, organizations can focus on business.

Q. The recent Colonial Pipeline hack impacted the supply chain throughout the United States, showing the need for extra cybersecurity protection. How does Area 1 address these needs for partners?

A. The pipeline hack is an example of hijacking a supply chain and using email attacks to deliver ransomware and disrupt business. It highlights that email and digital communications with your trusted supply chain represent the most significant cyber risk and must be secured differently. Area 1 helps partners educate customers on partner account takeovers and zero trust within email traffic—by far the largest means of digital communication. Our partners, through an easy proof-of-value play, can show insight to threat campaigns and infrastructure before they are weaponized.

All partners demonstrate value to their customers, and nothing is more valuable than stopping an attack before it hits.

Q. Why should the channel partner with Area 1 considering the current cybersecurity climate?

A. It’s imperative for partners to protect customers from advanced email attacks.

Legacy approaches can’t keep up with threat actors, and it’s not slowing. Without Area 1, partners could be leaving customers vulnerable to the number-one cause of security incidents.

Area 1 offers the right solution at the right time. We protect millions of mailboxes and hundreds of companies. Our service exposes security gaps and vulnerabilities, is scalable for all companies and accelerates sales cycle and customer adoption. We’re committed to keeping the supply chain secure. That’s why we protect EVERY partner for FREE. You are part of your customers’ supply chain and we ensure your email and communications are never weaponized against your customers.

Steve Pataky

”

Chief Revenue Officer and Channel Chief

We’ve arrived at this major inflection point in the $10 billion email security market, fueled by the rapid adoption of cloud email, where legacy solutions can no longer protect against modern threats. It’s a thrill to see our Area 1 channel partners capture this opportunity, securing their customers in a fundamentally different, more effective way.

”

Area 1 protects all Partners for FREE. Get started today: https://a1s.click/partner_pra

Area1_June2021_HowTo.indd 1

5/26/21 1:26 PM

Staying Strong In A Year Like No Other This year’s Women of the Channel honorees proved the power of resilience as they led their companies through a time when business was anything but usual

O

ur 2021 Women of the Channel honorees have a claim to fame that no previous class can make: They took leading roles in guiding their companies, partners and customers through a global pandemic.

As the scope of the COVID-19 outbreak became apparent, these channel leaders moved quickly to adapt their strategies, roll out new partner relief programs, keep their employees safe and address myriad other changes that the pandemic required.

“If we look back to last May, last June, it was all hands on deck to really help our clients, working with our partners, on how do we enable users to work remotely, store their data in the cloud, just work [in a] very mobile and agile [way],” said Julie Talbot-Hubbard, senior vice president of cyberprotection and identity at Denver-based Optiv Security and a Women of the Channel Power 60 Solution Provider honoree, in a recent interview with CRNtv. Those sentiments were echoed in the award applications of many who earned Women of the Channel honors this year.

“Never has our ‘Perform and Transform’ strategy been so needed than during the last 12 months,” said Vicki Batka, vice

18

president of partner sales, Asia-Pacific, Japan and China, at Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif. “Our partners needed to quickly protect their day-to-day performance to capture—with urgency—new projects and customer requirements [while] as an industry we all saw an acceleration of transformation projects.”

Now as the IT channel reshapes itself for doing business in the new normal, adaptability is the key to success, said Jeannette Lee Heung, Prisma Cloud channel director at Palo Alto Networks, Santa Clara, Calif.

“The channel security partner of tomorrow will embrace new technology, differentiate themselves through specialization, and build new expertise and new services to help our customers stay secure in their digital transformation,” she said. “In a post-pandemic world, there is no such thing as business as usual.”

On the following pages, CRN honors 1,000-plus women across the channel, highlighting our Power 100 and Power 60 Solution Providers.

For more on each honoree, go to the Women of the Channel database by scanning here. ■

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_WOTC_Intro.indd 1

5/28/21 9:35 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Pilkku Aasma

Barbara Abboud

VP, EMEA Channel Sales, Ecosystems

Director, Partner Sales

F5 Networks

Aasma’s goal is to help partners achieve more, together with Citrix, by building a high-impact partner ecosystem and helping customers continue their digital transformations. As customers continue to move to the cloud, she ensures that the partner ecosystem is secure.

Victoria Abeling

Ivana Abruzzese

Michelle Accardi

SailPoint

Sr. Channel Marketing Manager

President, CRO

Abboud’s focus is on training and enablement for partners around F5’s new technology. She identified partners for a “Fast Start” program to help them build their expertise and launched a campaign to create awareness, which led to millions in partnerinitiated pipeline.

As SailPoint’s first vice president of inside sales, Abeling quickly identified that the channel needs to be a key pillar of success. Working closely with geographic leaders, she implemented a “partnerfirst” strategy across her worldwide inside sales organization.

Abruzzese has managed Kaspersky partners’ budgets and has aligned business plans to drive revenue through marketing strategies focused on customer attainment and awareness. She also has on-boarded new partners to grow the channel.

Over the past year, Accardi has prioritized changing her approach to POWER 100 communications, partner outreach and facilitating successful customer experiences to accommodate a remote-work-based environment.

Irene Acedo-Rico

Dee Dee Acquista

Melissa Adamson

Alison Adkins

Supna Agrawal

Exec. Director, Data Center Group Channel Sales, EMEA

SVP, Global Channels

BeyondTrust

Head of Americas Public Sector Channel

Business Development Manager

Global Channel Marketing Sr. Manager

Acedo-Rico implemented differentiated data center business models through the creation and development of channel sales teams. She emphasized the execution of strategies controlling sales budgets and forecasts, which led to significant channel expansion.

Acquista joined BeyondTrust in March 2020, having been hired to lead POWER 100 the channel strategy globally.

She went on a look-and-listen tour to get a deeper understanding of the business and formulated a plan focused on assessing the programs, talent and tools needed for the future.

Adamson was brought on to build the public sector channel from scratch. A team that began as four is now 17-plus and growing. Its initial focus was building the channel for the U.S. government and has since expanded to include education, Canada and Latin America.

Adkins has been dedicating a substantial amount of her time to proactively working with channel partners to educate them on the differentiators and value propositions of ThreatQuotient, creating a “channel-in” business and a positive result for the channel’s end customers.

Agrawal has enhanced iboss’ partner program and is hard at work showcasing its commitment to partner growth, profitability and building a predictable recurring revenue model. She ensured that partners will have access to selling and marketing resources.

Kimberly Alexander

Danielle Allen

Carrie Almeida

Megan Amdahl

Abi Aminu

Federal Team Lead

Federal Partner Business Manager

SVP, Partner Alliances, Operations, North America

Sr. Manager, Global Channel Programs, Strategy, Americas

Citrix Systems

Lenovo

Sr. Vendor Business Manager

Carahsoft Technology

Alexander is always looking for ways to create new revenue streams and adapt to the perpetually changing business landscape.

In the past year, she and her team worked with one of Ingram Micro’s top power and cooling vendors to create UPS as a Service.

VP, Worldwide Inside Sales

Google Cloud

Kaspersky

ThreatQuotient

Star2Star Communications

iboss

Nvidia

Insight Enterprises

Thales

Allen is tasked with building the artificial intelligence vertical and had 100 percent growth year over year while overseeing 60-plus channel partners. She manages the channel across each manufacturer she supports, as well as leading and training a sales team of future managers.

Almeida developed and launched several federalfocused partner programs in 2020, including the Partner Champion Program, Virtual Executive Briefings with Partners, Deep Learning Institute courses and Monthly Partner Engineering User Groups.

Amdahl led the integration of PCM, Insight’s largest acquisiPOWER 60 SP tion to date— on-boarding 32,000 customers and 2,000 teammates. She also oversees Insight’s integration and distribution centers, which were kept fully operational during the pandemic.

The Accelerate Program launched in February 2020, and Aminu created multiple partner process guides and held multiple partner trainings on tools and the value of the new program. Over 94 percent of partners invited were on-boarded into the new program.

Margaret Amori

Jennifer Anaya

Debbie Anders

Sue Anders

Christy Anderson

Sr. Partner Business Manager

Nvidia

SVP, Marketing, Global Technology Solutions

VP, Strategic Alliances

NTT

Regional VP, Verticals East, SLED, Health Care

VP, Catalog, Inventory Management

Amori’s focus has been on expanding Nvidia’s partner coverage to ensure it includes different types of partners, from traditional resellers to new OEMs, ISVs and technology partners.

This has enabled new creative go-to-market approaches for all players.

In addition to leading Global Te c h n o l o g y Solutions marketing efforts, POWER 100 for Anaya the 2020 virtual Ingram Micro One event was a huge undertaking and accomplishment. Anaya quickly pivoted to creating a remote event featuring hundreds of speakers from around the world.

Anders built a value-driven approach to managing partnerships called the “Power of 3.” It is focused on why the partnership is important, how NTT can effectively collaborate and what is needed to execute an advantageous plan to deliver excellence.

When Mitel’s h e a l t h - c a re customers and SLED customers were forced to shut down amid the pandemic, Anders had daily communications to assist partners and end users. She became an expert on mission-critical contact centers and supported school administrators with communication.

With extensive expertise and a proven track record in both distribution sales and operations, Anderson led the initiative that achieved over a 70 percent reduction in end-to-end setup time for new channel partners with Tech Data.

Ingram Micro

Ingram Micro

Mitel

Tech Data

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_1-120.indd 1

19

5/28/21 9:31 AM

ADVERTISEMENT

Dell Technologies Celebrates 29 Accomplished And Remarkable Women Of The Channel We’re thrilled to celebrate the 29 inspiring women of Dell Technologies, who have contributed so much to our partner community. The images you see below are the faces of the best and most influential women channel leaders who help partners maximize their relationship with Dell Technologies. While we’re proud and excited for all these Women of the Channel, we want to highlight those who have earned multiple awards since 2011, including Heather Wilcox (nine times), Cheryl Cook (eight times) and Maureen Gaumer (seven times).

Congratulations to all award winners!

POWER 100

POWER 100

POWER 100

POWER 100

Cheryl Cook

Rola Dagher

Erica Lambert

Shawn Trotter

Kristina Austin

Tamara Booth

Diane Brode

Miriam Garcia Chavez

Senior Vice President, Global Partner Marketing

Senior Director, Global Alliances, Partner Cloud and Industries Marketing

Global Channel Chief

VP, Presales, Global Alliances, Services Providers and Industries

Senior Vice President, Global Services Sales | Channel, Alliances & OEM Solutions

Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing

VP, North America Channel Sales

Channel Director, Mexico

Nikkia Despertt

Director, Readiness and Adoption, Channel Services

Dell Technologies PartnerIncrease Program.

Together, we stop at nothing.

Expand Your Portfolio.

Your Profitability.

Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations. Learn more at star2star.com.

Dell 2021_WOTC_spread.indd 1

5/27/21 11:43 AM

Kathleen Flaherty

Maureen Gaumer

Sarah Griffin

Tina Hanson

Kathy Kenneally

Tina Mentschik

Susan Marx

Sarah Meyer

Kathleen Meza

Denise Millard

Lorna Rivero

Isabelle Robert

Kirstan Ryan

Susanne Schuetz

Patty Scire

Nicola Sheppard

Sarah Shields

Cindy Spring

Beth Villalpando

Heather Wilcox

Senior Director, Channel Services

Regional Senior Channel Manager, Austria

Director, LatAm Partner Marketing

Senior Director, Global Partner and OEM Business Transformation

Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing

Vice President, Channel Legal

Channel Account Director

Vice President & General Manager, Central & North Europe Channel

Director, GTM & Programs, Global Alliances

Director, Channel Sales

Partner APEX & Services Strategy Lead

Director, Global ISG Channel Specialty Strategy and Programs

Director, Cloud Partner Marketing

Director, Dell Technologies Partner Program Strategy

Director Partner and Distribution Marketing EMEA

Director, NA Distribution and National Solution Provider Marketing

Senior Director, Global Channel, Renewal Sales

Senior Vice President, Global Alliances

Senior Director, North America Channel Programs and Strategy

Director, Field Marketing, Client Solutions

https://www.delltechnologies.com/partner/en-us/partner/womens-network.htm

Dell 2021_WOTC_spread.indd 2

5/27/21 11:43 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Liz Anderson

Teresa Annibale

VP, Partner Marketing

Area VP

Anderson helped Repay’s B2B portfolio achieve 80 percent deal attribution to partner campaigns through partner marketing activities. She rolled out a turnkey annual marketing plan called Ignite, which drove new partner sign-ups and helped drive partner leads.

Annibale created new business verticals and expanded existing relationships. She participates in channel events and, under her leadership, Evotek won numerous awards and acknowledgements in the channel in 2020.

Marie Ashway Director, Marketing

Repay

Maria Ardila

Diane Arnold

Latin America Channel Director

Managing Director, IT Solutions Group

Antonacci implemented operational improvements that made it easier for partners to do business with Aryaka. This included putting in place critical processes and documentation to help govern engagements throughout the life cycle of partners and their customers.

Ardila’s key accomplishments in Sophos Latin America have been expanding the adoption of cloud security and Security as a Service. For each of these initiatives, she made sure the strategy aligned with the partners’ while promoting the company’s channel-first partner program.

Arnold has responsibility for the business transformation and services division of Levi Ray & Shoup.

Over the past 12 months, she has continued the company’s push into services around security, cloud and analytics, which utilize a variety of products from channel companies.

Julia Astashkina

Tricia Atchison

Kim Austin

Kristina Austin

Partner Marketing Lead

Managing Director, Partner Enablement, Marketing, Communications

Business Development Manager

Sr. Director, Global Alliances, Partner Cloud, Industries Marketing

Evotek

Global Director, Channel Ops, Programs, Alliances

Aryaka

Sophos

Levi Ray & Shoup

Mainline Information Systems

Neo4j

Ashway led the execution of Mainline’s digital marketing POWER 60 SP strategy, driving pipeline and sales to help Mainline break the $1 billion revenue ceiling. Her expertise in virtual events and other areas enabled sales growth in an uncertain year.

Astashkina built the new Neo4j Partner Pro g ra m to include partner tiering and other enhancements for accelerated global adoption.

She also developed partner communication channels to better engage the community for enhanced demand generation.

Atchison has focused on the expansion of worldwide enablement, POWER 100 marketing and communication programs across the entire Citrix partner ecosystem with distributors, hyperscalers and global systems integrators.

Austin assisted customers with receiving Paycheck Protection Program and other relief funding.

She also created digital assets to be used by her team to assist other channel partners in transforming their practices.

Austin’s team supported the launch of Dell Technologies C l o u d, D e l l Technologies on Demand and new flexible consumption offerings for partners. The team also launched the Powered by Dell Technologies partner designation and competency.

Mira Ayad

Andrea Ayala

Lorraine Azzinaro

Katharine Bachman

Dayna Badhorn

Field Marketing Manager

COO

Director, Partner Communications

Global VP, Strategic Planning, Corporate Marketing

Global Head of Channel Programs, Enablement, AWS Marketplace

Citrix Systems

Huntress

Amazon Web Services

22

Jolynn Antonacci

Aspire Technology Partners

Intuit

ConnectWise

Dell Technologies

Avnet

Ayad launched I S V- f o c u s e d and channelfocused programs for AWS Marketplace. She has defined the AWS Marketplace channel program strategy to create more partner-to-partner opportunities and recognize partners’ successful businesses.

Aya l a b u i l t out new sponsorship and engagement opportunities for vendor partners. She also started building out a vendor alliance program to strategize on how to engage with vendors within the channel.

Azzinaro collaborated with channel partners to support POWER 60 SP Aspire’s rapidly expanding annuity business.

She championed the customer success team and participated in the Ingram Micro Trust X Alliance Large Employer Group.

Bachman wa s t a s ke d with leading partner communications following the acquisition of Continuum. She has worked to unify communications to partners—elevating strategy and messaging to provide timely and relevant information to partners.

Badhorn works across the company’s global business units to identify opportunities that will enhance the overall business portfolio. She also oversees the strategy, planning and development of global marketing initiatives.

Wendy Bahr

Kim Baker Bell

Amanda Banker

Chief Commercial Officer

Director, Event Marketing

Sr. Manager, Life-Cycle Services Design Engine

Deborah Bannworth

Anamaria Banu-Diaconu

VMware

SVP, Partner Alliances, Inside Sales, Services

Sirius Computer Solutions

Worldwide Marketing Program Manager

Bitdefender

Banker was key to VMware’s redesigned services strategy and partner recruitment initiative. Building on her experience with the recent Partner Connect launch, she aligned with the partner audience to gather input on strategic direction.

Bannworth and her team of partner alliance managers POWER 60 SP engage with partners to maintain and grow Sirius’ position in the channel.

Her success is reflected in strong sales amid the pandemic and the restrictions on face-to-face meetings with customers and partners.

Banu-Diaconu deepened the level of communication and engagement between Bitdefender and its partners, a critical mission amid the global pandemic.

Live webinars, curated monthly newsletters and updated partner notifications proved invaluable.

Rubrik

Tech Data

Bahr has continued to build strong alliances with NetApp, Microsoft and POWER 100 AWS. The company has seen success with its Velocity Partner Program, now in its second year, and is commited to doing 100 percent of customer business through channel partners.

Baker Bell led the company and event marketing team through a year of turbulence due to the COVID19 pandemic. She and her team were able to convert a yearlong schedule of conferences, events and incentives.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_1-120.indd 2

5/27/21 12:44 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

HPE Women Fuel Edge-To-Cloud Digital Transformation Digital transformation is driving work today, and the data all around us from edge-to-cloud powers it. In this Age of Insight, HPE is creating new opportunities to advance how we live and work.

HPE’s 12 Women of the Channel honorees embody strength and the ability to drive change and ensure everyone receives more equitable outcomes. HPE congratulates every Women of the Channel honoree for their leadership and excellence. Our success centers around our dedication to mutually beneficial relationships through the HPE Partner Ready Program. We’re committed to partner programs that are both innovative and trusted, and help partners create solutions to better industries, markets and lives.

POWER 100

POWER 100

Leslie Maher

Dr. Renee V. Pizarro

VP, NA Partners, Inside Sales & SMB

Sales Dir., NA Channel Development & Inside Sales

POWER 100

Cheri Wesinger

Laura Seymour

Senior Dir., Global Partner Marketing & Operations

POWER 100

POWER 100

Joy Shanks

Jas Sood

Mary Hagerson

Connie Hanson

WW SMB Leader, HPEFS

VP/GM, NA Infrastructure & Services

POWER 100

Dir., NA Channel Marketing

Marcia White

Dir., Digital Transformation Business Process Leader, HPEFS

Beth Jensen

Donna Grothjan

VP, Worldwide Channels, Aruba

Dir., WW Partner Programs, Aruba

Senior Dir., WW Partner Operations, Aruba

Senior Channel Operations Program Manager, Aruba

Donna Lowe

Networking Channel Dir., West, Aruba

Find Your morePortfolio. about HPE’s industry-leading Partner Ready Program at Expand Increase Your Profitability. www.hpe.com/us/en/solutions/partners.

Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations. Learn more at star2star.com.

HPE_2021_WOTC.indd 1

5/24/21 8:29 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Tania Baquero

Rachel Barnett

Channel Manager

Sr. Manager, National Channel, Field Operations

Veeam Software

Sr. Director, Channel Sales

Genesys

Melissa Barnhart

Rita Barry

Director, North America Partner Sales, Metallic

Global Public Cloud Alliances Lead

Commvault

Ensono

Baquero has helped Veeam generate more pipeline from resellers, strengthened the company’s relationship with top resellers and alliance partners, and changed the way resources are focused toward the enablement of partners.

Having been recently prom o te d i nto her new role, Barnett’s time has been concentrated on enhancing internal systems and sales teams to create better alignment, focus and accountability in supporting partners while growing their partnerships with Barracuda.

Barnhart was instrumental in exceeding bookings and new logo goals for Genesys. The company’s North American VAR business saw 96 percent new bookings growth year over year.

Metallic launched with a partner-first approach.

Barnhart developed and executed marketing campaigns and channel programs to support the SaaS division of Commvault as building brand awareness among partners was key to getting Metallic off the ground.

Barry has on-boarded Ensono into invite-only POWER 60 SP partner programs that are measured by revenue, which has resulted in it now being a top partner of AWS and Microsoft Azure. She has also managed awards and competencies such as the AWS Migration Competency.

Vicki Batka

Johanna Baum

Amy Beam

Nicole Beck

Susan Becker

VP, Partner Sales, APJC

Founder, CEO

People Operations Director

Channel Account Manager

Sr. Director, Head of Distribution Sales

Cisco Systems

Strategic Security Solutions Consulting

Batka has an extensive network across the Asia-Pacific and Greater China partner ecosystem with resellers, distributors, systems integrators and ISV partners.

She is responsible for Cisco’s APJC partner sales and is a top advocate for partners.

Amanda Bedborough Chief Revenue Officer

Edafio Technology Partners

AT&T

For Baum, the channel is a critical component of h e r g row t h strategy. She calls the channel an “amazing” mechanism to connect the human element of technology and build sustainable solutions through channel relationships.

Beam created an Associate Focus Plan utilizing feedback from a “Best Places to Work” survey and input from quarterly roundtables. She also developed a new hire onboarding process to ensure all new members have a positive experience.

Beck finished 2020 by exceeding her sales goals and significantly contributing to the overall success of the Alliance Channel.

She was directly responsible for supporting growth in 2020 in a challenging environment.

Becker has collaborated with the channel team, working to redefine what it means to be a strong channel partner. She helped create new markets with a focus on generating win-win opportunities for end customers and partners.

Amy Belcher

Hedy Belttary

Patty Benitez

Harsha Bennur

Sr. Manager, Worldwide Public Sector Partner Programs

SVP, Sales

SVP, Channel Sales

Samsung Electronics America

Laserfiche

Repay

Director, Industry Partner Technology

DataCore Software

Amazon Web Services

B edborough led the implementation of a revised channel plan to better support partners through the global recession. She was instrumental to the acquisition and integration of Caringo, an object-based storage supplier, into DataCore.

Belcher joined AWS in July 2021 and recently was named to the global partner program leader position. Over the next year, she plans to continue to expand the portfolio and provide best-inclass programs for public sector partners.

Belttary is helping Laserfiche solution providers embrace Laserfiche Cloud and subscription licensing. These initiatives are aimed at supporting solution providers with technology aligned with organizations’ digital initiatives as well as being a lucrative sales strategy.

Transitioning a channel team t o R e p a y ’s procedures has been Benitez’s priority. Her vision is to combine processes with Repay’s resources to scale and on-board additional channels faster. Key has been implementing partner-centric programs when new integrations are launched.

B ennur has led the channel technology strategy for Microsoft health-care-, government- and education-focused services and solutions partners. She directed the technology strategy for her team of strategists to build capacity and capability around industry outcomes.

Brittany Bentley

Holly Berger

Renée Bergeron

Deanne Bergevin

Business Development Manager

Director, Distribution, North America

SVP, GM

AppSmart

Director, Field Sales

Tech Data

Anja BernardyRaab

Bentley joined Couchbase in 2020 to support the launch of Couchbase Cloud by developing its strategic cloud partnerships. She launched a go-to-market program with a top cloud partner, while laying the groundwork for other partnerships.

Fo r B e rg e r, bringing in a new distributor was a key part of the channel strategy to develop a revitalized partner ecosystem. 2020 required her to implement creative solutions to on-board and achieve success in a new valueadded distributor relationship.

Bergeron led the integration of five acquired master telecom agencies, drove POWER 100 a sales effectiveness program that resulted in 3X growth in year-over-year bookings and created a road map for advisers to build their business in fastgrowing markets like cloud.

Bergevin and her team align vendors’ strategic initiatives into the channel through partnering with the distributor’s collective field teams, driving opportunities for partner growth utilizing Tech Data’s value-add offerings.

Couchbase

24

Barracuda Networks

Liz Barnhart

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

Microsoft

Global VP, Channel Management, Excellence

SAP

Bernardy-Raab established franchised channel management processes, reports and tools, including strong channel governance. She delivered a frictionless partner funds experience and drove accountability for spend and ROI.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_1-120.indd 3

5/27/21 12:44 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

1 5

2 3 4

4

6

5 6 7

3

2

7

8

1

9

8 9

21 1O 2O

10 11

19

12

11

13 14 12 18

15

15 16

16

14 13

17

17

18 19 20 21

Together we shine brighter

Alyssa Lahham

Global Marketing Director, CloudBlue Channel Platforms

Andrea Short

Director, Cloud N.A. Marketing

Ashley Stachura

Sr. Manager Trust X Alliance

Cheryl Rang

Director Advanced Solutions

Cheryll Tan

Director of Marketing

Farrah Zidehsarai

Director Advanced Solutions

Florencia Gannio

Director Global Marketing Solutions

Holly Hartman Niedzielski

Director, Event Marketing & Partner Communities

Jennifer Baier Anaya

POWER 100

Senior Vice President Marketing Global Technology Solutions

Julie Czubinski

Senior Sales Manager Partners Licensing

Kelly Carter

Vice President CFO Canada

Kelly Sander

Sales Director SMB

Kimberly Alexander

Sr. Vendor Business Manager

Lynne Thornton

Executive Director Software and Sales Operations

Marianne Nelson

Director of Go-to-Market Operations, Global Business Services

Melanie DelValle

Director Customer Finance

Sabine Howest

Vice President Global Partner Engagement and IoT

Stacy Khreis

Director Global Business Development

Sue Lim-Brunings

Director, Marketing Operations

Susan O’Sullivan

POWER 100

Vice President U.S. Sales

Therese Ferullo

Executive Director, Business and Consumer Solutions

Connections are what make partnerships possible and enable us to imagine more.

That’s because when we connect, we multiply our collective power—two points become a line, and that line takes on a larger shape, a bigger idea.

Please join us in congratulating our diverse and distinguished 2021 WOTC honorees, each one a star in her own right.

Congratulations to our 2021 Women of the Channel and Power 100 honorees!

You can discover more about them at http://bit.ly/IngramWOTC2021

CS2021.25615_Women_Channel_Ad_fnl.indd 1

5/27/21 3:03 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Carisa Bianchi

COO

Vista IT Solutions

VP, Controller, North America

VP, Strategic Partnerships, Sourcing

In 2019, Vista IT Solutions saw a revenue i n c re a s e o f over 28 percent under Bhardwaj’s leadership and, despite the impact of COVID-19, she drove the team to sustain revenue goals. She also spearheads an initiative to help the younger generation get interested in STEM.

In the past year, Bianchi continued to learn Insight’s business and back-end operations, lead the company’s North America accounting function, and drive the North America finance integration of Insight’s acquisition of PCM.

Samantha Birgin Partner, Go-To-Market Executive

Jennifer Binet

Barbara Biolcati

SVP, Enterprise Sales

Finance Director, Italy

MNJ’s aggressive growth goal was challenged when the pandemic hit. Bierman’s role was to provide consistent partner interaction including communication and vendor engagement opportunities that kept MNJ on course to hit and surpass its revenue target, a goal that was achieved.

Binet has fine-tuned the partners Sectigo works with by identifying key partners and regions, establishing relationships, solidifying contracts, educating sales teams and building traction while establishing Sectigo as an emerging partner in the enterprise space.

Italy was one of the first countries in Europe to be seriously impacted by the pandemic. Biolcati developed, promoted and deployed a business continuity and crisis management plan in cooperation with local entities and the European management team.

Eileen Bishop

Stacey Black

Laura Blackmer

Tayler Blanc

National Account Manager

Director, Global Partner Programs, Operations

SVP, Dealer Sales

Driving partner engagement and opportunities, Birgin rolled out the new Partner Spotlight series to give the company’s partner ecosystem an opportunity to present their value propositions and strategic solutions to internal sales teams.

Corey Bloes

Insight Enterprises

Tech Data

Channel Marketing Manager

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.

Kensington

Achieving the “E-commerce Marketing Partner of the Year” award for the second year is one of Bishop’s key accomplishments. She also on-boarded the first NSP channel partner that became an MSP of the new EcoStruxure cloudbased monitoring software.

Black’s goal has been to introduce a two-tier distribution model to UiPath. Her team worked feverishly, under high pressure and tight timelines, to deliver, integrate and launch a global distribution model for UiPath—its first global distribution initiative—in early 2021.

Blackmer supported partners with online learning, technical training around new products and growing market segments, and virtual demos at Konica Minolta’s new Customer Engagement Center, an 18,000-square-foot facility showcasing the latest technologies.

Due to the pandemic, Blanc had to quickly pivot the channel marketing strategy to more digital outreach engagements. She revamped the partner program and launched a new partner portal with an automated bid desk and campaigns focused on enabling the partner community.

Carlota Blom

Jennifer Bodell

Shannon Bodnar

Michelle Boers

Sales, Managing Director, Latin America

SVP, Global Channel

Pax8

Sr. Director, Global Partner Marketing

Zscaler

Director, National Accounts, Canada

Climb Channel Solutions

Bloes organized over 30 Z i x par t ner trainings and helped launch a new partner resource center.

She also helped her team see large increases in engagement with marketing programs and implemented new recruitment efforts.

Because of the pandemic, Blom implemented a new way to contact top partners across Latin American and met with them virtually to support them from afar. She also implemented a “Virtual Solutions Road Show” with the assistance of many partners in each country.

B o d e l l ve t s and manages Pax8’s 170plus channel events, includPOWER 100 ing the Pax8 partner education and enablement events in North America and the U.K. She gains feedback from partners to uncover new ways to improve, strengthen and grow their business.

Bodnar joined Zscaler with the challenge of inheriting a white sheet of POWER 100 paper and a big list of goals for what partner marketing could be. She is now hard at work building a top-notch partner marketing organization from the ground up.

Now in a new role, Boers is concentrating on being more engaged with customers and vendor partners.

She is focusing on specific segments, helping them grow and providing value to all parties involved. This deeper level of connection has contributed to her success.

Kathryn Bogen

Lauren Bonaca

Elena Bonvicino

Tami Booth

Amanda Borowski

Alliance Manager

Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing

Manager, Channel, Italy

VP, Presales, Global Alliances, Services Providers, Industries

The Datadog Partner Network was launched in January 2020.

Since then, Bonaca has doubled her team to support deepening relationships with channel and cloud alliance partners and the channel and alliances sales team.

B o n v i c i n o ’s responsibility is to manage the whole channel structure for Italy. She has designed dedicated business plans for distributors, VARs, systems integrators and others to enable them to approach the market with a winning mentality.

Channel Marketing Specialist

Zix | AppRiver

Perficient

Bogen started a new career in alliances using her delivery and leadership strengths to bolster partner relationships. She leveraged her perspective around delivery, sales and digital strategy, which allowed her to gain partners’trust and increase business velocity.

Schneider Electric

MNJ Technologies

Sectigo

UiPath

Pegasystems

26

Diane Bierman

Gunjan Bhardwaj

Lexmark

Datadog

Veeam Software

Sales Business Development Manager

Dell Technologies

Cisco Systems

Booth has developed relationships with executives and senior sales teams at multiple partners. She has worked closely with them to ensure they have the latest offerings from Dell Technologies and have the expertise to identify growth opportunities.

Borowski helps lead go-to-market strategy across the Enterprise Networking architecture for Cisco’s partner community. She builds internal and external alliances, partnerships and initiatives to generate tangible growth.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_1-120.indd 4

5/27/21 12:45 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

Inspiring Conversation About Women’s Leadership With Michelle Kadlacek Q. Do you have any advice on how to empower and inspire the next generation of women in the channel?

POWER 100

A. I have been fortunate to pursue my passion in the channel industry for more than

20 years. During this time, I have witnessed the success of women in the channel, but there is still a long way to go. Today’s female leaders have paved the way for a new generation, but we need to continue to empower and inspire each other—every single day. By joining organizations like the Alliance of Channel Women (ACW) or Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), women can learn ways to advance their careers and achieve their personal and professional goals. These unique organizations also provide ways to network, mentor others and pay it forward with education, personal growth and development opportunities.

I am honored to co-lead the Spectrum Women Business Resource Group (BRG) and serve in a leadership role with the Spectrum Enterprise Women’s Leadership Development Initiative. These groups enable women to advance their own careers and help establish our culture of diversity and inclusion. My involvement has inspired me beyond measure to succeed and become the best possible version of myself.

Q. Under your leadership, how have you personally helped to advance your company’s channel business over the past year?

A. By using several key activities like our Partner Advisory Council, Operational

Advisory Meeting and annual Partner Experience Survey to gain insights and data, I was able to focus and prioritize on key partner experience improvement areas.

One of the initiatives was to launch a new serviceability application programming interface (API). This tool enabled our partners the ability to efficiently qualify and quote more opportunities by integrating this into their own customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Partners are now able to do bulk lookups in real time, resulting in faster serviceability checks, quotes and sales. For example, one Master Agent connected the API into their CRM tool and immediately saw an uptick in quotes and sales.

Q. What can partners expect from the Spectrum Partner Program this year?

Michelle Kadlacek

Vice President Enterprise Partner Program Spectrum Enterprise

”

Today’s female leaders have paved the way for a new generation, but we need to continue to empower and inspire each other—every single day.

”

A. Digital transformation and a focus on the partner experience are two elements of our program strategy that we will continue to focus on in 2021. We have tagged this year again as “The Year of Automation.” These efforts include an enhanced partner portal that gives both Master Agents and Selling Agents more control and visibility into order activity. We are also adding new marketing functions that will further enable our partners’ success.

To learn Your more Portfolio. about the Increase SpectrumYour Partner Program, visit Expand Profitability. partners.spectrum.com.

Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations. Learn more at star2star.com.

Charter Spect-2021_WOTCl.indd 1

5/27/21 3:14 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jennifer Bossin

Susan Bottomley

Director, Edge Partner Scale

VP, Global Channels, Alliances, Enterprise Div.

Intel

Nuance Communications

Channel Territory Director

iland

Johnna Bowley

Lynn Brading

Sr. Director, Global Distribution, Partner Programs

Perficient

Rubrik

National Alliance Director

Bossin and her team have established 25-plus netnew channel partnerships for Intel with operating technology market leaders in the digital safety and security, industrial, retail, health-care and education markets.

Bottomley championed the start of N u a n c e’s transformation to transition traditional channel partners from on-premises to the cloud. She evaluated the strategy to determine the needed changes to meet growth objectives and the move to recurring commercial models.

As no business was immune to the challenges of 2020, an impressive accomplishment for Bouvier’s team was that it was able to increase partner engagement and sales. Bouvier also grew her territory revenue by 62 percent year over year.

Bowley continued to deepen Rubrik’s partnerships with solution providers, build integrated market offerings with key alliance partners including NetApp, Microsoft and AWS, and enrich the partner program to dramatically increase partner margins and partner competency.

Last year was Brading’s fifth year managing Perficient’s partnership with Adobe. In that time, her efforts were influential in achieving 136 percent growth in Adobe service bookings. In 2020, these contributions also resulted in Adobe recognizing Perficient as a Top 10 Focus Partner.

Catherine Bramlett

Judith Breen

Meg Brennan

Rebecca Brennan

Tara Bresnahan

Sr. Global Channel Program Manager

Insight Enterprises

Sr. Director, Global Channel Programs, Operations

Director, Sales

Secureworks

Director, Strategic Partnerships, Canada

Carahsoft Technology

Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing, Americas

B r a m l e t t ’s focus has been on the program side of the business— helping to drive initiatives like training and on-boarding that will activate channel partners and distributors and enable channel account managers to be successful.

Fo r I n s i g ht Canada’s partners, Breen led the initiative to realign sales enablement and customer activities, leading to sequential and double-digit year-over-year growth. An emphasis on career development and mentoring with her team resulted in several partner awards.

B r e n n a n ’s mission was to i n c re a s e engagement with partners, and she succeeded even amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Under her watch, partner sales training increased 400 percent, and she hosted 50-plus partner executive briefings.

Over the past year, Brennan helped transition to a virtual environment and invested in several new programs that enable the partner ecosystem, including allowing partners to generate new opportunities, nurture existing customers and provide the best solutions to customers.

Bresnahan and her team worked closely with some of Sophos’ largest national partners to adopt Sophos Managed Threat Response, battling the increase in cybersecurity attacks. Critical to that effort was guiding a mindset switch: security as a service rather than a software product.

Jacqueline Bright

Diane Brode

Luciana Broggi

Beth Bromley

Barbara Brument

Sr. Director, Global Partner Marketing

Head of Global Routes To Market

National Account Manager

HP Inc.

Innovative Technology Solutions

Cloud Alliance Manager, EMEA

Bright has reduced escalations by 30 percent year o v e r y e a r, created new activities for the development funds program to reduce the work of partners by up to 60 percent, and developed key relationships with the geographic teams to help improve the partner experience.

Brode’s team was focused on driving exceptional partner investment experiences. The team improved programs and tools, while driving an MDF stimulus package. By ensuring a continuum in partners’ marketing, this resulted in greater partner loyalty and incremental pipeline growth.

B ro g g i wa s instrumental in designing and implementing HP’s new partPOWER 100 ner program, HP Amplify. Since launching in November, 99 percent of HP’s commercial revenue partners have opted into this collaborative program centered on the capabilities partners need to succeed today.

As an MSP using bestof-breed hardware and soft ware to execute IT services for customers, Bromley focuses on the channels representing those tools, which are essential for multiplying efforts and transforming a message into value for customers.

Brument focuses on enabling partners and showcasing Cloudera’s value proposition and its differentiators. As she deals with very different partners, she makes sure she develops customized messaging around customer-specific use cases.

Nancy Buckley

Christine Bufalini

Alexis Bulgajewski

Jude Bull

Susan Bullwinkle

Sr. Manager, Channel Sales, East

Sr. Director, North America Marketing

Channel, Sales Operations

Morpheus Data

EMEA Director, Partner Programs, Communications

Evotek

Buckley drives mindshare within sales teams and within the partner community to align to meet customers’ goals. She also has developed many best practices and shares them with extended teams while assessing data to see where Palo Alto Networks can implement new ideas for growth.

Tenable will launch its first Global Virtual Partner event, AssureWorld, this year with three theaterfocused events. Bufalini’s goal is to reach the partner community by delivering strategic guidance on what to expect in 2021 and how the company plans to work with partners.

Although a newer member to the channel team, Bulgajewski has helped solidify current partner relationships and continue building on established relationships. She is always looking for new and creative ways to connect with partners across the channel.

Worldwide Development Funds Manager

VMware

Palo Alto Networks

28

Heather Bouvier

Dell Technologies

Tenable

Riverbed

VMware

Bull designed operational efficiencies that strengthen the relationship with strategic partners, making it easier for them to do business with VMware. She owns the EMEA channel internal communications strategy and drove messaging consistency to a team of over 300.

Sophos

Cloudera

Regional VP

As a 100 percent channel company, Bullwinkle’s goal for Evotek and its sales team in 2020 was to ensure it had the right partners.

The team met regularly with leading target partners to set joint goals and milestones for progress, growing sales together 240 percent.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_1-120.indd 5

5/27/21 12:45 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

Hitachi Vantara Offers A Simplified Approach To Growth

POWER 100

Q. As businesses accelerate digital transformation to thrive amid the pandemic, where does Hitachi Vantara see the bright spots of opportunity?

A. The acceleration of digital transformation over the past 14 months has propelled

the economy forward. Disparate workforces, online presences and digital services changed overnight. Very quickly, the benefits became acutely evident. This explosion of data presents an urgent need for innovation both technically and socially.

At Hitachi Vantara, we recognize this as an opportunity to modernize businesses at their core, create data-driven business models and go-to-market strategies and bring about social innovation. We have the opportunity to create an extraordinary future that is more sustainable, equitable, profitable and inclusive.

Q. How has Hitachi Vantara adapted its partner program to benefit partners even more?

A. Ease of doing business is the guiding beacon of Hitachi Vantara’s partner program.

We continue to innovate our program for simplicity and to accelerate growth with and through our partners. We’ve invested across our ecosystem and empowered our partners with technology and with our digital selling platform.

From onboarding to opportunity management, our partners can leverage the digital selling platform to optimize their experience with us and execute against their business objectives and strategy. Together we can build and sell differentiated solutions that help our customers achieve their visions and affect positive change.

Q. As a leader, how do you help women drive positive change and increase personal success?

A. As a leader, it’s imperative I foster a diverse and inclusive workforce. Driving positive change and increasing success happens when we purposefully provide opportunities.

Those opportunities can be created by simply listening and empowering others.

Success comes from knowing your business, anticipating pitfalls and working together to accelerate positive change. As women, we have an innate ability to assess our surroundings, make thoughtful decisions and turn those decisions into actions, all before finishing our morning coffee. Through mentorship, connections and advocacy, I am committed to empowering women for success.

Kimberly King

VP, Global Strategic Partners & Alliances

”

Strong partnerships are the keys to success. Hitachi Vantara’s capabilities and differentiated solutions, in combination with our partners’ expertise, positions us well to jointly expand opportunities, penetrate markets, innovate and solve new and emerging customer challenges.

Together, we can reimagine the future.

”

Build your pathway to growth with a predictable, profitable and pioneering partner experience.

Learn more at www.hitachivantara.com/partners.

HitachiVantara_Jun2021_WOTC.indd 1

5/27/21 3:13 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Laura Burdine

Owner

As the CRM administrator and sales operations expert, Burdine led the strategy development and execution around improving internal sales processes. These improvements resulted in a higher level of customer service capabilities.

Burnside earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Learning and Leadership, a credential that has helped differentiate her company and identify her as a subject matter expert in her research field, which is high-growth womenowned businesses.

Adrianna Bustamante

Britta Butler

Adapture Technology Group

CMIT Solutions of Erie

Christine Burrows

Elizabeth Burton

Anna Busch

National Account Manager

Sr. Partner Marketing Lead

Sr. Director, Midmarket Channels

As Eaton looked at new ways for customers to partner via a preferred distribution model, Burrows helped pinpoint areas for improvement.

She also spearheaded Eaton Power Valet, which provides enhanced levels of service to target resellers.

Burton worked with partn e r C - s u i te executives to launch flexible, scalable solutions built on AWS and focused on cloud migration, application modernization, data and analytics, and machine learning.

Despite the challenges across all areas of the business amid the pandemic, the business Busch manages achieved 131 percent attainment against plan. She also increased partner-generated pipeline by 37 percent year over year.

Mechelle Buys du Plessis

Debbie Byorum

Eaton

VP, Sales

Sr. Director, Global Alliances

GTS Technology Solutions

B u s t a m a n te created new joint solution and ser vice options with Dell and VMware to enable growth within Rackspace’s private cloud portfolio. She also built a stronger global structure that enabled go-to-market and deeper regional engagement.

Butler set a plan around methodical growth with POWER 60 SP strategic manufacturer partners. She was able to leverage these partnerships specifically to meet customers’ needs in the face of the pandemic, resulting in unprecedented growth for GTS.

Ellen Cahill

Mary Calderwood Director, Accounting

Cahill launched a COV I D - 1 9 industry roundtable with channel leaders to provide guidance and instituted virtual daylong, SD-WAN boot camps to educate partners and help them position and sell the technology.

Amazon Web Services

SAP

Partner Marketing Director

VP, Sales Transformation, Operations

iboss

Revamping the sales organization to focus on relevant customer solutions is Buys du Plessis’ mission.

As the transformation role was new, she embarked on ensuring continuous learning to enable herself to measure the rate of transformation.

B y o r u m recently joined iboss as the c o m p a n y ’s partner marketing director. She has since collaborated with partner marketing and programs teams to launch a new global partner program.

Addison Caldwell

Jenna Callery

Michele Campbell

Account Manager

Liongard

Executive Director, B2B Technology

VP, Global Channel Programs, Enablement

C a l d e r wo o d focused on leading her team to a higher level of operational performance. ANM had experienced tremendous growth but the operational processing didn’t move at the same speed. Bottlenecks, gaps and control issues were identified and best practices were set.

Caldwell was an integral part of Liongard’s first “Channel Strong RV Tour” and since then has worked with members of the channel community on webinars and Facebook Live sessions. She’s known for being collaborative and keen to work strategically with teammates and partners.

Over the past 12 months, Callery signed 12 new clients to the B2B Technology practice, helping to drive significant fiscal year growth for her business unit. Each new manufacturer client of NPD creates new opportunities for engagement and incremental revenue potential for channel partners.

In May 2020, Campbell joined Sectigo to augment the launch of its web security portfolio with a new partner program, partner portal and partner learning platform. She on-boarded a team of channel experts and launched the partner program, portal and platform in January 2021.

Rachel Canales

Kate Canestrari

Melissa Caress

Kim Carlton

Kristin Carnes

North America OEM Sales Director

Sr. Director, Americas Partner, Alliance Marketing

National Channel Manager

Director, Marketing, Sales Development

Sr. Director, Global Distribution Sales, Strategy

Canales has continued what she star ted two years ago when she was the channel executive—in her current role she owns the sellers. She does everything possible to match the customer with the right partner. This has continued to strengthen Lenovo’s partner relationships.

2020 was a year no one could have predicted, says Canestrari.

Her greatest accomplishment was being instrumental in how quickly partners were able to pivot and shift to digital marketing. Within weeks, their entire marketing plans were adjusted.

Caress spent a lot of time in 2020 educating others at Code42, specifically the sales representatives, on best practices in working with the channel. She also introduced Code42 to new partners.

Carlton drove an effort to pivot how the channel sales teams worked with channel partners in a virtual environment. She developed and executed virtual programs to drive channel partner engagement, end-user awareness and sales.

Carnes helped streamline processes and policies to improve the partner experience. With the expansion of her role into distribution, she helped change the rebate policy to improve the profitability of distribution partners.

Rackspace Technology

SVP, Marketing

AireSpring

Lenovo

30

Beth Burnside

Sales Operations Manager

ANM

VMware

NTT

Code42

The NPD Group

Intel

Sectigo

McAfee

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_1-120.indd 6

5/27/21 12:45 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

POWER 100

The IT Solutions Division Of Schneider Electric Honors Outstanding Women We’re thrilled to have eight women leaders from the IT Solutions division of Schneider Electric showcased in Women of the Channel 2021. These incredible women are recognized for their IT channel expertise and vision. They are ambassadors and advocates for our channel partners every day. We continue to be amazed by our #SEGreatPeople.

The Women of the Channel and Power 100 awards reaffirm Schneider Electric’s commitment to empowering women. Schneider Electric is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and is recognized on the Forbes America’s Best Employers in Diversity 2021 List and best in our industry.

Shannon Sbar

”

Vice President of Channels – North America

I’m proud to work alongside so many courageous, passionate women leaders.

This past year, each of these women have demonstrated they are not afraid to be bold, they don’t shy away from challenges and they look for new ways to solve problems to better serve our customers and partners.

POWER 100

Gail Fredrickson

Director, Channel Marketing, Strategic Execution

Paige Neary

National Account Manager

”

Dawn Rundell

Director, E-Commerce, Retail Channel

Leslie Vitrano Hubright

Director, Global IT Channel Programs, Digital Experience

Tina Romero

National Account Manager

Eileen Bishop

National Account Manager

Lovisa Tedestedt Sr. National Account Manager

More info how Schneider Electric Expand YouronPortfolio.

Increase YourisProfitability. Exceed Your committedExpectations. to D&I and empowering women here: Customers’ Learn more at star2star.com.

APC_2021_WOTC_.indd 1

5/27/21 9:17 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Peggy Carrieres

Andrea Carter

Kelly Carter

VP, Global Service Provider, MSSP

Global VP, Sales Enablement, Supplier Development

VP, CFO, Canada

Avnet

Regional Director, Marketing, Northern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Western Europe

Ingram Micro

VP, Worldwide Public Sector Partners, Programs

Carpenter was responsible for redefining Palo Alto Networks’ SerPOWER 100 vice Provider Americas team, integrating the team into the wider Americas’ organization and growing the business year over year.

The rollout of a global sales e n a b l e m e nt organization came after Carrieres identified gaps and opportunities. The organization now provides tools and capabilities that enable customers to design and build anywhere in the world.

Carter spearheaded the c re at i o n o f e d u c at i o n a l content and virtual sessions to provide partners with the resources they need to become trusted security advisers to their customers and better serve them with next-gen Sophos solutions and services.

Carter brought credit and financial offerings to Ingram Micro Canada and established a proactive partner-led approach to providing credit that enabled partner growth. SMB customers in Canada grew 35 percent year over year in 2020.

With Carter’s leadership, 2020 saw 45 percent year-over-year growth in the POWER 100 number of businesses joining the AWS Public Sector Partner Program, representing 73 percent of public sector revenue. New programs helped partners grow 55 percent year over year.

Shauntel Carter

Rowena Case

Ann Cassar

Rachel Cassidy

Sr. Field Operations Analyst

Channel Marketing Manager

Sr. Manager, Partner Alliances

SVP, Global Cloud, Channels

Palo Alto Networks

Commvault

Sophos

Nutanix

immixGroup, An Arrow

Company

Amazon Web Services

SUSE

Carter was able to streamline the Commvault partner experience during the transition to a proposal-based MDF process across all theaters.

She was part of the design and execution of Commvault’s Accelerated Growth Initiative and processes worldwide.

Case’s focus is across the Western Europe channel, OEM and alliances organization. She has been driving efficiency through programs and campaigns and helping partners deliver campaigns in a new virtual world by adapting and opening up new routes to revenue.

Wanda Castelvecchi

Aimee Catalano

National Practice Manager

Director, Global Partner Marketing

Castelvecchi’s team created a series of new customerfacing workshops designed to facilitate better discussions with customers about their digital transformation and how to align technology with the outcomes that their organization desires.

Catalano pivoted Google Cloud’s joint marketing plans with partners to a digital-first format. While this was an intense period for the marketing team and partners, the plans still outperformed against metrics in every global region.

Cates launched WP Engine’s channel sales initiative with AWS in AWS Marketplace along with launching a co-sell motion by being accepted into its ISV Accelerate program. She and her team increased the number of accounts and enhanced market credibility.

Secureworks’ partner program launched in May 2020, and Cauffman was hired to lead the distribution strategy to reach new partners, new markets and gain new customers. She has created a global dstribution strategy that the company is starting to execute.

The channel is a part of everything Cavanagh does: partner marketing content, alliance marketing projects, sales and channel enablement, and internal discussions. Her focus on partner business helps sharpen messaging and effective content across Commvault.

Carola Cazenave

Maria Cerda Dwyer

Kimberly Cesena

Antoinette Chaltiel

Belinda Charleson

VP, Global Partner Ecosystem

Channel Sales Director, Strategic Accounts

Dir., Global Channel Marketing

Vertiv

Intermedia Cloud Communications

Founder, Chairman

Global Channel Marketing Director

Cazenave designed the ecosystem strategy that will fuel the POWER 100 new Pega go-to-market, based on levers of growth including accelerating sales effectiveness efforts, vastly improving delivery capabilities and assuming a partner-centric mentality.

Growing the partner program and developing the partner community is Cerda Dwyer’s priority.

Last year she developed a program that rewards and enables eligible partners to grow tier status and earn rewards when buying through Vertiv’s largest partner.

Cesena created the Intermedia channel vision as the company continues to grow, which includes creating the long-term strategy for recruitment and engagement; building a team of channel marketers; and launching a new channel partner program and partner relationship management tool.

Chaltiel’s goal is to provide forthright guidance and drive Trustifi, a SaaS company specializing in cybersecurity and email encryption, in a profitable direction.

She is looking to increase the breadth of its channel partnerships and the average number of seats per sale.

ePlus Technology

Pegasystems

32

Sandy Carter

Emma Carpenter

Google Cloud

Cassar played a n i nte g ra l role in strategy development, marketing and execution around Arrow’s public sector initiative within the state and local vertical, developing new routes to market and organizational alignment to support a joint ecosystem of channel partners and suppliers.

Ca s s i d y l e d the revamp of SUSE’s new partner program to align with market changes and with partners’ changing business models. She also overhauled deal registration and expanded partner benefits to include MDF.

Cori Cates

Rebecca Cauffman

Sr. Partner Manager

Global Distribution Leader

Mary Ellen Cavanagh

WP Engine

Secureworks

Trustifi

Manager, Solutions Marketing

Commvault

DigiCert

Charleson launched a new channel marketing program for the IoT and PKI segment in October across three regions globally. She also led a team to support channel growth, with major partners experiencing double-digit revenue increases during 2020.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_121-240.indd 1

5/27/21 12:47 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

Schneider Electric And EcoXperts: Committed To Buildings Of The Future The industry-unique EcoXpert™ program cultivates collaboration and innovation across a local and global network of certified partners. Its mission is to share expertise and ignite growth, as together we deliver best-in-class services and solutions to our valued customers.

Jaimie Giarrusso, Director, Global Marketing, EcoXpert Partner Program, was named to The Channel Company’s Women of the Channel list for her fourth consecutive year.

With 20 years in marketing, including the last four years leading the marketing strategy for Schneider Electric’s EcoXpert program, Giarrusso is extremely passionate about the success of her partners and we’re proud of her continued recognition for this work.

Through the EcoXpert Partner Program, partners gain competitive differentiation, increase profitability and grow their business. This global ecosystem of experts is trained and certified by Schneider Electric on EcoStruxure™, Schneider’s IoT-enabled, open and interoperable architecture and platform. As the implementation arms of EcoStruxure, EcoXperts offer enhanced value for customers around sustainability, efficiency, safety and connectivity.

One of the ways EcoXperts achieve this is through Schneider’s Buildings of the Future vision, which allows EcoXpert partners to capture the power of the all-digital, all-electric world. Schneider Electric’s vision for Buildings of the Future is to create buildings that are sustainable, resilient, hyper-efficient and people-centric. With a need to strike a balance between environmental citizenship and operational efficiency, customers are demanding solution providers that offer the ability to deliver tech that meets these needs. It’s critical for solution providers to ensure their customers’ buildings offer safe, comfortable, healthy and convenient spaces for their occupants. Schneider focuses on many aspects to achieve these goals, including maximizing electrification, creating positive energy buildings, ensuring reliable power, improving space utilization, developing healthy workspaces and much more. EcoXperts deliver on all these objectives, making them true enablers of Buildings of the Future.

Buildings of the Future delivers three primary benefits to EcoXpert partners. First, end-to-end portfolio sales is the transition partners take from selling point solutions to what will be a fully integrated portfolio. This strategic growth opportunity also entices partners to become certified in several competencies offered through the EcoXpert program. Second, Buildings of the Future positions EcoXperts as thought leaders, placing them ahead of their competition with highly sought-after competencies as trusted advisors with the expertise to aid in solution implementation and innovation.

Lastly, by embracing Buildings of the Future, EcoXperts will drive heightened demand generation that can significantly boost sales and business growth.

Jaimie Giarrusso

Director, Global Marketing, EcoXpert Program

”

I am proud to be at the forefront of the strategy that is enabling more success for our EcoXpert partners and more value for our shared customers.

Combining the deeprooted expertise of EcoXperts, with the pioneering vision of Buildings of the Future, we are leading the way to achieving excellence in operational efficiency coupled with delivering a superior customer experience. It’s a rewarding and exciting journey.

”

Schneider Electric is committed to solutions that will deliver Buildings of the Future to their customers, and through EcoXpert partners, they are accelerating its delivery.

Learn more about the EcoXpert program here:

Expand Your Portfolio.

Increase Profitability.

Learn more about Buildings of the Your Future here: Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations.

Learn more at https://www.se.com/ww/en/work/campaign/buildings-of-the-future/ star2star.com.

Schneider_June2021_WOTC.indd 1

5/29/21 7:10 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Sarah Chaseling

Surja Chatterjea

Kim Chau

Vivian Chavez

Jennifer Cheh

Sr. Manager, Partner, Alliance Marketing, APJ

Director

VP, GM, Marketing

Sr. Director, Channel Programs

SVP, Marketing

The first global expansion of Metallic, a new SaaS division of Commvault, took place last year. Chaseling led the launch in the Australia/New Zealand region and managed the go-to-market strategies and readiness for partners.

Chatterjea established an API-first partnering strategy around solution integration as a foundation for strategic alliances. She also created #Bettertogether collateral to communicate partnering strategy and executed co-sell and comarketing initiatives with ecosystem partners.

Chau revamped the marketing team to create a marketing POWER 60 SP engine to programmatically generate qualified leads and accelerate opportunities to revenue contribution. She also led the team to implement full-funnel marketing campaign methodology focusing on the customer journey.

Chavez was responsible for enhancing the teaming program, which involved more collaboration with her direct counterparts and messaging to create awareness. The increased partnership opportunities resulted in 89 percent year-over-year growth.

Cheh expanded the reach and awareness of Sharp/NEC offerings with partners, salespeople, design engineers, consultants and end users through online webinars, training, podcasts, panel discussions and virtual trade shows.

Emily Chen

Julia Chen

Katheryne Chester (Pelak)

Marie Cheung-Ong

Commvault

VP, Product Management

Synnex

VP, Partner Transformation, Global Partner Organization

Cisco Systems

Zones

Sr. Manager, Global Channel Marketing

Symantec, A Division of Broadcom

Comcast Business

Chief of Staff, Americas Commercial Channel Sales

Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America

Cheryln Chin VP, Global Partners, Alliances

HP Inc.

UiPath

Because of the pandemic, the printing business was being impacted from a supply chain and revenue perspective. Chen’s team focused on inventory and forecast management to minimize the impact of product shortages.

Chen enabled par tners to achieve higher wallet share and profitabilPOWER 100 ity through accessing new buying centers, developing differentiated business outcome solutions on top of Cisco platforms, and ensuring customer success to increase renewal rates.

Chester has eva n gel ized channel marketing for most of her career.

She engages partners and technical and sales staff globally to ensure that the company’s value proposition is clearly understood and positioned in the channel.

Cheung-Ong collaborated with HP’s channel leadership team to manage increased demand while maintaining strong relationships with partners and employees and launching the HP Amplify partner program.

Chin sponsored and led key investments across the organization to make it easier for partners to do business with UiPath. She oversaw the launch of a new partner portal, allowing for further integration into UiPath’s systems.

Leslie Chiorazzi

Tanaz Choudhury

Lisa Citron

President

Lindsey Christensen

Margaret Chum

Managing Partner

Channel Account Executive

Sr. Global Partner Operations Manager

VP, Worldwide Channel Sales

CMIT Solutions of

Tanches Global Management

Chiorazzi pivoted her MSP from providing IT services to filling the role of virtual CTO. As a trusted adviser, her customers rely on the company to not only support IT issues but to advise on budget, road map, security and more.

Choudhury is passionate about aligning education with entrepreneurship, believing that collaboration is the key to success. With over two decades of experience in business processess, Tanches delivers IT excellence to customers in the SMB, commercial, enterprise and SLED verticals.

Christensen created a community of support for her peers to collaborate across the virtual aisles as traditional on-site engagements became virtual. She participated in several task forces to innovate program offers and promoted a new executive partner engagement platform.

Chum ran different webinars to drive partner awareness and introduced soft-selling skills with virtual training to partners. She was integral to launching the first Virtual Partner Summit and Virtual Partner Kick-Off, driving good attendance rates and garnering positive feedback.

Citron’s focus in 2020 was on helping the channel organization POWER 100 and partners navigate through change by finding new ways of working and new routes to market. She has led efforts to pilot programs that have provided a foundation for how to continue to improve the partner experience.

Amanda Clark

Christi Clark

Kati Clark

Debbie Clasen

VP, Operations

Channel Marketing Manager

Allison Clarke

Global Channel Strategy Manager

Sr. Director, Global Channel Strategy, Programs

Director, Transformation Amplification

Clark worked on channel strategy and execution, strategic efforts, path-to-market analysis and partner profiling. She also assisted in the creation of significant new deliverables, such as partner marketing bulletins to aid partners during COVID-19.

Clark’s team at PlanetOne has been focused on ensuring that partners maintain relationships with their customers post-sale. She has worked to find ways to help partners improve the customer experience so that it leads to more sales in the long term.

Clark’s top two accomplishments this year were creating a curated, boutique firm experience for partners large and small and launching “The Menu,” which serves as a consulting documentation and empowers her to be a trusted adviser and help partners elevate their marketing.

Manhattan, Murray Hill

Lexmark

34

Agari

PlanetOne

Lenovo

CommScope

Thales

F5 Networks

Sophos

Cisco Systems

The revamped Sophos global partner program was at the crux of Clarke’s accomplishments. It maintains the profitability and enablement partners have come to expect from Sophos while expediting the availability of new technology and services to market.

Heading up Transformation Amplification in Cisco’s Global Partner Organization, Clasen is responsible for driving connections across the global partner ecosystem while inspiring and enabling partners and field teams to accelerate transformation.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_121-240.indd 2

5/27/21 12:48 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

Creating A Better Customer Experience Though Strong Partner Programs Q. Mitel had eight women make CRN’s Women of the Channel list, including yourself. What does it mean to have such powerful women driving progress at Mitel?

A. I appreciate CRN’s commitment to acknowledging the contributions of women

in the channel. It’s an honor to be recognized again this year. Women contribute tremendous insights to our industry and connecting with them is valuable.

The depth and breadth of channel expertise across Mitel supports our partner-first approach. The eight women recognized bring a wealth of channel knowledge and years of experience to our programs, strategy, enablement and overall sales engagement.

They have a genuine passion for our partners, and it’s a joy to see my powerful, intelligent colleagues honored.

Q. Mitel’s partner program recently went through a refresh. What’s new and how does it benefit your current partner base and prospective partners?

A. A critical voice in our program is, of course, from our partners. The 2021 program

was developed based on extensive partner feedback while remaining true to Mitel’s unwavering partner-first approach and belief that it’s our job to help them build a profitable business. Central to this year’s program enhancements is clear recognition of our partners’ commitment and investment in sales and technical capabilities to deliver value and satisfy customer needs.

New in 2021, Mitel has introduced augmented program points and recognition for partners who go above and beyond minimum certification criteria to achieve advanced sales and technical competencies. Partners will have a chance to strengthen their expertise through a new Customer Lifecycle Engagement Certification designed to help them in the overall management of customers throughout the customer lifecycle.

The certification focuses on software assurance renewals, retention efforts and supporting customers in their technology modernization initiatives—from ensuring organizations are leveraging the latest release and features to guiding their migration to cloud or subscription offerings. Availability is planned for the latter half of the year.

Q. How does Mitel plan on fostering these partner relationships over the next several months?

A. Our refreshed Global Partner Program makes it easier for partners to maximize

revenue and grow their businesses through deep knowledge that leads to stronger customer relationships. At the same time, we’ll be strengthening our partnerships with further enhancements to the new program during the third quarter.

Lana King

Vice President, Partner Programs, Training and Enablement

”

I value CRN’s commitment to acknowledging the contributions of women in the channel. It’s an honor to be recognized again this year. The eight women on the list from Mitel bring a wealth of channel knowledge, years of experience to our programs and a genuine passion to our partners’ businesses.

”

Partners will be supported with new marketing services and elements to incorporate into their customer experiences. We’ll continue to invest in the overall program with things like streamlined quoting tools, extensions of our Global Partner Interaction Center and program support teams.

Learn more about the MiCloud Connect Partner Managed Expand Your Portfolio. Increase Your Profitability. program from Mitel and get in touch today. https://www.

Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations. Learn more at mitel.com/partners/micloud-connect-partner-managed star2star.com.

Mitel_2021_WOTC.indd 1

5/27/21 3:08 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Debbie Clavadetscher Channel Account Manager

Heather Collins

Katy Collins

Jenna Columbus

Director, Global IT Planning, Operations

Director, Ecosystem Partners, Americas Partner Organization

Worldwide Channel, OEM Programs Manager

Qumulo

Alliance Public Sector Channel Manager 2

AT&T

Insight Enterprises

Clavadetscher met with new par tners to educate them on the ACC Business and AT&T tools that are now available. These tools are aimed at helping partners become self-sufficient in securing services for their customers.

Clayton has expanded an offshore team to support the c o m p a n y ’s global quality assurance initiatives, partnered to create a global development intake model and oversaw quality for a multiyear product master project implementation.

Collins’ team wo r k s w i t h Cisco’s ecosystem partners to create vertical solutions that provide value both to Cisco and the ecosystem partner and are able to solve joint customers’ problems.

Over the past year, Collins has been a critical part of building and introducing Qumulo’s new partner program offerings, including the launch of partner tier levels and benefits.

Columbus has helped advance the company’s public sector channel business by building value in reporting and marketing and driving results. She leveraged her skills to show market trends and the propensity to purchase.

Stacy Conrad

Penny Conway

Cheryl Cook

Ashley Cooper

Stacie Corcoran

Microsoft Partner Alliance Manager

Connection

SVP, Global Partner Marketing

Dell Technologies

Sr. Customer Experience Manager

Global Channel Leader, MSP, GSI Partnerships

Co n r a d h a s increased her contributions to t h e T P x channel in terms of revenue generation and the channel community, working with various organizations and publications to share her opinions on channel matters and those issues important to women.

Conway built proficient Hardwareas-a-Ser vice sellers, with key wins in enterprise and federal segments. She also developed dynamic channel sales content through a “Penny For Your Thoughts” webcast and “Techsperience” podcast.

Cook took the lead in providing stimulus and relief so partners could POWER 100 maximize benefits via digital channels. She also pivoted the organization to create and drive digital enablement partner resources and worked with others to share best practices in a Digital Marketing Forum series.

Co o p e r ’s dedication to surfacing relevant customer insight played a strategic role in the launch and adoption of Auvik’s VPN monitoring functionality in April 2020, which identfied remote workers and ensured they knew how to set up the VPN.

Corcoran launched a comprehensive transformation within ExtraHop’s Panorama Par tner Program. She introduced new global systems integrator and MSP tiers with requirements and benefits designed to drive and reward new resale, referral and managed opportunities.

Lori Cornmesser

Christine Corso

Pam Cory

Mary Coucher

Daniella Coverdale

Channel Chief, VP, Worldwide Channel Sales

Global Channel Operations, Program Leader

VP, Global Marketing

VP, Partner Ecosystem Sales

Global Director, Partner Go To Market

Director, Channel Sales

TPx

36

Melany Clayton

Cisco Systems

Auvik Networks

BitTitan

IBM

AT&T

ExtraHop

CyCognito

JCI/Sensormatic Solutions

Cornmesser’s focus remains 100 percent channel-led and grounded POWER 100 in bringing the best experience to her team, channel partners and ecosystem. She says that CyCognito will grow the channel business from 63 percent to 95 percent year over year.

Corso helped accelerate the North America channel by strengthening relationships, implementing business planning processes, and continuing enablement and recruitment. She also launched the Global Partner Edge 3.0 program.

Cory analyzed marketing and sales incentive programs and implemented a channel marketing strategy to achieve revenue growth for BitTitan and its partners. She expanded connections with channel partners worldwide and championed communications procedures.

Coucher transformed the systems incentive structure for partners in POWER 100 every country, the first time it has been transformed in a decade. She also managed a very large revenue quota, growing the channel faster than the overall business.

Snow unveiled an enhanced partner program in 2021, and Coverdale supported the launch by contributing to the new partner strategy—one that is focused on delivering success throughout every stage of the customer life cycle.

JuliAn Coy

Jennifer Craine

Stephanie Cramp

Larissa Crandall

RSM US

West Channel Sales Director

Cisco Systems

SVP, Global Alliances OneStream Software

Carolyn Crandall

Principal Partner

Chief Security Advocate, CMO

VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances

Two years ago, McCoy led the acquisition of Explore ConPOWER 60 SP sulting, the company that had converted her from an accountant into a technology executive 12 years earlier.

The integration role she has played has dramatically accelerated RSM’s footprint in the Oracle + NetSuite channel.

Cisco is on a journey to move from a n e t wo r king company toward cloud and software subscription revenue. Craine and her team are focused on bridging their respective segments and channel community to help advance this evolution.

Over the past year, Cramp has grown her channel team from six to 18, developed a partner playbook and created a go-to-market, channel marketing and global advisory strategy. Her team has grown the partner ecosystem by 28 percent to over 200 partners globally.

Crandall has oversight of Attivo’s partner programs for channel, intePOWER 100 gration and industry alliance partners. She is responsible for ensuring the partner program is compelling and supported globally, which includes providing supporting resources and tools to incent selling.

Crandall was key to launching the Gigamon Playbook for the channel, building creative demand generation, training and financing for partners amid the pandemic and working with the Gigamon ecosystem to develop go-to-market solutions to accelerate revenue for partners.

Attivo Networks

Snow Software

Gigamon

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_121-240.indd 3

5/27/21 12:48 PM

ADVERTISEMENT

VMware Women Driving Partner-First Motto VMware recognizes 32 outstanding women who exemplify the company’s partner-first culture and continually drive for channel success. We are committed to an inclusive culture and proud of our women leaders who inspire progress for our partners. Four of these leaders were named to the Power 100, representing the most powerful women leaders across the IT channel. Congratulations!

POWER 100

POWER 100

POWER 100

POWER 100

Sandy Hogan

Tracy-Ann Palmer

Tara Fine

Amber McGough

Uma Thana Balasingam

Amanda Banker

Jacqueline Bright

Jude Bull

Kate Canestrari

Kendra DeCoste

Julie Dolan

Joan Fazio

Frances Fortanely

Jodi Frithsen

Yanci Gibson

Kiran Kaloti

Stephanie Ladner

Patti Lewis

Shervita Love

Anna-Maria Loweberg

Susan Nash

Veronique Nurit

Annette Parker

Christy Sparks

Kathleen Tandy

Anna Kate Tobin

Nathalie Turner

Cheryl Vlacilek

Kelly Walker

Kimberly White

Lena Wiegering

Sasha Wright-Neville

Sr. VP, Worldwide Commercial & Partner Sales

Sr. Director, Americas Partner & Alliances Marketing

Director, Lifecycle Services

VP, Global Partner & Alliances Marketing

VP, Partner Programs and Experience

Director, Global Partner Marketing

Sr. Director, Americas Systems Integrators, Systems Outsourcer

Sr. Channel Marketing Manager

Sr. Director for Channels

Partner Marketing Manager

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager, Distribution

Partner Marketing Manager

Sr. Director, WW Cloud Provider Sales/Strategy

Director, Partner Go To Market

Sr Director, Northern European Partners

Sr. Director, Partner Compliance

VP, Partner & Commercial Organizations, Asia Pacific & Japan

Director, Partner Programs

Sr. Vice President, Strategic Alliances

Partner Marketing Manager

Sr. Manager, Lifecycle Services Design Engine

Federal Channels & Partnerships Manager

Sr. Director, EMEA SaaS, Services & Multi-cloud Partners

Director, National Solution Provider Sales

Worldwide Development Funds Manager

Sr. Strategy & Business Transformation Leader

Director, National Partner Management

Sr. Manager, Americas Cloud Provider Marketing

Director, EMEA Partner Programs & Communications

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Marketing

Partner Sales Program Manager, Commercial

Sr. Manager, Worldwide Partner Incentives & Investments

Learn about VMware’s Partner Connect partner program at Expand Your Portfolio.

Increase Your Profitability. www.vmware.com/go/partner-connect Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations. Learn more at star2star.com.

VMWare_2021_WOTC.indd 1

5/27/21 11:39 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Krischel Crawley

Peggy Crespin

Lisa Critchlow

Tracie Crites

Regina Crowshaw

VP, Sales West

Director, National Channels, North America

Director, Worldwide Partner Marketing Programs

Executive Director, Marketing, Sales

Breach Secure Now

Director, North America ISV Strategy, Sales, Programs

Sage Software

Crawley works closely with Nasuni’s partners to help customers solve their enterprise file storage challenges and accelerate cloud and digital transformations. She has a passion for innovation and for bridging the gap between business challenges and customer needs.

Crespin aligned Poly’s strategic initiatives with channel partners’ key priorities to develop joint business plans, which drove revenue growth as well as the expansion of the Poly portfolio. She also leveraged Poly’s ecosystem alliances to drive opportunities.

Al o n g w i t h deploying new partner brand guidelines for all par tnerfacing teams and an external pilot, Critchlow implemented a new partner marketing program framework and processes to create and launch new market-to and -through demand generation programs.

Crites and her team continue to deliver evolutionary and engaging training, security risk assessments and solutions to the channel. Through engagement with partners via coaching and adoption of a new user interface, she has encouraged a culture whose motto is people over profit.

Crowshaw re o rg a n i ze d her team to better align strategic ISVs with company goals. This meant recruitment, on-boarding and relationship management of ISVs that would drive the highest revenue, help accelerate the move to the cloud and cement long-term relationships with customers.

Rachael Crump

Martha Cuevas

Brooke Cunningham

Kelly Curnow

Ana Curreya

Director, Partner Development, Experience

Marketing Director

Nasuni

Poly

Global Corporate Controller, Principal Accounting Officer

Latin America Channel Sales Director

DigitalEra Group

Insight Enterprises

Google Cloud

Area VP, Global Partner Marketing, Experience

Crump has supported Insight’s leadership on key financial decisions in business transactions, all in support of customers, partners and teammates, while ensuring the company meets its fiduciary responsibilities.

Known for her passion for partners and building highperformance teams across Latin America, Cuevas’ objective at Google Cloud is to develop a strong partner ecosystem and create a channel culture through crossteam collaboration.

Cunningham helped create a virtual program for over 9,000 regisPOWER 100 tered partners at .conf20—the largest gathering of Splunk partners. She also helped launch an upgraded Splunk Marketing Hub for partners with new features and functionality.

Curnow led the launch of a new partner relationship management system. F5 transacts more than 95 percent of its business through the channel, so it’s critical to help partners quickly on-board and easily access the resources they need.

Curreya has executed numerous field marketing events through the channel that significantly contributed to sales pipeline and sourced new customers. Developing a strong communication cadence with partners and vendors was the key to success.

Julie Czubinski

Rola Dagher

Camilla Dahlen

Rushina Dalal

Carey Daley

Sr. Sales Manager, Partners Licensing

Global Channel Chief

Global VP, Software Solution Partners

Modern Infrastructure Technical Delivery Manager

Keysight Technologies

Czubinski managed the Renewals Services Division with the transition of RenewVue to support end-to-end renewals management. Partners now can enjoy fully automated renewals by simply placing their initial renewable order with Ingram Micro.

D a g h e r ’s philosophy is “Learn It, Earn It, Return It,” and one of her POWER 100 focuses is returning her experience to the partner community.

Her goal is to build a program that helps partners execute today while elevating their businesses for tomorrow.

Over the past year, Dahlen eliminated silos at SAP to provide clear, structured paths for partners to adopt technology and participate in an ecosystem that delivers innovation to customers.

In 2020, due to the pandemic and the stay-at-home mandate, Dalal and her team focused on being flexible and finding creative ways to deliver the value-added services that customers were accustomed to receiving.

Daley and her team helped in the execution of over 30 joint field marketing activities with key channel partners. They also worked to provide partners with Keysight content so they could run awareness and lead generation programs.

Cathy Daum

Keli Davis

Tera Davis

VP, Strategic Partnerships

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer

Natalia de Greiff

SVP, Global Partner Organization, Go-ToMarket, Scale Partners

Daum helped partners through the pandemic by driving projects POWER 100 to reduce the cost of partnering with SAP, improve their experience and enable remote work.

The result was that the SAP indirect cloud average contract value grew by more than 40 percent.

In her new role at IntelePeer, Davis was introduced to the AT&T organization and sales channel to move ahead with a strategic selling partnership. She worked diligently to build a strong selling foundation and go-tomarket strategy.

Ingram Micro

Dell Technologies

IntelePeer

SAP

38

Commvault

Splunk

SAP

Co-Founder, Co-Owner, Managing Director

Critical Start

Davis has cultivated mutually beneficial relationships with POWER 60 SP Critical Start’s strategic business partners, helping the company increase year-over-year revenue by over 50 percent in fiscal year 2021.

F5 Networks

vCORE Technology Partners

Sr. Field Marketing Manager

VP, Americas Ecosystem

VP, EMEAR Partner Organization

IBM

Since starting in this role in March 2020, De Dobbeleer transformed the internal team by creating a new strategy that focuses on six clear priorities and realigned the team structure to support these goals.

In her role at IBM, De Greiff wo r k s w i t h par tners on hybrid cloud and AI adoption plans. She says that at IBM the ecosystem is the growth engine, global systems integrators are key to the future and resellers develop build capabilities to ensure growth.

Cisco Systems

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_121-240.indd 4

5/27/21 12:48 PM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Leading By Example: How Barco Is Shaping The Modern Hybrid Workplace Q. Barco not only provides technologies that enable hybrid working, but recently adopted a hybrid work model itself. How is Barco navigating its own hybrid work journey?

A. We began bringing our employees back on a rotational schedule in March 2021.

While we’re still learning as we go, we’re confident our hybrid plan will keep our team safe—never having more than 50 percent of employees onsite at any time, heavier cleaning and sanitation, masks and distancing and reengineering our meeting spaces for video conferencing.

So far, the technological part of the transition has gone smoothly. We’ve seen in the last year just how vital having the right collaboration technology is to upholding operations, and we were able to quickly transition most roles to be remote. Likewise, our team has become so accustomed to virtual collaboration and learning new platforms and systems in real-time that it’s made acclimating to the hybrid environment easy.

Q. How can technology enhance collaboration across the hybrid workplace?

A. Video conferencing rooms used to be a coveted space that we had to battle col-

leagues to access. Now, as we’ve become accustomed to video-enabled meetings conducted from our laptops, every room can and should become a video conferencing room, which will be important as organizations embrace a mix of in-person and remote meeting participants.

There’s no way to truly replicate an in-person meeting. However, by leveraging unified communications platforms, meeting room peripherals and collaboration technologies, companies can blend pre-pandemic and modern workstyles. Our ClickShare Conference technology, for example, aligns with all communications platforms and peripherals to drive productive hybrid meetings, enabling IT decision makers to futureproof the workplace while removing participant location barriers.

Q. What are some examples of hybrid work best practices?

A. The hybrid workplace is here to stay, and any organization who has yet to finalize its hybrid work policies needs to do so sooner rather than later. Those plans should include taking a closer look at how to equip the individuals who prefer to work remotely or can complete their tasks without face-to-face engagement with hybrid-ready technologies. For instance, customer relations functions have gone hybrid, and sales presentations and demonstrations often now take place online. In fact, hybrid demos may become the new reality as businesses look to limit travel for health and budget reasons. As a result, these organizations should consider enhancing video and audio capabilities in their customer and presentation centers.

”

Iain Urquhart SVP Americas

Through a technologypowered hybrid work model, organizations can uphold company culture, productivity and engagement while closing gaps that divide on- and off-site employees.

We’re already seeing the benefits of this model within Barco, and we’re excited to translate our learnings into technologies that better serve our partners’ workplace collaboration needs.

”

To learn more about ClickShare and other Barco workplace collaboration technologies, visit www.barco.com/clickshare.

Barco_June2021_HowTo_.indd 1

5/24/21 5:11 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Deidre Deacon

Kendra DeCoste

Lisa Del Real

Keri Delaloye

Laurie DelBene

GM

ViewSonic

Director, Global Partner Demand Generation Programs

VMware

VP, Strategic Partnerships, Avaya Cloud Office RingCentral

VP, Marketing Communications

Netsurion

Director, Risk Management, Controls

IBM

As digital transformation accelerated in 2020, Deacon helped position ViewSonic in hybrid work and hybrid education, which were experiencing the most disruption.

She prioritized partner support and made enhancements to the channel program, helping drive growth.

DeCoste launched a new channel marketing automation platform for partners, grew partner campaign execution on that new platform 41 percent year over year and enabled the channel to reach nearly 2 million incremental prospects through those campaigns.

After signing a partnership in October 2019, R i n g Ce n t r a l and Avaya POWER 100 launched Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral in February 2020.

Bringing together these two organizations involved many stakeholders, and Del Real was tasked with ensuring all involved were given due consideration.

C h a n g e s to the Netsurion team in early 2020 led to Delaloye being charged with new tasks as well as ensuring she was focused on the partner experience and overall strategy for the channel in her own leadership role.

DelBene significantly advanced the channel data analytics strategy and sales process automation. She is also a key financial strategist, guiding IBM’s hardware and software teams to achieve financial growth through 2020 and 2021 incentive program design processes.

Chastity DeLorme

Melanie DelValle

Marcia Dempster

Eileen DeRoma

Nikkia Despertt

Sr. Director, Channel Sales

National Partner Manager

Delivery Operations Specialist

Pegasystems

Ingram Micro

Keeper Security

Veeam Software

Director, Readiness, Adoption, Channel Services

Dell Technologies

DeLorme focused on the redesign of the partner program, implementing a flexible project plan to ensure the redesign succeeds with an aggressive deadline of less than a year. She is also designing a program to evaluate customer satisfaction.

DelValle worked with her team to increase social strategy and help partners successfully navigate the turbulent financial times using Ingram Micro’s financial services. 2020 marked a milestone in technology financing growth with a record year of use and revenue.

In Dempster’s current role, she inherited a number of exceptional sellers. Her first order of business was to get to know them as people and then find out what she could do for them as a leader to help them close business.

DeRoma is an experienced channel professional with a proven track record of building channel relationships with national partners. She now manages a large national partner at Veeam and continues to leverage her outside-the-box thinking in her new role.

Despertt and her team collaborate with services and product groups across multiple lines of business to design services that grow partner profitability, have a simplified resell motion and are complementary to partners’ services capabilities and business strengths.

Alexandra Detweiler

Sandy DeVico

Jessie Devine

Jen Dewar

Nicki Dewhurst

Director, North American Partner Channel

Director, National Accounts

Climb Channel Solutions

Director, Channel Development

Director, Channel Sales

Venafi

Sophos

Detweiler is creating a netnew channel for monday. com, a fastgrowing SaaS company. She is building and leading strategy, executing on her goals and hiring talented channel partnership managers.

DeVico joined Climb Channel Solutions in January 2020, specifically supporting SHI International, where she had worked for 21 years in various roles. In her new position at Climb, she will continue growth efforts with these two organizations.

Although new in her role at The ASCII Group, Devine has already cultivated several new partnerships with members of the channel vendor community.

This has resulted in securing excellent long-term measurable benefits for membership.

Venafi did not have a channel leader for almost a year when Dewar came on board. She spent a lot of time listening and formulating how to jump-start the channel program and has since put together a solid partner strategy.

Dewhurst spearheaded the APJ team’s pivot to a completely digital strategy and engagement within 10 days in response to COVID19. She focused on providing as much information and education as possible to partners to support their business.

Lisa DiGiore

Linda Ding

Meredith Dishman

Mai Doan

Janet Docherty

Sr. Director, Account Management

Sr. Director, Strategic Marketing

Director, Distribution Channels

Sr. Director, Worldwide Partner Marketing

Automation Anywhere

Channel Sales Leader, Australia, New Zealand

Veeam Software

Doan launched demand generation programs including a marketing concierge service, marketing campaign kits, blitz days and an MDF program. She also has been engaging partners through a virtual partner summit and partner roundtables.

Docherty was key to shifting the focus of the company’s Australia/New Zealand channel strategy from regional to national. This was crucial to nurture deeper relationships with channel partners.

The new strategy has resulted in a doubling of revenue for Veeam’s top four partners.

monday.com

40

Sr. Manager, Financial Solutions

The ASCII Group

ConnectWise

Laserfiche

Critical Start

DiGiore formed a new team to provide faster response times on reactive account-related requests, allowing account managers to be more proactive in engaging with ConnectWise partners.

Ding has been evangelizing Laserfiche to key industries including financial services, education, government, health care and manufacturing. She has also supported solution providers through market research, business intelligence reports and strategic partnerships.

In a very short period of time, Dishman has led the execution of Critical Start’s on-demand generation with distribution partners. She has also developed training resources to better serve the distribution channel.

Sr. Director, Marketing, APJ

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_121-240.indd 5

5/27/21 12:49 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Adrianne Douglas

Teresa Dodson

Julie Dolan

Olivia Donnell

Linda Dotts

Sr. Director, Partner Marketing

Partner Marketing Manager

EMEA Sales Director

Chief Partner Strategy Officer

Director, Business Operations

Trace3

SnapLogic

VMware

StorageCraft

Blue Prism

D odson has developed go-to-market strategies and executed campaigns with SnapLogic’s tier-one technology partners—AWS, Snowflake, Coupa and SAP— resulting in 8,000 leads. She also drove $3 million per quarter in partner campaign pipeline.

Dolan has contributed to VMware’s channel strategy by working with partners and building out strategic integrated go-to-market plans, driving pipeline and revenue. She also has supported the marketing strategy and direction for specific VMware offerings.

D o n n e l l ’s primary role last year was to ensure her team was healthy, safe and established in a work-from-home routine.

The team could then focus on partners’ changing needs and consistently supporting them.

StorageCraft managed to not only sustain but also to grow its business.

Dotts and her team are the drivers behind the Technology Alliance Program, allowing participating companies to market their solutions via the Blue Prism Digital Exchange marketplace. Dotts also contributed to Blue Prism’s culture of empowerment by helping found Women in RPA.

Douglas’ top accomplishment in 2020 was building a dream team, staying connected and growing stronger together through a pandemic. Also, with a new NetSuite ERP system, deployed in 2020, Douglas trained others on how to manage business pipelines, operations and customer relations.

Beth Drew

Debbie D’Souza

Kristen Duda

Lauren Duda

Jacqueline Duffy

VP, Strategic Alliances

Sr. Director, Product Marketing

Global Partner Leader

Ping Identity

Sr. Global Program Lead, Connect Partner Program

Drew helped lead the launch of Ping’s Partner Program v2.0, taking it from a one-size-fits-all to a multitiered program. She helped build a worldwide team focused on channel partners’ success and began shifting Ping from a direct sales model to a channelfirst one.

With the complete vision of the enterprise data cloud, Cloudera Data Platform has allowed the company to expand into uncharted market territory over the past year. D’Souza helped partners become enabled and certified on the platform through the partner program.

Intelex was acquired by Fortive in 2019.

In 2020 as the company was being integrated into the new company, Duda was able to get buy-in and investment from the new organizational leadership on the ecosystem vision and strategy.

Duda completed the initial build-out of HashiCorp’s partner marketing function, hiring individuals with specific experience with one or more of their core partner types. By the end of 2020, she and her team were driving significant contributions to the overall marketing pipeline.

Based on her experience in network, colocation, cloud, security and technology brokerage, Duffy can empathize with the roles that trusted advisers, master agents and service providers play. Her goal is always to make their jobs as seamless and painless as possible.

Jen Dunham

Maria Duque

Karin Dushaw

Jennifer Dustin

Paula Dymond

Manager, Global Partner Enablement

Director, Reverse Logistics

Federal Channel Program Manager

Sr. Director, Global Sales Operations

Head of North American B2B, EDU Marketing

VP, Global Channels

Zoom Video Communications

Cloudera

Tech Data

Intelex Technologies

Poly

HashiCorp

Rackspace Technology

Sensormatic Solutions

Logitech

by Johnson Controls

Dunham has managed the facilitation of over 200 hosted education webinars, improved the partner experience by implementing a new partner learning portal and launched Zoom’s first global partner virtual summit, at which there were 1,800-plus participants.

When one of Tech Dat a’s major customers had an issue with a return, Duque assessed the situation and provided guidance to her employees to facilitate a satisfactory resolution. Due to their efforts, the customer gave Tech Data the Partner of the Year award.

In-person meeting and relationshipbuilding all became online activities in 2020. Fortunately, Poly’s business is connecting people, so this approach was easily supported, and Dushaw was able to maintain regular interaction with her partners.

Dustin created the new go-tomarket model including the growth and development of channel teams and partnerships. She provided the direct support partners and channel leaders needed through sales support and resolution teams in North America.

Dymond found new engaging ways to virtually stay connected with channel sellers in 2020.

She also quickly delivered new digital content that illustrated Logitech’s work-from-anywhere story as IT buyers and organizations were looking for solutions.

Traci Easton

Katie Ecklund

Emily Eddy

Tanya Edmonds

Ashley Edwards

Director, Marketing

Director, SI Partnerships U.S., Canada, Latin America

Partner Manager

Cisco Systems

Director, Talent Acquisition, Americas

Nvidia

Eddy grew her account to $1.3 billion in enterprise networking revenue, which was over 37 percent year-over-year growth.

She also achieved 158 percent of plan and won the Sales Champion award, which represents the top 10 percent of Cisco’s global sales force.

Edmonds developed a diversity, equity and inclusion strategy centered around cultivating and preserving an inclusive culture.

She has focused on increasing employee involvement and engagement, celebrating differences through various diversity and inclusion observances.

As the first federal Nvidia channel manager, Edwards creates thought leadership, certified training, a federal sales play and joint offerings for partners and distribution to utilize. With these assets, she has been able to grow the business over 100 percent year over year.

Solutions-II

Easton teams with channel par tners to create innovative marketing campaigns, which transformed from in-person to digital in 2020.

She also works with channel partners to assist in funding Solutions-II’s marketing plans year over year.

Snowflake

Over the past year, Ecklund and her team learned how to work from home, enable partners virtually and still deliver phenomenal results. She has since been able to increase the reach of her team exponentially.

NTT

Federal Channel Manager

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_121-240.indd 6

41

5/27/21 12:49 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jamille Ellingson

Sr. Director, Channel Marketing

Strategic Channel Account Manager

Lead Channel Manager

Sammi Ellman

Paula Enache

Director, Strategic Alliances

IPM

Global Digital Partner Program Manager

The shift to a remote workforce was an opportunity for StorageCraft to POWER 100 highlight one of OneXafe Solo’s differentiators for partners.

Edwards created messaging that connected the dots between partners’ need to best serve the workforce and OneXafe Solo’s ability to be configured remotely.

Ellingson was in a unique p o s i t i o n to provide much of the technical backbone for essential workers through MSP partners. The company enabled people to stay working and helped partners grow their business during difficult times.

Ellis developed and executed on multiple incentive and market development programs, delivered more Sales Performance Incentive Funds to solution providers and drove millions in total contract value for indirect sellers and AT&T business.

Working with channel partners to swiftly and efficiently help customers get prepared to mobilize their workforces during the pandemic was crucial to success. Ellman’s ability to keep IPM visible to vendors, even while remote, was pivotal to her achievements in 2020.

Enache played a key role in developing and implementing new features for the Partner Marketing Portal, a channel marketing automation platform that helps partners generate their business leads.

The portal quickly attracted channel partners and now has several hundred active users.

Sharon Ennis Director, Public Sector

Helene Ervin

Kirsten Esposito

Laura Evans

Head of Global Partner Programs, Operations

Director, Partner Program Office

Global Distribution Program Sr. Manager

Building alliances within partners’ public sector resources has been a major focus for Ennis’ team. Activities in support of this goal were created through leadership engagements, sales enablement trainings and team collaboration.

Based on key feedback from partners, Ervin led the launch of a refreshed global partner program that spanned the entire partner ecosystem. This launch included simplified agreements, new program levels with relevant benefits and a partner portal redesign.

Esposito rebuilt and drove the adoption of the KnowBe4 Partner Program. She was key in strategic decisions to support the launch of the KnowBe4 Partner Portal and two subsequent feature and version updates. She also helped develop the KnowBe4 Partner Sales Evangelist training.

Evans launched the new Poly Distributor Program to enable distributors’ growth in their business with Poly while taking complexities out of the day-to-day business.

She also introduced operational improvements, policy updates and new tools for business enablement.

Amy Fafara

Nicole Faletra

Laura Falko

Lindsay Farah

Lindsay Faria

Director, Channel Events

Head of Global Partner Programs, Partner Marketing Broadcom

Sr. Partner Account Manager

Director, Content, Partner Marketing

Fafara was part of a team that designed and executed a new on-boarding structure for AV distributors and service providers. This strategy was built to be seamless and readily scalable while also helping to expand the service offerings of Jabra’s distribution network.

Faletra represented Pax8 at several virtual channel events over the past year, presenting its offerings to potential partners and speaking with industry leaders. She earned awards and recognition for her communication skills and overall impact on the channel.

As Broadcom acquired the Symantec enterprise business, Falko was tasked with co-developing a worldwide partner strategy for the newly acquired security business and partners including rationalizing the existing Symantec partner ecosystem, toolset and partner program.

Fa ra h g re w her region 336 percent in channel-found opportunities and grew partner bookings 279 percent. She was honored with the first-quarter 2020 award for going above and beyond and in the second quarter was honored for her best practices in working with video and partners.

Over the past year, Faria has led her team in executing several partner enablement and engagement initiatives, provided support for product and service launches to bring new offerings to market, and spearheaded coordination of partner advisory events.

Katy Farney

Stephanie Farrell

Joan Fazio

Jennifer Ferguson

Director, North America Channel Sales

Director, Corporate Marketing

Director, Partner Go-To-Market

Global Director, Partner Marketing, Technology Alliances, Strategic Partnerships

Marlena Fernandez

StorageCraft

Insight Enterprises

Channel Marketing, Distribution

Jabra

Viavi Solutions

For Farney, the pandemic led to a requirement for new territory learning to pivot planned activities and sales meetings. She and her team maintained their focus on partners to understand their needs and capabilities as well as their limitations.

42

Amanda Ellis

Jeannine Edwards

Zix | AppRiver

AT&T

Elastic

Pax8

Thrive

Farrell simplified the process for partners to find and qualify an opportunity.

This allows partners to capitalize on one of the fastest-growing areas within their customer base and understand a customer’s current IT infrastructure to build a technology road map.

KnowBe4

VMware

Fazio was the driver behind V M w a r e’s partner M&A integration program to accelerate time to market for partners and align to partner franchise platform goto-market and route-to-market strategies.

Citrix Systems

BlueVoyant

Ferguson was par t of the team that brought BlueVoyant’s new Microsoft Security Managed Services to market. Her knowledge in working with Microsoft and in cloud marketplaces contributed to the ability to bring these services to market quickly.

Bitdefender

Poly

Barracuda MSP

VP, Marketing

Scale Computing

Last year when the pandemic hit, Fernandez quickly introduced a remote POWER 100 work solution and helped enable partners to make this available to customers. This led Scale Computing to further assist partners with their customers’ buying journeys.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_241-360.indd 1

5/27/21 12:50 PM

FOLLOW CRN ON SOCIAL ®

Real News Right Now — Get Every Update, Every Time

CRN is the #1 trusted source for IT channel news, analysis, and insights. Follow us to: ®

• Be the first to know about breaking industry news.

• Uncover the latest IT channel trends and happenings in real time.

• Network and connect with other CRN followers and industry experts. ®

@CRN

@CRN

@CRNmag

Search “CRN”

508.416.1175 | thechannelcompany.com © 2021 The Channel Company, LLC. The Channel Company logo is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

of 2021 Women the Channel

Maria FernandezQuera

Executive Director, Business, Consumer Solutions

Rosana Filingeri VP, Business Development

Cybersafe Solutions

Addie Finch

Tara Fine

Director, Channel Sales, North, South America

VMware

Canada Channel Chief

Director, Worldwide Partner Operations

Ingram Micro

FernandezQuera has implemented a new metric framework used to track performance at the worldwide level and support the channel strategy. She also enabled teams to analyze new programs from a business intelligence perspective.

2020 became the year of work, live and play from anywhere. Ferullo went the extra mile to help teams and customers lift and shift where and how they did business. It was critically important, and she and her team made it happen.

Filingeri was integral to the launch of a channel partner portal to further enable partner success and created Cybersafe University, a training program for all of the company’s partners.

Finch and her team increased the amount of Tufin’s partnergenerated opportunities year over year. Her team leveraged 2,000 account mapping data points to drive first-time meetings in prospective named accounts.

Over the past year, Fine has spearheaded efforts in Canada to POWER 100 help partners navigate new challenges presented by the pandemic and led extended p a r t n e r te a m s t h ro u g h VMware’s evolving Partner Connect Program.

Ashley Finley

Patrizia Fioretti

Charlene Fischer

Tina Fisher

Alyssa Fitzpatrick

Sr. Director, Sales

Synnex

VP, Channel, EMEA IGEL

VP, U.S. Channel Sales

Xerox

VP, Vendor Management

GM, Worldwide Partner Co-Sell

Finley built strong partnerships in the channel with key vendors, resulting in new leads and opportunities. She also launched an Integrated Advisory Board to promote and strengthen Synnex’s strategic channel partner relationships.

Fioretti’s team was scattered all over Europe and the pandemic had put up many hurdles, but they were able to stand together as one to focus on key objectives: build a solid foundation to safeguard partnerships with a clear focus on a sales-driven growth channel.

Fischer converted a field sales organization to one that effectively POWER 100 managed partner relationships through virtual means. She found ways to stay connected with partners through enrichment webinars and remote marketing and sales strategy sessions.

Fisher helped to quickly migrate and manage D&H’s teams and business POWER 100 practices to work-from-home environments due to COVID-19.

She also took the lead as an executive sponsor for D&H’s Esports and ProAV teams, helping them round out initiatives, partnerships and expansion.

Fitzpatrick last year directed the attention of sales leaders, sales managers POWER 100 and sellers toward a partnerinclusive approach through a drumbeat of learning, partner evangelism, enhanced sharing processes with partners and celebrations of co-selling through awards programs.

Shelly Fitzpatrick

Kathleen Flaherty

Megan Flanagan

Willa Flemate

Randi Fleming

Sr. Director, Channel Services

Sr. Director, Field, Partner Marketing

VP, Sales

Sr. Global Account Executive, Cloud, MSP

F l a h e r t y ’s team focused on partners’ capability landscapes, making sure the right partner had the right skills and was in the right place to meet customer needs.

The launches of Co-Delivery and Proven Partner Services Competencies helped partners stay ahead of the curve.

Flanagan had to completely pivot partner enablement, communications, engagement and demand generation strategies amid the pandemic. She equipped her team with new tools and programs that would help keep Arctic Wolf top of mind with partners and accelerate growth.

Flemate created an Integrated Solutions Advisory Board where each POWER 100 partner focuses on a different vertical market, allowing everyone to be very open and transparent and share best practices. She and her team have been able to add services to drive growth and success with these partners.

Danielle Fletcher

Kathy Flick

Micaela Foley

Erin Foor

Eloise Forbes

Channel Sales Operations Leader

Director, Master Partners

Head of CloudHealth Global Channel Marketing

DOD/Intelligence Community Sales Manager

Carahsoft Technology

Partner Solutions Consultant

Pegasystems

Fletcher developed, drove and implemented channel operations programs and activities in collaboration with channel marketing and sales enablement teams. She also led several successful virtual national events, channel sales operations programs, national sales blitzes and more.

While managing and supporting the majority of Nextiva’s Master business, Flick was key to the launch of NeXus to bolster an increase in partner participation.

She supported partners’ sales and growth initiatives by creating one-to-one relationships.

Since joining the team, Foley has increased channel partner marketing engagement and doubled the size of the channel marketing team. Most recently, she executed the CloudLive Solution Provider Summit, a worldwide event attended by partners all over the globe.

Foor estab lished a BPA Reseller Agent Program that has been adopted by Veritas and implemented across multiple customer agencies and communities. This model opens the door for multiple channel partners to have equal opportunity to work with those government customers.

Forbes has delivered 22 enablement sessions a c ro s s f o u r key partners and coached 15 partner sales teams through various opportunities. She also managed the development of a strategy for a joint go-tomarket model.

Citrix Systems

Channel Sales Manager

Kaspersky

Fitzpatrick achieved success over the past year by quickly adapting to change in the form of moving to virtual events, creating end-user demand generation activities and providing partner training sessions to teach partners to upsell, cross-sell and provide a trusted adviser approach.

Xerox

44

Therese Ferullo

Dell Technologies

Nextiva

Arctic Wolf

VMware

Tufin

D&H Distributing

Synnex

Microsoft

Bitdefender

Fleming managed the partnership between two key channel partners—a remote monitoring and management vendor and a distributor. Both partners not only surpassed their sales goals, but also achieved phenomenal year-over-year growth.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_241-360.indd 2

5/28/21 9:37 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Cindra Ford

Linda Ford

Director, Partner Programs Strategy, Planning

VP, Marketing

Stephanie Ford

Rachel Forke

Mae Forsythe

Director, Strategy, Planning, Global Partner Organization

Channel Leader, Public Sector

Cisco Systems

Splunk

DynTek Services

VP, Vertical Sales, U.S., Caribbean, Latin America

Ford pivoted the channel program to support partners as they dealt with the pandemic and operationalized the transformation of the new Cisco Partner Program.

She also revamped back-end systems to create a better partner experience.

Fo rd wo r k s closely with DynTek sales leaders, the POWER 60 SP technical team and strategic partners to create marketing and sales support plans to develop new offerings, increase customer satisfaction and generate new leads to drive accretive growth.

When the pandemic forced a shift to remote working, Ford supported sales and partners in helping customers adapt. They worked quickly to implement contact centers for hospitals and clinics in a matter of days and modernized schools for virtual communications.

Forke evolved the company’s “Perform and Tr a n s f o r m ” channel strategy, pioneered new and emerging routes to market and consulted on partner programs and incentives, comprehensive partner enablement and a simplified partner experience.

Forsythe onboarded new team members, leveraged a plan to drive partner pipeline activities, focused on partner enablement and worked across an integrated partner team of distribution, channel partners, MSPs and systems integrators.

Frances Fortanely

Tania Fortin

Tania Fox

Gina Foy

Sandra Fraga

Director, Partner Programs

Account Manager

Global Director, Channel Marketing

VP, Global Channel Marketing, Communications

CommScope

Syspro

Cisco Systems

Mitel

Chief Sales, Marketing Officer

VMware

Sherweb

Fortanely was a key project leader in incorporating Ve l o C l o u d ’s partner program into VMware Partner Connect globally. She built out a scalable integration strategy and established a twotier capability to leverage the power of distributors.

Fortin is focused on helping Microsoft Dynamics 365 expert partners build their practices, particularly with respect to leveraging cloud opportunities. She assists partners with sales plays by leveraging different opportunities and promotions from Microsoft.

Fox delivered the global channel strategy and communication plan for internal and external teams, resulting in double-digit revenue growth.

She also designed and implemented the first Rackspace outgoing MDF program for tierone partners.

Foy created a channel marke t i n g a n d communications strategy from the ground up. As part of this strategy, she developed a marketing services and a concierge program for partners and launched partner tools to provided strategic direction.

Fraga worked with her team to equip partners with the training initiatives they need to effectively sell the Syspro product. She has also assisted partners to further align with sales support teams to work on opportunities together, while streamlining communications and simplifying certifications.

Roselande Francois

Shae Frazier

Lisa Frederick

Gail Fredrickson

Shiri Friedman

Director, Workplace Experience vCORE Technology Partners

Sr. Director, U.S. Channel

Director, Channel Marketing, Strategic Execution

Sr. Director, Partner Marketing

OutSystems

Director, Strategic Partnerships, Business Development

Sherweb

Rackspace Technology

Avaya

Schneider Electric

Those partners with 25-plus employees and higher volumes o f m o nt h l y recurring revenue are one of Francois’ target audiences. She has made more of these types of organizations aware of Sherweb and introduced them to the partner program.

As the director of workplace experience, Fr a z i e r h a s implemented human resources function solutions across talent acquisition, on-boarding, benefits, compensation and training in the past year.

Frederick re o rg a n i ze d geographic alignment, including a team to support underserved partners. Her team has a clear path on where their focus needs to be to drive excellence, ignite change and achieve their goals.

Fredrickson’s focus in 2020 was on how to better enable partners. She simplified the opportunity registration program, removing the complex matrix and increasing discounts. This made it easier for partners to utilize the program and increase their profitability.

Fr i e d m a n ‘s leadership re s u l te d i n channel marketing being responsible for a 47 percent increase in new partner applications, a 70 percent increase in marketing enablement and a 50 percent engagement rate across newsletters and webinars.

Jodi Frithsen

Tanja Froehlingsdorf

Madeline Fugate

Liz Fuller

Ashley Gaare

Distribution Account Manager

VP, Alliance Marketing, Strategic Programs

Citrix Systems

SoftwareOne North America

Fu g a t e h a s been coaching and sharing her channel and marketing knowledge with younger talent to develop their leadership skills.

She establishes expectations for her team early, recognizing their value as a team and individually.

Fuller’s organization is responsible for establishing joint value propositions with alliance organizations, which helps the channel to sell solutions, not products.

She also formalized a program to enable partners to develop with Citrix products.

Gaare is responsible for aligning and empowerPOWER 60 SP ing the North American organization’s success.

She leads the optimization of the sales and channel structure and delivery teams supporting the successful execution of solutions and vendor relationships.

Manager, Federal Programs, Partnerships

VMware

Frithsen introduced WWT’s federal team to Carbon Black Federal and created a rapport between them. She also brought over several dozen legacy Carbon Black partners to VMware Partner Connect.

Sr. Director, Global Channel Marketing

Rubrik

Having joined Rubrik only over a year ago, Froehlingsdorf has in that time enhanced the partner infrastructure with new tools, launched new logo incentives to grow partner-sourced new logos and built demand-generating marketing programs.

McAfee

President, North America

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_241-360.indd 3

45

5/27/21 12:51 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jessica Gadbois

Hilary Gadda

Director, Partner Enablement

Director, National Channel Development

Jennifer Gallego

Hope Galley

EVP, Global Sales

Avant Communications

Sr. Director, Software, Services

During the challenge of the pandemic, Gallego helped deliver new sales records with partners such as Zoom and Rackspace. She also led a new model to better support the trusted adviser community with an emphasis on back-office support and engineering.

The motion of recurring revenue requires partners, the customer experience teams and sales to be in lockstep. This is why Galley launched the Lifecycle Selling Initiative with her counterpart to define roles and maximize business outcomes.

TPx

Sr. Director, Go To Market, Cloud, Data Center Transformation

As a product evangelist at Acumatica, Gadbois is the first person to demonstrate software to the channel partners for every Acumatica product release. Her role is crucial given that Acumatica sells entirely through the channel.

Gadda developed and e xe c u t e d a national virtual sales enablement program with an emphasis on sales training versus product training. She also developed regional partner support mapping to ensure deeper local support in the field.

G a g e d rove significant value and market growth by leading goto-market strategy, programs, services and teams. Those efforts included major adjustments to engagement during the pandemic and helping secure transformational customer wins.

Narine Galstian

Angelina Gambina

Akila Ganapathy

Florencia Gannio

CMO

Manager, Specialized Sales

Commvault

Sr. Director, Worldwide Channel Services Strategy

Director, Global Marketing Solutions

Galstian led the rebranding of SADA, repositioning POWER 60 SP it as a leading MSP and Google Cloud partner.

She oversaw channel marketing and strategic alliances, leading the channel initiative with master agents to drive additional revenue.

As Commvault is expanding its portfolio, Gambina has redefined its emerging technologies messaging with partners and alliances.

She focused on expanding market reach and introducing new offerings, delivering opportunity to create deeper partnerships.

As the services “voice of the pa r tn er ” to internal teams, Ganapathy has been instrumental in initiating new programs to scale services through partners with the goal of improving partner opportunity and profitability by enabling this services economy.

G a n n i o developed Ingram Micro’s first global Advanced Solutions branding campaign, which provides the channel with a consistent storyline that is matched by global, regional and country execution.

Katy Garcia

Miriam Garcia Chavez

Beth Gard

Kimber Garrett

Cherie Gartner

Sr. Manager, Partner Public Relations

Head of North America Channels, Alliances

VP, Head of Strategic Partners, Cloud, Infrastructure

Acumatica

SADA

Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing, APJ

Informatica

Mexico Channel Director

Dell Technologies

Insight Enterprises

Palo Alto Networks

Commvault

Axis Security

Cisco Systems

Ingram Micro

Cognizant

In 2020, Garcia brought teams and partners together to relaunch goto-market strategies for global systems integrators, ecosystem ISVs and strategic partners, aligning them to support business priorities in key markets across Asia-Pacific Japan.

Garcia Chavez consolidated a solid channel ecosystem, achieving excellent results not only in sales but also in the channel Net Promoter Score. She also was appointed as a leader for inclusion and diversity.

Gard has s t re a m l i n e d communications across the Global Partner Organization, creating informative and engaging communications aimed at increasing interest in Commvault and Metallic’s overall partner organization.

Garrett built an entire channel program from scratch and persuaded management to become a 100 percent channel organization.

The program is built on simplicity with a focus on professional services and MSSP partners.

Christine Gassman

Maureen Gaumer

Sheena Gaynes

Carolee Gearhart

Diane Genova

Director, Channel Programs

Sr. Director, Global Partner Marketing

Director, Business Development, Partnerships, iTwin Platform

Global Channel Chief, VP, Global SMB Sales

GSI Client Director

G ay n e s h a s built a partner program and increased pipeline through qualification and scoring processes. She also created content and materials to streamline the messaging around partnerships, including the benefits and requirements.

Gearhart worked with par tners to help customers quickly POWER 100 adapt and transform during changing conditions. She fully transitioned partner marketing plans and infrastructure to alldigital, including a fully virtual Next conference.

G e n o v a worked with her team to build a channel program geared toward advancing Nvidia’s largest global consulting partners in the artificial intelligence and supercomputing markets.

Cyberfish

Gassman has been in the IT channel for over 15 years. As the director of channel programs at Cyberfish, she is responsible for building out the company’s global channel strategy and launching to the MSP market.

46

Jonna Gage

Dell Technologies

Gaumer was new to this role 12 months ago, but she has galvanized her team on the mission and strategy and prioritized the partner experience to launch the 2021 Partner Program.

Bentley Systems

Google Cloud

Gartner underwent a change in thinking, acting, building POWER 60 SP and managing partnerships during this new normal to drive a mindset and culture change. She built key programs focused on business outcomes, which has accelerated Cognizant’s ability to innovate.

Nvidia

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_241-360.indd 4

5/27/21 12:51 PM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Solve MSP Market Complications With Cysurance’s 360Protect Q. What are some issues that you’re noticing in the MSP market at present?

A. The acceleration of cyberattacks on small businesses in the past year have high-

lighted how vulnerable these businesses are to significant losses. MSPs have been particularly affected by ransomware, which has led to many insurers dropping coverage for MSPs, resulting in significant rate increases and strong qualification requirements.

Q. Why is Cysurance’s 360Protect a good idea for partners to help deal with these market issues?

A. 360Protect was designed to provide a service guarantee for security products and

services MSPs have deployed to protect their customers from the most prevalent cyberattacks—ransomware, business email compromise, etc. We all know, however, that attacks can still happen despite the best security controls, and 360Protect is there to help cover remediation costs that the MSP or customer might incur. Insurers are also looking favorably at this solution as a means of verifying the security controls in place to provide better policy pricing.

Q. What are the benefits to bundling 360Protect with other partner services?

A. 360Protect covers products that mitigate against a variety of risks, including ransomware, BEC, compliance-related fines and business interruption costs. The purpose was to provide a comprehensive program that matches with comprehensive services with $500K of coverage to support remediation. We have found that this low-cost program bundled with these products creates the opportunity to provide additional value to a customer in a time when there is a lot of concern about cyber threats.

Q. Why should you partner with Cysurance and what support will partners receive?

Kirsten Bay

CEO, Cysurance

”

We offer marketing support, co-branded enrollment portals, click and bind policies and more. Our goal is to help MSPs showcase their services while providing end-to-end risk support to their customers.

”

A. In addition to the 360Protect product, we have a variety of service guarantee and

cyber liability insurance programs that are designed to bundle with MSP services. We offer marketing support, co-branded enrollment portals, click and bind policies and more. Our goal is to help MSPs showcase their services while providing end-to-end risk support to their customers.

Contact Cysurance today! www.protect360.cysurance.com

Cysurance_June2021_HowTo.indd 1

5/24/21 8:38 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Maya Gershon

Jaimie Giarrusso

Chief Revenue Officer

Vade Secure

Director, Global Marketing, EcoXpert Program

With Gershon’s innovative go-to-market strategy, a new set of tools and key peformance indicators, Vade Secure’s channel strategy was restructured on a global scale to focus on MSPs and aggregator partnerships.

Giarrusso leads the global marketing strategy for the EcoXpert Partner Program, responsible for increasing global brand awareness. EcoXpert partners are integral to business growth, and boosting the brand is imperative for visibility.

Carolyn Gluth Head of Education, U.S. Channel

Debbie Gililland

Alvina Glover

Worldwide Channel Marketing

Channel Manager 3

Gililland has developed a partner campaign structure that includes training, sales tools and a demand generation kit. She also built Cohesity Brand-in-a-Box, a comprehensive toolkit to help partners market Cohesity.

Glover began her career with AT&T as a sales rep in the small-business unit selling phone equipment and POTS lines. After winning several sales awards, she is now driving new revenue and new mobility activations.

Tiffany Goddard

Sara Goellner

Wendy Goins

Director

VP, Chief of Staff

Director, Marketing

With Gluth’s lead, Logitech has star ted developing the process to support the channel in the U.S. She has been instrumental in voicing the supply need for education and helping Logitech forecast accordingly and is now working on education-market-focused training, content and programs.

Goddard was a key contributor to sales and marketing planning for 15 new partners added to the CEGIS sales team. She worked to develop sales programs including call coaching, research programs and overall campaign strategy, which resulted in 1,200-plus leads sent to partners.

Goellner leads WWT’s effort to digitize the Advanced POWER 60 SP Te c h n o l o g y Center experience for customers and partners. She aligns sales, marketing, engineering and services teams to represent WWT through its experience, thought leadership and on-demand lab capabilities.

Goins increased marketing funding from key technology POWER 60 SP partners in an effort to drive collaborative marketing strategies—from events to demand generation. Through this effort she has expanded and strengthened strategic partnerships while delivering a regular cadence of marketing activity.

Denise Gonçalves

Sarah Goncalves

Sarah Good

Sarah Goodchild

NPSG, GM, Distribution Sales

Intel

Director, Worldwide Partner Sales

Sommer Goodknecht

Logitech

GPO, Global Director

SAP

Schneider Electric

Sr. Strategy, Business Transformation Leader, Americas Partner, Commercial Organization

VMware

Gibson has realigned the investments and resources in the Americas channel to focus on the company’s most strategic partners.

She also accelerated partner programs focused on adoption of VMware franchise platforms.

Carahsoft Technology

Regional VP

Trox

Cohesity

World Wide Technology

Aqua Security

AT&T

Veristor

Manager, Channel Marketing

Eaton

Gonçalves leads the global program for SAP-qualified partner packaged solutions, which helps partners address the needs and budgets of small and midize enterprises by delivering turnkey solutions that provide project transparency and predictability.

The pandemic caused an immediate surge in the demand for technology by schools as they had to move to a fully remote model.

Despite significant challenges with the supply chain, Goncalves was able to help increase sales while helping schools acquire the necessary technology.

For Good, this past year was all about being able to re-imagine POWER 100 partner engagements to support virtual environments and identifying and supporting new revenue growth opportunities.

She and her team virtually hosted many partners for training and road map planning.

Aqua opened up new markets in Latin America, Russia and the Middle East. Goodchild appointed new channels to give the company scale in regions where it is not physically present, achieving this through distributors that can help identify new opportunities and recruit partners.

Stacey Goodman

Maya Gordon

Sara Gormally

Patricia Gorman

Lisa Graham

Director, U.S. Distribution

Channel Marketing Manager

AlgoSec

Director, Field Sales D&H Distributing

VP, Sales, East

Tech Data

Director, Global Partner Communications

A key accomplishment over the past year for Goodman was to align her distribution team to engage effectively with the inside channel sales team to leverage the reach and scope of the collective organizations and grow the Authorized and Silver partner business.

G ordon has raised the c o m p a n y ’s awareness of the importance of co-marketing activities in engaging channel partners, becoming channel-friendly and fully committed to supporting partners in their efforts to generate success and provide value to customers.

Gormally’s focus is on leading the evolution of business initiatives for D&H’s next-generation partners, including in the public sector.

She has driven the expansion of the business with new customer recruitment and has managed the on-boarding of major new customers.

Eighty percent of Gorman’s top 50 resellers have all embraced some type of next-generation business, including cloud, security and IoT. She created an inside client position that moved SMB performance from an average of 70 percent to an average of 96 percent.

As Xerox pivoted to support channel partners amid the pandemic, Graham’s focus was on developing and distributing timely communications to partners on updates to core programs, virtual sales tools and offerings that could help them help their customers.

Lenovo

48

Yanci Gibson

Goodknecht has dedicated time to ensuring Eaton is learning from POWER 100 partners by gaining input on what they were going through during the pandemic. Her main goal was to be a part of their experiences by maintaining relationships, identifying their needs and providing support.

Xerox

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_241-360.indd 5

5/27/21 12:52 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Rashel Graves

Erika Grande

Tina Gravel

Sr. Channel Business Manager

SVP, Global Channels, Alliances

Director, Channel Operations

Tulin Green

Natalie Gregory

Sr. Director, EMEA Marketing

VP

Grande is responsible for leading a successful sales team within Honeywell’s channel ecosystem.

As the lead channel manager for one of Honeywell’s largest partners, she is focused on building quality, lasting relationships while growing the sales pipeline and revenue.

Gravel created the Sentinel Program, with rewards based around learning and a heavy focus on community. Advisers and analysts have noted that this is something they haven’t seen in the channel in quite a long time.

Graves helped build and execute channel strategy inclusive of organizational structure, hiring and staffing, prioritizing top deliverables and leading a team that completed the design of enhanced channel-centric systems and tools.

A partner-first strategy is the lens Green uses for all activities.

In December 2020, she ran a pan-EMEA Virtual Event for the partner community to share Commvault’s vision and future strategy. Establishing Partner Advisory Councils in each country during 2021 is next on her list.

Gregory worked with partners to create a specialized proactive approach to POWER 100 understand their business model and how Carahsoft can help enable them to sell more.

She also worked with software manufacturers and vendors to enhance their channel programs.

Danielle Greshock Head of Partner Solutions Architecture, ISVs

Victoria Grey

Cristina Greysman

Jennifer Griesinger

CMO

Bamboo Systems

Head of SAP on AWS Partners, Americas

AVP, Solutions Architecture

G r e s h o c k ’s team drives co-building with ISVs on cloud-based solutions and integrations with the AWS platform, providing a seamless end-to-end experience for customers. The team also evangelizes through technical content and speaking events.

Grey launched the Channel Partner Program in the U.S. and the U.K. All of Bamboo’s business goes through the channel, and over the past year she has engaged with leading distributors in key geographies, resulting in signed agreements.

Greysman increased AWS partner capacity in the U.S.-East region by recruiting 30 new partners. She also created and executed on go-to-market plans with partners, resulting in an increase in partner attach rate opportunities.

Griesinger led the creation and execution of the technology road map and strategy for the channel, delivering on three-plus large projects to enhance the Partner Exchange Portal, Support Center and Direct Consumption APIs.

Sarah Griffin

Jackie Groark

Sara Grofcsik

Cindy Grogan

April Gross

Sr. Director, U.S. Sales

VP, Global Alliances, Go-To-Market Solutions

Director, Sales Enablement

Honeywell

Amazon Web Services

Appgate

Verizon Business Group

Commvault

Amazon Web Services

Carahsoft Technology

AT&T

Director, Go To Market, Programs, Global Alliances

VP, Security, CISO

Griffin led the team to enhance the Cloud Service Provider Partner Program. She set priorities around partner simplification, developed ways partners can achieve greater field engagements and laid the groundwork for future benefit structures.

Groark has expanded the c o m p a n y ’s security soluand POWER 60 SP t i o n s services practice to embrace the innovative security products of over 80 vendor partners. Under her guidance, Veristor saw 50 percent growth in 2020 in its security business.

Over the past year, Grofcsik has built an impressive level of trust POWER 100 between partners and her team.

The team built an ecosystem with partners to go to customers as one consultant, not as multiple companies. Her first priority is to make sure partners are successful and supported.

G rogan has facilitated partner enablement and developed marketing programs. She has also implemented strategic initiatives enabling partners to sell and deliver services directly to customers and helps ensure that over 75 percent of Flexera’s business is influenced through partners.

Gross’ achievements included the launch of a global software tool that centralized access to sales content, the rollout of technical sales acumen certifications for all sales executives and the introduction of a professional sales skills program for internal sales teams.

Donna Grothjan

Courtney Grover

Lisa Guess

Felicia Guity

Briana Gulley

VP, Worldwide Channels

Director, Channel Marketing

SVP, Global Sales Engineering

Cradlepoint

Managing Director, Strategic Alliances, GSI Americas

Director, North America Channel

Grover has led the creation of channel marketing messaging, partner customer messaging and go-to-market best practices.

She has also developed partner engagement strategies, improved partner sell-through and created lead generation strategies.

Guess has been focused on having her entire sales engineering team embrace their colleagues as partners. This includes matching field sales engineers with specific partner technologists, including sales engineers from partners, in a regular training cadence.

Guity is an accomplished channel sales, business development executive who delivers on billion-dollar revenue goals. She has a demonstrable record of more than 32 years formulating business strategy, driving organizational transformation and leading process improvement.

Gulley has demonstrated an ability to influence business growth through effective communication and business acumen. She grew Attivo’s channel business 13 percent year over year through focused demand generation and strategic partnership growth.

Dell Technologies

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard

Enterprise company

To better enable partners’ success, Grothjan has led efforts to transform the POWER 100 partner base to enable the delivery of XaaS/NaaS offerings. To do this, she had to change all aspects of the partner operating model, from the partner go-to-market strategy to partner enablement and sales capabilities.

Veristor

SiteLock

Samsung Electronics America

Flexera

Citrix Systems

N-able

Attivo Networks

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_241-360.indd 6

49

5/27/21 12:52 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Mary Hagerson

Director, Channel Sales

Sr. Director, Worldwide Channels Partner Operations

Co-Founder, CEO

Alyssa Hall

Sabrina Hall

Edge Solutions

VP, Marketing, Business Development

CDI

Sr. Director, Worldwide Sales Strategy, Operations

Lexmark

The strategic importance of the cloud and the acquisitions of Nginix and Shape have influcenced Ha’s key channel initiatives. She has enabled partners through new offferings and created incremental channel-led opportunities for the business.

Hagerson has been leading the par tner operational plan for several large projects, including the integration of Silver Peak, which provides SD-WAN offerings, and the development of partner system capabilities to support the pivot to as-a-service.

With Haley’s l e a d e r s h i p, Edge has added 10 new chanPOWER 60 SP nel vendors in the past year. Traditionally, Edge has been focused on data center and storage but now is zeroed in on growing in networking and security in response to customer needs.

As CDI grows, the number of partners it wo r k s w i t h POWER 60 SP multiplies. Hall has helped to stand up its new security practice and on-board over 20 partners in that segment as well as integrate many more partnerships that came with acquisitions.

Hall led many diverse projects that helped further Lexmark’s channel presence and support partners during an unprecedented time.

She also developed the channel strategy and expanded the Lexmark Industry Advantage program worldwide.

Tanya Hall

Terri Hall

Stephanie Hallford

Samara Halterman

Sarah Hamilton

Director, Marketing, Partner Programs

VP, Global Partners, Alliances

GM, Business Client Platforms, VP, Client Computing Group

VP, Marketing

SVP, Marketing

Hall launched a new branding logo and design for POWER 60 SP sister company BriteSky Technologies. This involved working with key partners to be able to tell their story while repositioning the product line, creating brand awareness and focusing on driving new leads and awareness.

In 2020 Hall prioritized and focused o n d e l i ve r ing increased POWER 100 value to the partner ecosystem.

Her team led multiple crossfunctional workstreams to deliver a co-sell program with supporting metrics and tooling as well as a field sales incentive for direct sellers.

Hallford helped launch Intel’s 11th-gen Intel vPro platform with advanced POWER 100 security and AI features. It’s meant for thin and light laptops, is highly mobile and is built with a verified level of experience on battery life, system display and overall experience.

By maintaining close relationships with the partner communit y and sales teams, Halterman was able to continue to foster strong relationships with customers.

Her marketing organization developed and executed on a digital transformation strategy that will drive success in 2021.

Hamilton built a global channel marketing func tion to open the door for Infrascale’s MSP and VAR partners to combine forces and deliver a consistent and compelling value proposition to end users. She also aligned internal corporate groups with partner stakeholders to enable collaboration.

Samantha Handlin

Ouafae Hannaoui

Connie Hanson

Denise Hanson

Tina Hanson

Carahsoft Technology

Director, Field, Alliances Marketing

Open Systems

Sr. Channel Operations Programs Manager

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Sr. Director, Partner Experience

Mitel

Director, Cloud Partner Marketing

Dell Technologies

With Handlin’s l e a d e r s h i p, Carahsoft was able to merge two large sales teams (CA and Symantec) after Broadcom’s Symantec enterprise acquisition. She has on-boarded and trained 20-plus team members to support vendor initiatives across multiple teams.

H a n n a o u i ’s goal is to arm partners with the tools for success. Her chief accomplishment in this effort was developing and launching a partner portal with deal registration, a content library, co-branded campaigns, lead assignment and MDF.

Hanson was key to ensuring the partner program provided the flexibility partners needed in order to adjust to the impact of the pandemic, including flexible financing options, the ability to target markets that were growing and being able to offer as-a-service options.

Hanson was able to hold 100 one-on-one conversations with partners, soliciting feedback on how to further evolve their experiences in working with Mitel. Based on their input, she has implemented several tools that have had an immediate, positive impact.

Hanson helped partners take advantage of cloud and consumption offers. This was done through awareness campaigns and through-partner marketing assets to support customers’ journeys from the top of the funnel to demand generation activities.

Nina Parker Harding

Heather Harlos

Wendy Harmon

Darcey Harrison

Jennifer Harrison

Global Marketing Manager

Assistant VP, Partner Programs

VP, Cloud Acceleration, North America

Sr. Partner Success Manager

During the pandemic, Harmon oversaw the partner team’s transition to fully remote and all-virtual events. She ensured her team stayed engaged and connected and partners had what they needed to help customers maintain business continuity.

Harrison is known as a dynamic l ea der w h o develops highperforming teams and drives results. She has led her teams through mass scale and acquisitions, driving revenue in highly competitive and ever-changing environments.

Harrison was laser-focused on ensuring stability among B a r r a c u d a’s partner base during the global pandemic-driven lockdowns. In addressing the needs of partners both quickly and efficiently, the team achieved a less than 1 percent churn rate.

F5 Networks

Decisive Technologies

Sales Manager

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Red Hat

Global Chief, Partner Program, Strategy

Bitdefender

Harding has been leading the growth of the worldwide ecosystem with POWER 100 Partner Advantage, which is designed for flexibility as to how partners want to build their business. She also has been delivering innovative new offerings and profitable incentives.

Harlos negotiated savings of over $284,000 from various contracts and reinvested the savings into strategic growth initiatives. She also shifted sales messaging from the standard product features and benefits to a thought leadership and enablement approach.

Google Cloud

50

Julie Haley

Rita Ha

Intel

RingCentral

Trace3

Avaya

Infrascale

Barracuda MSP

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_361-480.indd 1

5/27/21 4:03 PM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Customer, Industry Confidence In SentinelOne Clear With 2021 Gartner, MITRE Validation Q. Why is independent security product research so important?

A. Security analysts advise the peers of new customers. Sleep, jobs, money and trust

are lost when a security solution doesn’t perform as expected. With stakes so high and personal, buyers trust their peers and the industry analysts advising them.

Q. SentinelOne was the only vendor to score highest across all critical capabilities use cases. What does this mean, and why should customers care?

A. Gartner’s Critical Capabilities for Endpoint Protection Platforms, a companion to the

2021 EPP Magic Quadrant, ranks each vendor from most able to meet the needs for three common customer profiles, to least. Gartner represents this using three typical enterprise types: 1. Type A organizations, also referred to as “lean forward” organizations, adopt new technologies very early in the adoption cycle.

2. Type B organizations aim to stay relatively current on technology without getting too far ahead or behind their competition.

3. Type C organizations typically view technology as an expense and use it to reduce costs.

SentinelOne is the only EPP solution ideally suited to meet the needs of all three types of enterprise organizations, from the most adventurous and sophisticated to the most conservative.

Q. SentinelOne was recently named a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for EPP. Why? A. The 2021 Magic Quadrant for EPP assessed 19 vendors’ ability to protect enterprises

and innovate intelligently based on expected future customer requirements. SentinelOne is a leader in the Magic Quadrant for EPP because we meet our customers’ needs, we’ve executed a wise GTM strategy, our product-market fit is unmatched and we innovate to keep our customers happy.

Gartner identified several key strengths for SentinelOne, including easy deployment, quality support and effective protection; flexible hosting options to suit all customer types; strong support for containers and serverless workloads, including Kubernetes; and strong MITRE evaluation results.

Q. Can partners confidently share that SentinelOne was the only vendor with 100 percent visibility and zero missed detections in MITRE’s 2020 ATT&CK evaluation?

A. Yes. Published in April 2021, the most recent evaluation analyzed the quality and accuracy

Allison Elizondo

Executive’s Title: Director, Analyst Relations

”

Arming the channel with validation

of SentinelOne’s

differentiators builds confidence and trust in our platform.

Confidence and trust are the foundation of enduring,

”

financially rewarding partnerships.

detections using steps to represent the techniques used by two real threat groups targeting the finance, retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors. SentinelOne was the only vendor with zero misses. Ninety-one percent of our detections were high quality “analytic detections,” and we were the only participant that exceeded 90 percent analytic detections.

Defeating Every Attack. Every Second. Everyday. partners.sentinelone.com

SentinelONE_June2021_HowTo.indd 1

5/26/21 1:33 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Holly Hartman Niedzielski

Laurie Harvey

Colleen Hatala

Janette Hausler

Jabra

Director, Worldwide Channel Sales

Global VP, Partner Marketing, Head of Americas Marketing

Harvey helped reshape the North American marketing organization and took over management of the end customer and channel marketing teams. This unifies two teams under one leader to ensure the best experience for partners and end customers.

Hatala optimized the channel organization during the acquisition POWER 100 integration process and managed a project to migrate over 58 entities to seven. This led to benefits for the most dedicated partners while still allowing others to participate.

Hausler helped evangelize a partner-first m i n d s e t by educating the company on how partner capabilities support company goals, drive partner preference and demand generation, and amplify partner capabilities to customers globally.

Ali Haynes

LouLou Healey

Jennifer Healy

SVP, Marketing, Partner Programs

Sr. Director, Americas Marketing

Sr. Director, Integrated Marketing

Prior to Hayes’ arrival at Absolute Software, there was no partner program, little to no partner training and very little communication to the partner community. She undertook the mission of having the company recognize the contributions partners make.

As the pandemic changed the landscape of how IntelePeer partnered with the channel, Haynes had to quickly pivot to strategies to maintain and strengthen relationships. She encouraged the partner marketing team to think outside the “live event” and how to engage and educate partners.

Healey delivered innovative end-to-end partner-first channel marketing initiatives that allowed the partner ecosystem to continue to create end-user demand during the pandemic. These channel marketing activities helped Commvault achieve some of its highest channel revenue.

Healy’s collaboration with the channel grew considering t h e m a r ke t conditions of 2020. Working with dealers, she introduced the Business Continuity Playbook, which focused on programs, tools and resources addressing new customer challenges.

Susan Hedberg

Rhonda Henley

Mary Beth Henning

Michelle Herring

Sr. Director, Strategic Partner Organization

Sr. Director, Quality, Continuous Improvement

President

Hedberg built marketing plays that adapted to the pandemic, targeting work-from-home users to create an engaging experience.

This allowed her to build more personal relationships leveraging the virtual environments, which led to building mindshare and buyer preference.

I n He n l e y ’s first full year leading the global systems integrator organization, she expanded the reach and drove the relevance of these historically nontraditional partners, resulting in strategic wins in the Americas and EMEA.

Henning helped drive the transformation of the POWER 60 SP services culture from a siloed organization to a cross-functional team. This shift has been driven by initiatives including business analytics, IT service management, quality governance and organizational change management.

Herring has over 29 years of soft ware development and information technology experience. She brings dedication and a passion for what she does to her role as president of CMIT Solutions of St. Charles/Chesterfield.

Brandi Hiebert

Etheria Hill

Kristin Hill

Fiona Hills

Sales Director

Sr. Product Manager

VP, Supplier Services

Sr. Channel Program Manager

ScanSource

Mitel

Hieber t and her team supported partners through the complex and tricky public sector procurement process. They ensured partners had the tools needed to support their customers and add value to OEMs. They also worked with value-add partners in strategic accounts to find new opportunities.

Zix | AppRiver launched the Secure Modern Workplace to transform the channel experience. Hill worked with development teams to define and execute on critical platform work required to enable partners to sell new solutions and provided an easy workflow to upsell customers.

In her current role as vice president of supplier services, Hill is responsible for ScanSource’s Cisco practice and leads a team that is highly focused on the transition to recurring revenue with channel partners.

Hills led the launch of a new hospitality specialization.

With the pandemic many hospitality-focused partners were looking to differentiate themselves. Rewarding them for their investment in sales and technical competencies as well as revenue performance has been a winning combination.

Sr. Director, Partner Programs

Director, Marketing

This past year, Hartman Niedzielski’s team was able to pivot an already successful event business to an even more successful virtual event business in numbers and profit. She also expanded the reach of the Trust X Alliance and SMB Alliance communities.

Har tsell has spent over 25 years working in the channel. In 2020 she joined augmented reality automation vendor Versapay to help build and run a top-notch channel program.

Michele Hayes Area VP, OEM, Channel Marketing, Sales Readiness

Director, Event Marketing, Partner Communities

Ingram Micro

Absolute Software

Channel Account Manager

Lenovo

Carahsoft Technology

52

Karen Hartsell Versapay

IntelePeer

Cisco Systems

Zix | AppRiver

Broadcom

Commvault

Logicalis US

CMIT Solutions of St. Charles/Chesterfield

UiPath

Ricoh USA

Christine Herrmann VP, Finance, Operations

American Digital

Herrmann implemented security- and process-related improvements across the organization that led to its SOC2 certification. She also instituted a remote work policy during the pandemic that ensured employees had the resources they needed to serve customers.

Heidi Hills Director, National Channels

Critical Start

A strident supporter of brand identity, Hills consistently strives to exceed her quota on a regular basis and increase revenue through partner engagement.

This is achieved through her ability to develop several key relationships.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_361-480.indd 2

5/27/21 4:03 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Kristin Hintlian

Sandra Hilt

Christine Hilts

Sr. Director, Channel Sales, EMEA

DMR Channel Executive

ExtraHop

Director, Sales Enablement, Learning, Development

Diana Hite

Michelle Hodges

Regional Area Director

VP, Global Channels

Insight Enterprises

Hilt’s main goal last year was to bring the channel landscape in EMEA to the next level. The key areas of improvement from her perspective were around the partner program, partner incentives and processes.

Hilts designed programs targeted at improving teammates’ sales and technical acumen, focusing on three solution areas.

Additional areas of focus included on-boarding new hires, sales leadership development, career development and social selling.

During 2020, mindshare and alignment were key to building successful partnerships. Hintlian’s team emphazied how to manage MSPs, VARs and DMRs. The team set clear business plans with partners, which enabled them to have the biggest impact on the business.

Hite works with all partners and sales professionals to enable them to excel in next-generation IT sales across cloud, collaboration and communication services.

These include UCaaS, DRaaS, DaaS and CPaaS.

Since joining GitLab last year, Hodges unveiled a value -based partner program, launched a new portal, delivered deal registration functionality, added 400-plus DevOps services partners and introduced professional services certifications.

Amy Hoffman Supply Chain Director, IT Channel

Kristyn Hogan

Sandy Hogan

Yvette Holt

Melanie Holterhoff

Sr. Director, Global Collaboration Partner Organization

SVP, Worldwide Partner, Commercial Organization

VMware

Director, Professional Services

American Digital

Palo Alto Networks

Over the past year, Hoffman helped to add key processes that drove inventory availability improvement. She has developed a team that will help drive Vertiv’s future financial goals.

Hogan grew Meraki Americas fiscal year 2020 revenue by 7 percent and first-half fiscal year 2021 revenue by 11 percent (100 percent channel-led). She also created broad partner enablement, with 5,000-plus partner sellers touched.

Hogan has realigned the Par tner and Co m m e r c i a l Organization POWER 100 to ensure partners play a critical role in delivering customer-forlife value across the connected ecosystem. This has included a cultural shift to embrace a partner-first mentality.

Although officially the director of a group of engineers, Holt’s influence reaches far outside her department—namely, the achievement of a SOC2 certification. This has bolstered the company’s reputation in the channel and with customers.

In her role at Palo Alto Networks, Holterhoff is responsible for project management and the coordinated execution of channel sales enablement, programs, strategic projects and communications.

Tracy Holtz

Aretha Hooks

Michelle Hoover

Liz Hoscheid

Sabine Howest

Sr. Director, Marketing

Director, Marketing

Nerdio

VP, Global Partner Engagement, IoT

Vertiv

Director, Security Solutions

Cisco Systems

Zix | AppRiver

Star2Star Communications

GitLab

Worldwide Channel Project Manager

Tech Data

D&H Distributing

Sr. Director, Global Partners, Alliances

Holtz and her team were responsible for customer enablement, POWER 100 sales and go-to-market campaigns for vendors’ products and services, playing a significant role in accelerating the security business. They also streamlined vendor sales operational processes.

During an unprecedented time, Hooks led a team of creative and resilient marketers. The team quickly transitioned events and programs into customizable, useful short-term opportunities that allowed vendors to quickly deliver content messaging and stay connected with partners.

Hoover is responsible for Red Hat’s cloud partner revenue and channel strategy. In her role, she focuses on the success of Red Hat’s cloud business and partnerships globally. She also has acted as a mentor to help her peers and team develop skills and seek growth opportunities.

Hoscheid launched the c o m p a n y ’s first annual conference, NerdioCon, in January 2021.

She was responsible for securing industry thought leaders and top Microsoft executives to provide informative sessions for MSPs looking to build their cloud practices in Microsoft Azure.

Howe s t l e d international expansion efforts around I oT, n e a r l y doubling the business in 2020.

She also developed four Centers of Excellence, allowing Ingram Micro to build out, operate and deliver pre- and post-sale services as a unified, international team to multiple countries.

Karen Hsu

Chessie Huber

Brenda Hudson

Barb Huelskamp

Casey Huffling

Director, Power, Cognitive Systems Ecosystem

Regional Account Director

SVP, Commercial Sales, Sales Enablement, Learning, Development

Sr. Manager, ISV, Go-ToMarket Acceleration

VP, Sales

Amazon Web Services

Hudson created a go-to-market strategy, sales motion and POWER 60 SP e n a b l e m e nt tools to ignite inside sales for Insight, resulting in both sequential and double-digit year-over-year growth for three straight years and budget achievement.

In her role as public sector partner leader, Huelskamp launched three new programs for partners. These programs offer a provisional path for small and minority-owned businesses into the AWS partner network as well as an opportunity registration program.

As last year presented challenges for everyone in different ways and blurred the lines between personal and professional, Huffling hosted one-on-one skip-level meetings with all of her employees to touch base on personal, professional and career success.

IBM

Hsu leads a team of Power evangelists and sales professionals who focus on the growing Power Systems across all types of ecosystem partners. She drove a simplified pricing model and pivoted her team and IBM’s partners to embrace Power Hybrid Cloud.

Star2Star Communications

In her new role as a regional acount director, Huber was able to take a below-average territory and grow it by more than 80 percent.

She ended up at 134 percent of plan during a very trying time due to the global pandemic.

Red Hat

Insight Enterprises

Ingram Micro

ScanSource

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_361-480.indd 3

53

5/27/21 4:04 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Christina Hyde

Sr. Director, Marketing

VP, Partner Success

Lisa Ignosci

Annalea Ilg

Sr. Director, Federal Channels

CoreDial

Starburst

Chief Information Security Officer

As digital transformation has impacted all businesses, Huntley has evolved her marketing strategies by improving data management practices, creating virtual event strategies, developing digital marketing and social media plans, and implementing lead generation options.

Hyde launched programs that resulted in a more compelling MSP offering and productive enduser environment. By aligning high-value priorities and resources to increase her team’s outcomes, she increased visibility into partners’ businesses.

In the first year of Starburst’s partner program, Ianiorio added four major cloud and platform marketplace listings, driving over $500,000 in revenue. The company’s first user conference, Datanova, resulted in 12 logo sponsors yielding 170 percent of sponsorship goals.

Ignosci is responsible for delivering sales growth across the entire portfolio via an ecosystem of over 3,000 solution providers and distribution partners. She has streamlined the partner experience through certifications and more.

Ilg joined Involta to spearhead a co m p re h e n POWER 60 SP sive security program as the company transitioned from colocation to hybrid IT services. She has led efforts to partner with a top managed detection and response partner, Alert Logic, and create an internal 24x7 Security Operations Center.

Kelly Ireland Founder, CEO

Ashley Irwin

Kenna Ith

Alex Iversen

Maria Jacobson

CBT

Manager, Public Sector Channel, Distribution

Sr. Sales Manager, Global Installed Base Programs

SonicWall

Director, Channel Marketing

FireMon

Sr. Director, Channel Programs, Enablement

CBT’s accomplishments in 2020 were directly based POWER 60 SP on the investment Ireland made in CBT over four years ago, specifically with IoT and OT-IT convergence being the next frontier. This shift in focus paid off by the company being prepared for business needs during the pandemic.

Irwin has made huge strides in the channel business over the past year.

She built the program from scratch over the past several years and, over the past year alone, she drove channel growth by 157 percent and crafted the foundation for a new SLED program.

Ith has been focused on channel partner dynamics and enabling partners to manage recurring revenue after the point of sale.

She has developed, implemented and managed global installed base programs, which are essential to partner success.

Iversen integrated the channel deeper into the greater go-tomarket organizations, including field sales, marketing, business development and technology partnerships. She also engaged field sales alongside the channel to drive opportunities from highest-priority target accounts.

Jacobson was ke y t o t h e launch of the new Engage Partner ProPOWER 100 gram, which includes new specializations and solution hubs to provide additional enablement resources focused on core initiatives. She also has developed new marketing campaigns.

Kimberly Jaecksch

Tricia Jennett

Danielle Jennings

Beth Jensen

Lisa Jensen

Sr. Director, Global Partner Marketing

Director, Worldwide Partner Enablement

Director, Worldwide Channel Partner Programs

Director, Partner Sales, U.S. Public Sector

Synnex

SolarWinds

U.S. Public Sector, Distribution Account Manager

FireEye

NetApp

Chief Marketing Officer

Citrix Systems

Veeam Software

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Involta

Fortinet

Citrix Systems

Jaecksch adapted to the new vir tual environment a n d helped FireEye stay relevant with partners and the public sector community. What started as an uncertain time led to one of FireEye’s best years, especially in public sector.

Jennett enabled par tners to navigate their demand generation efforts through the pandemic. She engaged with partners to understand their needs and launched business continuity marketing programs including social selling kits and digital brand campaigns.

Jennings launched a process to capture and measure Citrix’s ROI for its Strategic Development Funds Program. She also launched a Global Funded Heads Program, allowing Citrix to subsidize individuals within specific partner organizations to drive initiatives.

Jensen led the creation of several key channel partner programs and initiatives that are tightly coupled with the company’s transformation into the XaaS business. These initiatives advance the vision of providing partners choice in how they deliver to customers.

Jensen nurtured partner account teams w i t h i n t wo separate business segments. In a year of cloud transformation, these teams worked with existing and new partners to strengthen relationships and drive commitments to expand Citrix products.

Cassie Jeppson

Kena Jobanputra

Pam Johansen

Cindi Johnson

Kimberly Johnson

Director, North America Channel Programs

Head of SMB Partnership, Japan APAC

Area VP, Solutions Sales Group, Ecosystem

Global Partner Programs Director

VP, Product Marketing

Jeppson excels at finding solutions to problems and enhancing operational efficiencies. With the challenges that came this past year, she focused on introducing processes to better automate the teams’ tasks so they could focus more on strategic elements and professional development.

Jobanputra has gotten many SMB channel par tners to start a new practice with Google Cloud Platform. She also has built the SMB partner team from scratch and grown partner business by over 200 percent year over year.

Johansen delivered a multifaceted partner program that increased bookings and led to double-digit growth. She also contributed to the development of a Strategic Alliance Program focusing on influence, with yearover-year triple-digit growth.

Johnson created and orchestrated the par tner program Tanium launched in 2020, Tanium Partner Advantage. The program enables, recognizes and rewards partners based on a holistic relationship with Tanium and aligns with engagement across the customer journey.

J o h n s o n ’s accomplishments include the successful recruitment of new channel partners, enabling channel sales teams to expand BIO-key’s global footprint and working together with partners on co-branded activities.

Lenovo

54

Jess Ianiorio

Ashley Huntley

Google Cloud

BMC Software

Tanium

BIO-key International

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_361-480.indd 4

5/27/21 4:04 PM

Get Recognized – Sign Up For Award List Application Alerts Sign Up Today!

CRN.com/List-Alerts Managed Service Provider 500 Solution Provider 500 Partner Program Guide Channel Chiefs And More!

©2021 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN and The Channel Company logo are registered trademarks of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jeanette Jones

SVP, Global Channel

Director, OEM, Alliances

Menlo Security

NetGain Information Systems

Cloudera

Johnston grew partnerconnected bookings to contribute over POWER 100 30 percent of the company’s new business in every region. She then studied regional channel models and created a blueprint for a new globally integrated, more scalable partner coverage model.

Jones recruited and hired top talent to ensure Menlo Security delivered on growth expectations. In 2019 her team finished 230 percent of quota, growing the business from $33 million to $76 million.

She also built a pipeline of $178 million.

As president of Ingram Micro’s Trust X Alliance, Jones was in a POWER 60 SP unique position to help Ingram Micro and its vendors understand the needs of service providers. These larger channel partners have great resources that can be shared— they just need to be asked.

Jones manages the marketing relationship between Cloudera and IBM and is focused on developing innovative ways to teach enterprises how they can gain actionable insight more quickly by leveraging the IBM/Cloudera relationship.

Auvik Networks’ focus on events and sponsorship programs was impacted by the pandemic. Jopp pivoted the direction from in-person to online, participating in approximately 15 virtual programs and three live events, bringing in over 10,000 marketing-qualified leads.

Sabina Joseph

Krista Joy

Jennifer Judy

Manager, Channel Inside Sales

Sr. Director, Global Partner Experience

Elaine YoungAe Jung

Belinda Jurisic

GM, Americas ISV Partnerships

Equinix

Amazon Web Services

Lumen Technologies

President, COO

Tracey Jones

Caitlyn Jopp

Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing

Auvik Networks

Field Marketing Manager

Sr. Director, Channel Cloud, VCSP

Poly

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager, APJ

Veeam Software

Citrix Systems

Due to Joseph’s l e a d e r s h i p, the business exceeded all growth projections and 2020 objectives, growing on average 120 percent year over year. She drove partner success and enhanced team engagement through training, enablement and social events.

Before her inside sales role, Joy led a team of partner support managers. Both positions enabled her to impact the indirect channel organization, working with partner support and sales to deliver the best experience for partners and customers.

Judy focused on implementing a digital tra n s fo r m a tion practice to address where the market is evolving. She implemented Poly Partner Journeys that drive behaviors through prescriptive activities that educate, empower and reward.

Jung’s focus was to help partners grow by o f fe r i n g best-in-class support in their go-to-market initiatives. The major objective was enhancing partners’ journeys to align with the digital transformation in the area of marketing.

Jurisic led the expansion o f Ve e a m’s PartnerPerks incentive program to six new countries across APJ, resulting in over 2,600 new transacting partners. She also supported the introduction of new technical and sales online training.

Amy Justis

Michelle Kadlacek

Kam Kaila

Kiran Kaloti

Puja Kandel

VP, Enterprise Partner Program

President

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Marketing

Principal Owner

President

CMIT Solutions of Charleston

Spectrum Enterprise

IT By Design

VMware

CMIT Solutions of West Omaha

With Justis’ l e a d e r s h i p, 2020 was level with 2019 for sales. She was able to grow the company enough to offset the consolidations due to the pandemic. She also completed certification in cybersecurity expertise.

Kadlacek spent an extensive amount of time gathering feedback from POWER 100 partners to improve their experience. As a result, she helped launch a robust serviceability API and added support resources such as a managed services specialist to assist partners with selling managed offerings.

Pa r t n e r s h i p grew to mean even more in 2020, so Kaila initiated ReBuild IT, a cost-forgiveness system that helped MSPs who had to reduce their payroll during the pandemic to ramp back up for business. She also launched Build IT U, an online MSP university.

Kaloti delivered a new channel marketing automation platform called the Partner Demand Center. It enables VMware channel partners across the globe to have easy access to enhanced digital marketing content that accelerates their demand generation efforts.

Kandel’s core strengths are strategic planning and analysis. Since she is the first CMIT Solutions owner in Nebraska, she says it has been a challenge and an exciting time to introduce and grow CMIT Solutions in the state.

Colleen Kapase

Celine Kaprielian

Nadia Karatsoreos

Amanda Karkula

Marcy Kawadler

VP, Worldwide Partner, Alliances

Program Lead, Partner Training

Sherweb

Channel Development Director

Datto

Sr. Channel Sales Manager, West, Canada

Paessler

Global Channel Manager Nuance Communications

Kapase’s team delivered remarkable results amid a global panPOWER 100 demic while helping propel Snowflake into the public markets with its IPO. The team launched the Snowflake Partner Network, including programs for services and technology partners, and is seeing phenomenal scale.

K a p r i e l i a n’s launch of Partner University has been a big step in Sherweb’s commitment to provide value-added services to the channel. Partner University is self-paced, on-demand learning designed to help partners increase their product knowledge and build technical acumen.

K a r a t s o re o s led the effort i n c re at i n g Partner Advisor y Boards for Datto. The Partner Advisory Board is a group of diverse MSPs, brought together with the intent of providing feedback, insight and collaboration to help Datto gain better visibility into what partners need.

Karkula launched Paessler’s first North American channel partner conferences. She also continued to on-board new channel partners and maintain relationships with established partners as well as helping pilot and design Paessler’s newest partner certifications.

Nuance is a key player in conversational AI, voice biometrics and natural language understanding and strives to set best practices around engaging partners for mutual value. Kawadler aims to be a catalyst for bringing the team to a new level of growth.

Snowflake

56

Kelly Jones

Jules Johnston

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_361-480.indd 5

5/27/21 4:04 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Josie Keck

Amiee Keenan

Account Manager

Director, Business Development

Zix | AppRiver

Amber Kegley Director, Sales Operations, Vendor Management

Allie Kelaher

Dangvy Keller

Sr. Manager, Cloud Management Partners

VP, Americas Alliance, Distribution Sales

Rockton Software

TRG

Keck helps partners find the SaaS tools they need to compete and flourish in business today. She specializes in cybersecurity, productivity and compliance and guides prospective and existing customers toward the right solutions for their organization.

Keenan has been focused on creating content to increase website engagement for Rockton Software. She also has worked on boosting attendance at webinars and increasing open and click rates.

Kegley has continued to evolve TRG’s vendor programs and bring visibility internally and externally to all things channel-related. In 2020 her efforts contributed to and supported over double-digit year-over-year growth in hardware sales and vendor incentive dollars.

Kelaher has been focused on strategy development for supporting CloudHealth by VMware’s largest global managed service providers. She has created a seamless success plan to onboard, enable, collaborate with and grow large global MSPs.

Despite all the challenges in 2020, Keller’s team worked to establish the POWER 100 right alliance and distribution strategy to support the overall business and channel partners.

This included making sure Veeam had the right landscape, program and engine to accelerate business and partnerships.

Krissy Kelley

Kathy Kenneally

Janice Kennedy

Danielle Kent

Tanya Kerr

VP, Partner, Field Marketing

Sr. Director, Global Channel Renewal Sales

Director, Channel Sales, U.S. West, Latin America Mandiant Solutions

Director, Chief of Staff

AT&T

B2B Marketing Manager

Cradlepoint

Dell Technologies

VMware

Veeam Software

Kaspersky

FireEye

Kelley led the expansion of field and channel marketing into international regions. She worked with the sales and engineering teams to find opportunities for partners to benefit from the Technology Alliance Program and corresponding marketing launches.

Driving services renewals continues to be a critical area of growth and opportunity for Dell Technologies and its partners. Kenneally’s team designs, builds and executes programs that track and assess the progress of global partner renewals.

For Kennedy, the focus has been on enabling strategic FireEye partners on Mandiant Security Validation messaging and value.

She is building advanced go-tomarket programs to augment partners’ existing solutions with services and technology.

Kent launched new products and services to meet the needs of solution providers’ customers. She is focused on making it easier to sell new technologies, including unlocking revenue growth opportunities in IoT, cybersecurity and wireless WAN.

Kerr’s role in 2020 was to increase brand awareness of Kaspersky as an enterprise solution player.

Through a large number of marketing campaigns, she helped drive this increase in awareness to customers, partners and the market as a whole.

Barbara Kessler

Deborah Kestin Schildkraut

Ying Khang

Stacy Khreis

Muna Khurshid

VP, Field Marketing, Americas

Director, Global Business Development

Ingram Micro

VP, Solution, Services Architecture, Americas

NTT

Global Partner Programs Leader

Amazon Web Services

Global Blockchain Ecosystem, Alliances Marketing Leader

IBM

Barco

Kessler and her team have evolved the APN Program to offer more POWER 100 flexibility and increased benefits.

She introduced a new program structure for ISVs, ISV Partner Path, removing the traditional tiered model for these partners.

Under Kestin Schildkraut’s l e a d e r s h i p, IBM achieved 73 percent year-to-year growth in Business Partner win revenue and 17 percent growth in active partners selling blockchain.

Ying led Barco to develop a series of virtual events, surpassing attendance goals by 148 percent and aiding in establishing Barco as a thought leader. She also led her team to focus on measurable results to make decisions regarding investments.

Leveraging Ingram Micro’s business intelligence, Khreis launched a global program in five countries, resulting in accelerated net-new partner and end-user business growth of over 40 percent.

Khurshid executed NTT’s solutions and services strategy to deliver digital transformation for customers. She transformed the presales team to build softwaredefined, cloud-ready, secure architectures to enable cutomers to compete in a digital world.

Shauna Kief

Carol Kieffer

Lisa Kilpatrick

Tina Kim

Manager, Worldwide Alliance Operations

Manager, Project Management Organization

Head of Inside Sales, SMB, North America

Sr. National Account Manager

Elizabeth (Liz) King

D&H Distributing

Quantum

Kief redesigned the processes by which alliance partners request dealspecific special pricing and gained commitment for process automation. Process redesign increases efficiency for partners and helps ensure visibility and integrity.

Kieffer and her team focused on standardizing processes and procedures.

This helped her group of 10 senior project managers become even more laser-focused on customer relationships and satisfaction and deliver projects on time and within budget.

Kilpatrick strategized with the par tner ecosystem to increase retention, expansion and new business opportunities. The SMB team invested time into partner and distribution enablement, promoting incentives and passing qualified leads to partners.

Kim has been responsible for managing the largest accounts in the Western region for D&H, including many partners in the SLED and federal verticals. She was instrumental in growing her territory 44 percent year over year.

Quantum is transforming itself into a SaaS and solutions company, and POWER 100 partners are vital to that success.

For that reason, last year King created the role of—and hired—a global channel chief. Together, they improved the Quantum Alliance channel program.

Commvault

vCORE Technology Partners

Kaspersky

Chief Revenue Officer

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_361-480.indd 6

57

5/27/21 4:05 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Erin King

Kimberly King

Director, Premier Accounts

VP, Global Strategic Partners, Alliances

Climb Channel Solutions

VP, Partner Programs, Training, Enablement

Kirsti Kirby

Gloria Klug

VP, Vendor Management, Edge Solutions, Americas

VP, Marketing, Sales

Klug created new marketing campaigns that resulted in gaining three new customers in 2020. She also worked on social media accounts and the company website to not only attract new customers, but also new talent.

Spectrum Technology Solutions

Hitachi Vantara

Mitel

This past year, King continued to build relationships and brand awareness with emerging vendor partners. She has also focused on streamlining processes and helped to build bridges between her sales team, vendor partners and customers.

King prioritized choice and flexibility within partner engagements POWER 100 and making it easier for partners to do business with Hitachi Vantara. Deliverables included investment funds and attractive incentives, accelerated deal pricing guidance and automated deal approvals.

King introduced new partner portals to enable partners to more effectively manage customers and their Mitel business. In response to the pandemic, she offered Mitel-developed, self-paced technical training at no cost to enable partners to increase competencies while unable to travel.

Kirby manages the edge vendor portfolio strategy and is responsible for strategic business planning and execution, driving profitable partnerships and programs with vendors to achieve business objectives including partner breadth, depth and entrance into new markets.

Sarah Knauf

Wendy Koh

Marlene Kouba

Susan Kozak

Teresa Koziatek

Partner Account Manager

F5 Networks

VP, Channel, Alliances, Asia-Pacific

CEO

NetApp

Channel Marketing Manager, Distribution

Jabra

MNJ Technologies

Director, Business Development

In spring 2020, Knauf launched a “Get Into Shape” contest for channel partners to promote F5’s acquisition of Shape Security. Later in the year, she helped launch a series, “F5 Cares,” to help employees, partners and customers with the challenges of raising kids during the pandemic.

Koh last year built a trusted n e t wo r k o f contacts— especially with partner executives—to establish strong mindshare. She also organized “COVID Care Packages” and support options to help partners navigate the pandemic. Her team received great feedback for its partner support.

2020 put a fork in the ability to train, enable and separate from the competition in a face-to-face capacity at many channel partners. Kouba was able to create a custom door-drop experience to stay relevant with channel partners and maintain market share.

Many plans and projections for the company and the channel POWER 60 SP needed to rapidly change amid the pandemic.

Kozak immediately addressed what the team and customers needed to quickly adapt and stay safe. Her leadership helped drive 20 percent growth in the past year.

Koziatek leads the Cloudera alliance relationships with strategic global systems integrators. During 2020 her main focus was driving adoption of the Cloudera Data Platform into the customer base by enabling partners to understand the value propositions and differentiators.

Lauren Kozlovsky

Megan Krajnik

Kendra Krause

Jennifer Krystofiak

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations

Director, Partner Communities, Channel Engagement

Elizabeth Kubycheck

Strategic Partner Manager

Trend Micro

BlueVoyant

Sophos

Over the past year, Kozlovsky grew revenue by 40 percent with three of her partners, educated over 250 sales reps at her partners, and increased the amount of new business going through the AWS Marketplace by 30 percent.

Krajnik has created partner marketing materials and overall partner program content that has helped BlueVoyant’s partners more easily understand and utilize what the company has to offer.

Krause has overseen a significant revamp of Sophos’ partner program. To POWER 100 streamline processes and rules of engagement, as well as provide added benefits for partners, the program was consolidated from 17 programs into one foundational global partner program.

Karen Kukoda

Helena Kuly

Kiley Kunkler

VP, Partnerships

Director, Partner Programs, Marketing

VP, New Vendor Lead

Kuly has global oversight of the par tner programs that span channels, verticals and technology partnerships. She is directly responsible for leading the channel ecosystem with the partner program as well as tools and infrastructure, marketing and communications.

In addition to adding a new vendor to the financing program, this past year Kunkler’s network enabled her to deliver business knowledge that helped the company remain agile and keep a pulse on how vendors and partners were dealing with the COVID-19 transition.

SafeGuard Cyber

Kukoda became vice president of partnerships in July 2020. She has completely redesigned the partnership ecosystem to enable a successful 2021 channel strategy. SafeGuard is a 100 percent channel company with three distinct partner types: referral, reseller and strategic.

58

Lana King

Attivo Networks

Wells Fargo

Tech Data

Lenovo

Krystofiak developed a partner enablement program, including selfpaced e-learning sales courses and monthly webinars focused on the how and why of selling solutions. She also launched a program to help channel account managers better enable partners.

Vicki Kwiatkowski

Cloudera

Chief Marketing, Administrative Officer ATSG

Ku byc h e c k ’s approach to driving demand into POWER 60 SP ATSG and partners is through a focus on the entire channel life cycle and by enabling deal registration, sales operations, finance, sales and marketing to work together for better support.

Sarah Kydd Chief Operating Officer

Head of Global Channels

Trox

Amid the pandemic, Kwiatowski adapted to the new world of “Zooming” quickly and engaged with the partner community.

This engagement was in full swing as everyone was working from home, and she was able to deliver strong results.

When remote learning became the norm, sales surged at Trox—an education technology and solution provider that serves K-12 school districts and higher-education institutions.

Accelerating the ability to support this demand became Kydd’s highest priority.

Loqate

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_481-600.indd 1

5/27/21 4:07 PM

The No. 1 Trusted Source for IT Channel News, Analysis & Insight

CRN Delivers: • Unique Industry Intelligence • 360° View-of-the-Channel • Exclusive Executive Interviews

Subscribe Today!

CRN.com/Subscribe

©2021 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN and The Channel Company logo are registered trademarks of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jane Lacy

VP, Life-Cycle Services, Customer Success

Sr. Manager, Worldwide Public Sector SI Partners

Director, Life-Cycle Services

Alyssa Lahham

Kristi Lakich

Global Marketing Director, Cloud

RVP, Channel Sales, West

LeBrecque has demonstrated a passion for building teams that exemplify drive and accountability. She grew her team from two to 11, each member directly involved in on-boarding, life-cycle contract management and renewal projects with key accounts.

Lacy leads a team responsible for the development of joint go-tomarket initiatives with public sector partners. She measures the business based on partner revenue growth, improvement of partner capability and the joint opportunities with partners.

Ladner defines the roles as well as the myriad opportunities for partners within VMware’s Cloud Universal and Success360 offerings. For Cloud Universal, she led the partner workstream and built the partner plan of record.

Lahham is driving tighter alignment between CloudBlue sales and marketing, which has led the team to grow marketing-sourced opportunities by over 8X and resulted in multimillion-dollar deals and a strong marketing impact across the business.

Lakich worked with her team of nine channel managers to be creative with partner engagement. This led the team to offer unique contests, incentives and the hosting of small virtual events using Mitel’s technology.

Erica Lambert SVP, Global Services Sales, Channel, Alliances, OEM Solutions

Kailynn Lambert

Kerri Lampard

Media Landry

Kaitlyn Langer

Director, Marketing, Sales Operations

Area VP, Sales, Security

Sr. Marketing Manager

Davenport Group

Director, APJC Partner Sales, Engineering

Cisco Systems

Lambert helped partners adapt to the many challenges of the pandemic.

POWER 100 Partners provided services that were crucial to keeping their customers’ businesses running, and Dell Technologies offered flexible delivery models, remote services and increased automation.

The pandemic had Lambert and another director leading their teams through many challenges. She expanded her team, created a new department and implemented a fresh marketing strategy to keep Davenport Group successful.

Leveraging the Partner Specialist model let Lampard’s team quickly pivot to support partners during the pandemic. This encompassed simple positioning to solve customer needs when faced with business continuity to how to co-invest to support them.

Landry focused on videobased selling, enabling her team to address the heightened cybersecurity attacks on customers. She helped customers prepare for work from home while keeping sales teams, partners and customers engaged and aware of new threats.

Langer was instrumental to implementing Axcient’s go-to-market strategy through managing the lunch-and-learn series, industry events calendar and the Axcient Partner Advisory Council. She also developed an initiative to further engage with partners.

MeiLee Langley

Terryn Larosche

Betsy Larson

Katrina Lassegard

Kim Lasseter

Director, Strategic Partnerships

SVP, Sales

Commercial Sales Director, Northeast

Director, Global Partner Program Design, Strategy

Aspire Technology Partners

Dell Technologies

Sr. Director, Channel, Field Marketinig

Amazon Web Services

VMware

Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America

Ingram Micro

NTT

Mitel

Axcient

Nextiva

ProActive Solutions

Langley kicked off 2020 by launching CoNEXtion: Nextiva’s Partner Demand Suite of 12-plus demand generation tools for partners. In March, she quickly pivoted Nextiva’s channel marketing strategy and field marketing programs to a virtual environment.

During 2020 Larosche on-boarded numerous new vendors to expand ProActive Solutions’ overall portfolio of vendors for sales reps’ customers. She also worked to streamline certifications and optimize resources bandwidth and expertise.

Larson focused her efforts on ease of business during a most unusual year. She assisted and consulted with partners in relevant vertical markets, providing multivendor solutions, a variety of financial programs and remote sales support and services.

Lassegard helped her team and partners focus on supporting customers through upheaval and change brought on by the pandemic. She highlighted where opportunity existed and helped partners generate new streams of recurring revenue throughout an uncertain year.

Lasseter joined Google Cloud in March 2020 with the opportunity to build and lead a team responsible for partner program design and strategy. Her priorities were to expand the team and focus on ways to evolve Partner Advantage and enable partners to grow their Google Cloud business.

Jennifer Latsis

Merrill Laufer

Renée Lawrence

Jessica Lay

Gwenn Lazar

Americas Channel Enablement Manager

Director, Marketing, Partnerships

Director, Sales, Marketing

Worldwide Partner Program Manager

Billtrust

In joining Nutanix, Lastis is co-leading an initiative to better align the enablement needs of partners as it pertains to their status within the Elevate Program. She is also addressing the unique enablement needs of internal channel sellers.

Laufer is focused on driving alignment between the company’s go-to-market strategy, partners and sales team. Over the past 12 months, she led the marketing strategy for growing its security offering portfolio.

Lawrence has overseen marketing, sales and cusPOWER 60 SP tomer success management for Burwood’s managed services and its as-aservice solutions. She has worked with partners to promote and sell managed services as well as to improve service delivery.

Lay executed partner incentives that generated a 40 percent increase in expanded business for Infoblox and its partners and increased the adoption of Infoblox’s cloud-based security offerings. She also helped transition partner communications to focus on SaaS.

Lazar recently joined Billtrust, where she is tasked with building out a global partner ecosystem by leveraging the business development and partner success expertise she has honed over the past 20 years. She is focused on a resource plan that will support her aggressive growth goals.

Nutanix

60

Stephanie Ladner

Amanda LaBrecque

Freeit Data Solutions

Burwood Group

Arctic Wolf

Infoblox

Google Cloud

SVP, Channel Development

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_481-600.indd 2

5/27/21 4:07 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Sheri Leach

Nanette Lazina

Aurélie Le Hetet

VP, Midmarket Channels

PAN EMEA Partner Account Manager

Sr. Distribution Account Manager

McAfee

Cytracom

Star2Star Communications

As the vice president of midmarket channels, Lazina has transformed SAP’s North America channel by breaking down all silos to increase resource investment, indirect ratio, partner deal registration and annual budget attainment.

Veeam is now managed as a strategic vendor by the two biggest EMEA partners, a direct result of the actions Le Hetet took. She had to work on joint value proposition and plans and find executive sponsors.

Leach launched McAfee on the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace for MSP resellers in 2020. It was a project she had been working on for over two years, and it will bring incremental, no-touch business to McAfee.

Leach helped plan and execute Cytracom’s new partner acquisition strategy through live and virtual events, strategic vendor projects, and ongoing communication and process support for a team of channel development reps.

This ultimately led to over 980 new partner sign-ups in 2020.

Lederer refocused e n a b l e m e nt programs to help partners become more comfortable and capable with Star2Star offerings, bring value to customers and increase their revenue. She set a goal to go from 90 to 65 to 45 days to enablement to help get to revenue more quickly.

Angela Lee

Claudia Lee

Michele Lee

Natascha Lee

Director, Channel Development

VP, Worldwide Partner Marketing

Director, Global Partner Marketing

Jeannette Lee Heung

Tibco Software

Prisma Cloud Channel Director

At the beginning of the pandemic, Lee Heung led a team that was immediately relied upon to support a channel being bombarded by the accelerated need for cybersecurity from customers that had to protect their newly mobile workforces.

SAP

Veeam Software

Terez Leach

Elizabeth Lederer

Director, Channel Engagement

SVP, North America Channel Development

SAP America

Nutanix

Head of Distribution Management, Channel Programs, APAC

Lee has been channel development lead for SAP’s HXM business and partner sales enablement lead.

She has pioneered innovative approaches to driving increased indirect revenue while arming SAP’s most valuable partners with skills, tools and resources.

Lee brought a simplified new partner program to market last year called POWER 100 Nutanix Elevate. It provides a holistic competency-based framework to build the success of the partner ecosystem as the industry shifts to hybrid and multi-cloud solutions.

Lee aligned the team to evolve Juniper’s goto-market with d i s t r i b u to r s and grew the channel business through distribution. She also contributed to the redesign and relaunch of the Juniper Distribution Advantage Program and Deal Registration Program.

Lee has rolled out innovative partner marketing programs to drive pipeline and demand in tandem with Tibco’s most important partners. With partner segmentation, she created a rich menu of compelling marketing benefits tied to partner level.

Maggie LeFew

Lindsey Legacki

Rachel Ler

Michelle Lerner

Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing Programs

VP, GM, APJ

Channel Sales Manager, Americas, South Area, U.S.

During the pandemic, LeFew kept her focus on communic ation, clarity of messaging and building rapport with partners. By establishing cadence and learning resources, partners were able to grow and help influence more opportunities.

Legacki built and rolled out standard channel programs designed to enable the marketing team to easily plan and execute campaigns and digital events with partners to build pipeline, leads and opportunities.

Ler appointed new channel distributors in Malaysia, Philippines, Korea and Hong Kong and focused on growth and profitability of partners with different sales programs and incentives to achieve customer renewal and new acquisitions.

Lerner devloped plans for top focus partners and personnel, customer relationships and sales management. She ensured NetApp sellers and their leaders understood the channel value and where NetApp can assist.

Lesperance built strong sales and marketing alignment, which made a big difference in how the company works together internally and how it engages with partners. This has encouraged dialogue so ideas can be discussed and implemented.

Cecilia Lessard

Holly Lewis

Justine Lewis

Patti Lewis

Karly Li

Sr. Director, Distribution, Channel Sales Operations, North America

VP, Sales Operations, Customer Service

Vertiv

VPt, Worldwide Regional, Channel Marketing

Sophos

Sr. Director, Systems Integrators

VP, Country General Manager, Hong Kong

Lessard has maintained and expanded a strong team to drive 2021 channel sales objectives. With new training, education and operational efficiencies, she has set a foundation to allow sales professionals to focus on the highest priorities.

Lewis provided the leadership as her teams improved demand planning and forecast accuracy. She prioritized inventory against customer orders to maximize output and customer satisfaction and partnered with distribution to streamline processes.

Lewis led the channel marketing community g l o b a l l y to work with partners on how best to pivot to new and creative marketing and customer engagement strategies as an unprecedented and challenging virtual environment unfolded.

When she joined VMware three years ago, Lewis quickly made changes to evolve the team and increase its financial impact. She rationalized the portfolio and brought new skills and updated management systems.

Li drove all of Te c h D at a’s e ve n t s a n d meetings as we l l a s i t s training to online and through social media to help channel partners provide work-fromhome solutions to their end customers.

Channel Manager, Commercial, Public Sector

Flexera

Kaspersky

Veeam Software

Juniper Networks

Commvault

NetApp

VMware

Palo Alto Networks

Mimish Lesperance Director, Americas Channel, Field Marketing

Barracuda Networks

Tech Data

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_481-600.indd 3

61

5/27/21 4:07 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Michelle Liao

Revital Libfrand

Sr. Account Manager

CMO

N-able

odix

Liao’s goal in 2020 was to work with partners on maintaining stability and staying ahead. She met with partners virtually to go over business objectives and worked with them to develop solutions to address and anticipate the needs of their customers.

L i b f r a n d ’s holistic go to-market plan has now become a detailed marketing strategy.

She has empowered channel partners to spread the word of odix’s successes with FileWall for Microsoft 365.

Wendy Sue Linsky Sr. Director, U.S. Channel Sales

Director of Channel, Central

Critical Start

Sue Lim-Brunings

Jessica Lindof

Director, Marketing Operations

Channel Account Manager, Strategic Accounts

Ingram Micro

Unitrends, A Kaseya

Lietzau helped launch Critical Start’s channel program. She recruits and on-boards partners and plays a major role in guiding sales reps to conduct account planning with channel partners in an effort to build, sustain and grow its multimillion-dollar pipeline.

Lim-Brunings led efforts that helped save Ingram Micro and channel partners time and money.

Working across her team, she increased performance, facilitated growth and restructured areas to improve outcomes.

When partners and customers suddenly went virtual last year, Lindof pivoted very quickly and created several fun and unique trainings, customer-facing virtual events and grass-roots campaigns.

Lena Lisitskaya

Grace Lo

Kate Lochrie

Trish Lombard

Dynabook Americas

Sr. Manager, Partner Transformation

Pegasystems

Global Director, Business Development

Cisco Systems

Sr. Manager, Worldwide Partner Programs

Citrix Systems

Distribution Channel Account Executive

Linsky continued to build the Preferred Partner Program and created specialized education-focused SKUs to address Chromebook shortages. Dynabook has collaborated on various milestones with Intel and Microsoft, enabling design teams to develop forwardlooking products.

L i s i t s k a y a ’s role is to drive partner-centric transformation as Pega transitions from being a primarily direct-sales organization to a partner-powered one. She has established a management system, ensuring executive alignment and driving tangible progress against milestones.

Lo has been focused on helping the partner ecosystem transform and capture the new opportunities from as-a-service and recurring business, especially addressing the needs of joint customers to consume solutions as a service during the pandemic.

Lo c h r i e l e d various netnew channel partner program launches across new and strategic routes to market. These new channel partner programs will impact Citrix’s overall channel sales growth.

2020 proved to be a year of flexibility. Lombard accepted several challenges during the year, stepping up and filling additional roles and responsibilities. In each role she achieved the goals of building relationships and expanding Lenovo’s footprint with business partners.

Melinda Long

Lynne Lopez

Leslie Lorenco

Shervita Love

Donna Lowe

Federal Channel Account Manager

Channel Account Manager

Veracode

Americas, Director, Channel Sales

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

Networking Channel Director, West

Long has been focused on core partner revenue growth and on the launch of a large national partner in the DOD space. She has fostered relationships with targeted emerging partners and developed business, training and marketing plans to help them thrive.

Anna-Maria Loweberg

FireEye

62

Katy Lietzau

Company

Lenovo

Puppet

VMware

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Lopez has contributed to Veracode’s national public sector business through creating consistent SLED sector pricing and driving promotional incentives designed to expand Veracode’s footprint. Her work with MSP offerings has also led to significant growth.

Lorenco revised the Americas’ go-to-market course and refined the POWER 100 distribution strategy. She implemented a two-tier distribution process for Latin America and South America and rebuilt the North America channel team.

Lo ve wo r k s with distributors to develop marketing plans that will achieve revenue goals. She effectively leverages every allocated marketing dollar, reactivates inactive partners and grows the partner base.

Lowe rostered par tners to field channel professionals, giving each team member a unique opportunity to be individual contributors. By focusing on growing Medallion partners, she helped her team finish 2020 at 105 percent of target quota.

Becky Lozada

Amy Luby

Daniella Lundsberg-Steele

Synnex

Chief Channel Evangelist Acronis

Rosemary LugoGross

Sr. Director, Partners, Northern Europe, Middle East, Africa VMware

Director, Cisco Services, Software

Channel Director, North America Genesys

American Digital

Loweberg led the transformation of the par tner ecosystem in her region from a transact and deploy focus to a “customerfor-life” approach. She ensured collaborative interlock within VMware and also partner to partner.

Lozada was a key part of the Synnex Comstor leadership team in 2020 when it received both Americas Distributor of the Year and Global Distributor of the Year from Cisco.

Her team contributed by driving significant channel partner growth.

Luby oversaw a channel engagement plan specific to building a global community engagement initiative. She established a process to engage external communities and develop relationships with those entities and the partners involved.

As leader of the ConvergeOne par tnership, Lugo-Gross was responsible for contributing to Genesys’ overall channel success and the 185 percent year-over-year channel business growth. The partnership also drove creative enhancements to the Genesys partner program.

VP, Marketing

LundsbergSteele nurtured American Digital’s relaPOWER 60 SP tionship with HPE leadership and the global marketing team. Working with HPE and the marketing team has led to the highest level of marketing certification with HPE.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_481-600.indd 4

5/27/21 4:08 PM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

Verkada Moves Physical Security To The Cloud Q. What can you tell us about Verkada?

A. Verkada is one of the fastest growing physical security companies in the world.

We’re backed by many top venture capital firms, and our last fundraising round valued us at $1.6 billion.

Q. What has led to Verkada’s success over the past year?

A. Although 2021 was a hard year for many companies, Verkada achieved significant

growth as more IT teams moved away from on-premise infrastructure for physical security and took a cloud approach. Our hybrid cloud model is the future of enterprise security because it is easy to install, smart and scalable. Our architecture has enabled us to quickly launch AI features in our software management platform like People Detection, License Plate Recognition and Site Lockdown.

Matt Gidney

Director of Channel

Verkada’s Hybrid Cloud Architecture

” Q. What role does the channel play at Verkada?

A. Verkada is a 100 percent channel company. While we generate significant demand via our own marketing and outbound efforts, every dollar we generate must go through one of our channel partners.

Channel partners also have a significant opportunity to gain a greater share of wallet with their existing customers since the protection of people and assets is a top priority for most organizations. Lastly, we have a deal registration program for our channel partners that offers pricing advantages on any opportunity brought to Verkada.

Cloud based physical security is a massive market opportunity for channel partners that already sell to IT teams.

”

Q. Do you need to have sold physical security before to sell Verkada?

A. Not at all! We have a co-selling model, and we do everything possible to equip your

team to sell our products.

Watch our Demo and Get In Touch with Our Team Today https://www.verkada.com/webinars/crn

Verkada_June2021_HowTo_REV.indd 1

5/24/21 5:14 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Bonnie Luton

Sarah Lynette

Melissa Lyons

Lisa Ma

Director, Sales Operations

Regional Channel Manager

Partner Managed Solutions Portfolio Director

Lutz is key to aligning and empowering the North American organization for success. She is leading the change in how SoftwareOne views relationships to anchor its partners—current and future. She is also driving diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout the organization.

Lynette’s focus is on driving the annuity strategy for Arrow’s Enterprise Computing Solutions business.

With the help of Arrow’s digital transformation team, she has developed methodologies to support channel partners and suppliers in managing their recurring revenue streams.

With a newly launched partner program, Lyo n s a c t i vated existing partners and drove enablement under the new authorizations.

She and her partners built joint go-to-market plans to further accelerate engagement.

At SAP, Ma has an annual por tfolio of solutions that total over $30 million in revenue a year. She was awarded the largest yearover-year growth cloud partner manager in 2019 and in 2020 was recognized for the largest cloud solution extension deal.

Megan Mackh

Karyn MacKie

Mary Leigh Mackie

Head of Global Partner Programs

Chief Marketing Officer

Christine MacLaughlin

Leslie Maher

Director, Global Telco Partnerships

Arrow Electronics

One of Luton’s focuses this year has been on building a POWER 60 SP stronger bridge between TeraMach’s distribution partners and her team, leveraging their strengths to augment the company’s own and offering tools to help streamline processes.

TeraMach Technologies

SoftwareOne

AvePoint

Google Cloud

Cohesity

Mackh grew the telecommunications partner ecosystem, adding five significant new partners in EMEA and APAC, expanding the Google Cloud Platform practice to include four additional strategic partners, and expanding coverage in Latin America.

MacKie oversaw channel initiatives and the go-to-market model decisions for the Data-Management-as-aService launch with two delivery options, enabling partners and customers to choose the model that aligns with their business.

Mackie drove three messaging campaigns for MSPs, backed by endto end partner go-to-market kits and fully automated partner on-boarding. She also led the launch of AvePoint’s new security product into channel marketplaces.

Aisling Mahony

Kristy Malatia

Director, Partner Marketing, EMEA, Latin America

Director, Human Resources

MNJ Technologies

Danielle Maldonado

Mahony has launched digital partner demand generation packages supported with financial incentives for Platinum and Gold partners. She also initiated a new range of channel communications, including the EMEA “Channel Executive Lounge.”

OutSystems

Chief Marketing Officer, Partner Ecosystem

IBM

SAP

VP, North America Partners, Inside Sales, SMB

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Bringing new b e n e f i t s to partners, simplifying their experience, POWER 100 contemporizing the PartnerWorld brand and building the pipeline have been the key focuses for MacLaughlin over the past year.

In response to the pandemic, Maher spent time engaging with partners POWER 100 in one-on-one sessions and roundtables. She stayed connected with partners and understood their needs for business continuity and how to best support them.

Regina Maletick

Leigh MaliziaCarlson

Director, Education Services

Sr. Director, U.S. Public Sector Channel

Malatia has an instrumental role in the company’s climate and culture, which was more challenging during the pandemic. She has implemented a wide range of initiatives from sales incentives, non-sales recognition and professional development activities.

When schools closed because of COVID-19, Maldonado’s education team mobilized on a strategy to transition 50,000 students to full distance learning. From Chromebook distribution to system supports for student technology, her team went above and beyond.

Maletick changed the approach to certifying partners on the solutions they are selling while aligning partners to field sales team initiatives. By linking the sales organization with the channel team, she drove synergy with demand generation activities.

During the pandemic, Malizia-Carlson had to identify new ways to maintain relationships while not being able to meet face to face.

She quickly found new avenues of communication and came up with fun alternatives to in-person meetings.

Erin Malone

Peggy Maloney

Cindy Manley

Michelle Marchand

Doreen Marchetti

SVP, Americas Sales

Sophos

Director, Channel Programs, Marketing

VP, Operations

Sr. Regional Alliances Manager, Northeast

Global Knowledge

Malone led several channel initiatives across the Americas, one POWER 100 being a sales reorganization that created three new segments: SMB, midmarket and large enterprise. Other accomplishments included the Sophos Rapid Response launch and growth of MSP Connect.

Maloney developed a go-to-market s t rate g y to bring sales, marketing and channel together.

She also created a comprehensive plan for each territory, ensuring proper use of available funds as well as ensuring field efforts were focused on driving increased revenue through the channel.

Informatica

64

Hadassa Lutz VP, Transition, Transformation, North America

VP, Business Alliances

Tintri, a DDN Company

Ricoh USA

Advizex Techologies

M a n l e y s t re a m l i n e d the order entry p ro ce s s f o r POWER 60 SP product orders so it is integrated within Salesforce. This was something she has been working to improve for years and was finally able to build it out in a way that works for all involved.

Riverbed

Okta

Since coming on board, Marchand has spent time with the partner community in the Northeast.

Her focus has been on making it easy for partners to do business with Okta and offering specifics on where to place Okta in their security offerings.

Sr. National Channel Sales Manager

ExtraHop

VP, Channel Sales

Marchetti joined Global Knowledge, which provides professional development and IT training to organizations worldwide, in June 2020. She now leads, inspires and educates a team of enterprise sales managers.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_481-600.indd 5

5/27/21 4:08 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Dena Marean

Laura Markovich

Sarah Marsh

Annie Marshall

Hayley Marshall

Director, Channel Strategy, Enablement

Director, Sales

Manager, Productivity Solutions

In the first half of 2020, Marsh led mobility partner programs and significantly grew channel business for Verizon Business Group.

In the second half, she led its channel strategy and helped launch a new centralized channel organization to support all partners and segments.

Integrating Carahsoft into a vendor m o d e l t h at traditionally has had partners buy direct has been Marshall’s main focus. She has also worked to sign on new partners who will bring value to the vendor sales team and contribute to lead generation.

Marshall moved into a new role for a new department in March.

While remote, she built a team of 12 highly skilled consultants, enabling them to empower partners through the pandemic. Her leadership and the team’s efforts helped produce Pax8’s two highest revenue months.

Aziliz Martinez

Felicia Martinez

Jacinta Marum

Product Marketing Specialist

Director, Channel Sales

Channel Inside Sales Manager

Martens spearheaded an initiative to drive near100 percent of midmarket and enterprise customers to execute through the IBM ecosystem throughout the Americas. This launch was a significant sign of confidence in the ecosystem.

Martinez introduced BeMSP, a French MSP software distributor, to Liongard’s director of channel to expand Liongard’s product to the French market. She also helped MSPs and channel players to understand what Liongard is and provide a better way to communicate.

Martinez has played a key role in developing teams and programs around activating new and dormant channel partners with the goal of increasing the number of indirect sellers and growing revenue for Lumen’s indirect channel business.

Marum grew her inside sales team from eight to 14 people, with three of those hires being strong women. Four of these five positions were expansion roles to grow the partner base in Lenovo Data Center Group.

Stacey Marx

Susan Marx

Ilona Masche

Anna Masters

Michelle Matosian

VP, Channel Legal

Director, Central Europe

Mitel

Global VP, Platinum Resell Lead

Sr. Partner Program Manager

Channel Development Manager

Director, Sales

Marean’s role is one focused on driving revenue via go-to-market solutions with Microsoft. She has culminated all of her experiences and more into being a force multiplier as a co-sell expert within the Microsoft partner ecosystem.

In 2020, Markovich on-boarded 19 additional team members to support existing and future customers in leveraging data as a strategic asset in response to the pandemic. She enabled team members to work with marketing on a virtual learning series.

Susan Martens Global Managing Director, Ingram Micro

Ensono

IBM

President, National Business, Channels

AT&T

Carahsoft Technology

Verizon Business Group

Lumen Technologies

Liongard

Dell Technologies

Carahsoft Technology

SAP

Pax8

Lenovo

Red Hat

Marx invested an immense amount of resources to grow the chanPOWER 100 nel. She stood up Centers of Excellence to provide life-cycle support and created COVID-19 response command centers for real-time support of priority orders during the pandemic.

Marx has engaged directly with par tners to assess their business needs and suggest practical process changes, such as contracts and go-to-market initiatives, that increase velocity and allow them to increase profit potential.

M a s c h e launched the first vir tual Mitel channel partner trade fair, “Mitel Expo.” She used a third-party platform integrated with the company’s MiTeam Meetings solution. She then helped drive the strategy into other regions.

Masters launched an SAP Partner Advisory Council that represents SAP’s ecosystem across all geographies. This critical sounding board has enabled SAP to understand and act promptly in response to partner challenges and helped steer priorities.

Matosian launched an emerging technology partner program for the midmarket space, which greatly increased and diversified the portfolio of enabled partners, boosted partner and sales collaboration, and contributed significant channel revenue.

Lorraine Maurice

Amanda Maxwell

Gina May

Jennifer Mazzanti

Dawn McCale

Global Partner Ecosystem, Midmarket Marketing Sr. Director

Channel Programs, Marketing Manager

Strategic ISV Alliance Executive

CEO

VP, Sales

As the world was upended

by COVID-19, Maurice delivered pipeline and revenue growth through digital marketing, demand generation and advanced skills training programs for 3,000-plus SAP partners across the globe.

Maxwell played a critical role in the launch of Zix ’s Global Partner Program. By understanding what motivates partners, she has defined programs that allow them to secure their customers, reduce costs and complexity and grow their business.

May led the effort between Pega and Cisco to create joint solution capabilities of Cisco Webex Teams and Pega’s Platform Technology for “Collaborative Care Management” to health-care companies amid COVID-19 restrictions.

Mazzanti launched a hiring initiative that prioritizes POWER 60 SP multiple language skills in the hiring process for technical positions. The initiative supports immigration, diversity and higher education while building a staff that provides better customer support.

McCale’s sales organization achieved record growth POWER 60 SP in 2020, growing its revenue number by 34 percent year over year and accounting for over 70 percent of the company’s revenue.

SAP

Zix | AppRiver

Pegasystems

eMazzanti Technologies

Trace3

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_481-600.indd 6

65

5/27/21 4:09 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Oanh McClure Partner Sales Manager

Wendy McCoy VP, Product Management

Katie McCroskey

Anne McCullough

Director, Knowledge Management, Partner Training

VP, Strategic Partnerships

Director, Channel Marketing, Partner Experience

Eze Castle Integration

McCormackMoon executed a major overhaul of the FortiRewards program. Prior to this year, the program was limited in scope.

By collaborating internally and externally, she transitioned it to a fully integrated, globally supported rewards program.

M c Co y w a s focused on maintaining the trust of her customers while helping them navigate changes in the technology infrastructure of their service. She painted a vision of the future and, through careful relationship management, retained their business.

McCroskey has enabled hundreds of partners via e-learning, onsite custom training and thought leadership presentations. She regularly meets with partners and partners’ customers to educate them on privileged access management best practices.

M c Cu l l o u g h began her new role at Spor tsdigita in March 2020.

She has since created a channel sales program from scratch and negotiated and on-boarded 28 partners in one year—with many more in the pipeline.

Brenda McCurry

Jessica McCurry

Madison McDaniel

Nicole McDonald

Jessica McDowell

VP, Supplier Services

Sr. Manager, Global Distribution

Keysight Technologies

Partner Marketing Specialist

Wasabi Technologies

Executive Director, Client Development, B2B Technology

Synnex

McCurry and her team last year quickly aligned programs and resources to support partners in their day-to-day business. She created educational programs to build awareness about growing vertical markets and solutions.

McCurry maintained stability in the distribution program despite the pandemic and continued to evolve initiatives into virtual engagements. Distributors pivoted quickly and efficiently to provide Keysight with opportunities to engage with reseller and alliance partners in unique ways.

McDaniel launched a new program for Wasabi’s technology alliance partners with automated on-boarding and implemented a similar program for distributors and their resellers. She also drove the pivot from an in-person event strategy to virtual, which resulted in over 50 virtual experiences.

As a leader of the client development team for the B2B organization, in the past year McDonald has helped clients track and understand the effects the pandemic was having on their business within the channel and how to capitalize on the pockets of growth that emerged.

M c D o w e l l ’s team adapted quickly to deliver innovative tools and platforms. She enabled and educated the partner ecosystem during a challenging time and launched new vendor partnerships that drove revenue growth—all from a new workfrom-home environment.

Christine McElduff

Louise McEvoy

Crystal McFerran

Amber McGough

Tania McIntosh

VP, U.S. Channel Sales

Americas Channel Director

Trend Micro

CMO

Sr. Director, Cloud Provider Sales MSP

Director, Worldwide Partner Programs

McElduff set the vision and developed a new strategy around partner business plan creation, execution and measurement. This centered around three foundational pillars: alignment, enablement and demand generation.

McEvoy focused on three people building the MSP, NCP and channel proPOWER 100 grams. These segments were growing and had huge potential—and so did the people running them. She was their “coach,” and two were promoted and a third moved into a visible role within sales.

McFerran had a key strategic leadership role in helping achieve growth objectives for The 20. She developed strategies for member acquisition and engagement, enhanced The 20’s brand equity and furthered its reputation as an innovative, partner-centric MSP consortium.

Over the past year, McGough doubled the MSP portfolio of services and POWER 100 scaled consumption across a range of managed service provider segments: asset-heavy and asset-light cloud providers, telco MSPs and systems integrator MSPs.

McIntosh has been the lead in evolving the partner program this past year: leading governance and compliance, adding specializations to the program, and better aligning incentives to the company’s imperatives and channel team goals.

Carol Ann McKeown

Shari McLaren

Heather McLarney

Lisa McLin

Kaye McMillan VP, Transformation, Americas

McMillan is responsible for directing, managing and coordinating POWER 100 strategic transformation activities on behalf of the Americas Executive Board. She provides leadership to a team responsible for various strategic initiatives.

Zscaler

McClure has been laserfocused on the growth and professional development of her team. She has also established channel programs infrastructure, increased partner profit margins and delivered comprehensive partnership methodology.

ScanSource

Palo Alto Networks

Fortinet

SVP, Operations

Sportsdigita

Thycotic

The 20

The NPD Group

VMware

Director, Regional, Channel Marketing

WatchGuard Technologies

Chief Marketing Officer

Corsica Technologies

Global VP, Channel, Alliances

During a challenging year, McKeown partnered with the channel to equip it for digital marketing in the new virtual environment. She enabled new ways of marketing and trained the channel with monthly marketing-structured learning sessions.

Following the acquisition of Panda Security, McLaren was instrumental as WatchGuard quickly pivoted to adding Panda’s products to the WatchGuard price list and enabling availability and purchase through WatchGuard’s global channel.

McLarney has extensive experience in the technology and healthcare industries, responsible for leading marketing activities including branding, communications and go-to-market strategy.

She started her new role at Corsica in February.

With McLin’s l e a d e r s h i p, the Global Pa r t n e r s h i p Organization exceeded operating targets by over 180 percent due to global transformation with a focus on global partner enablement, sales enablement and onboarding new alliance partners.

Viavi Solutions

66

Lisa McCormackMoon

Rackspace Technology

VP, Business Development

F5 Networks

Tech Data

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_601-720.indd 1

5/27/21 4:11 PM

How To

Succeed

by Seeing the Whole Story

ADVERTISEMENT

AppRiver Delivers Next-Level CloudBased Partner Offerings Q. When choosing a vendor, what factors into the decision and what makes a vendor the right fit?

A. When it comes to vendor selection, a vendor with a wide range of services is a must,

but partner enablement is where it’s at. Partners need a vendor who is willing to go beyond white papers and co-brandable content and truly partner with them on client acquisition, sales training and their company’s goals.

Q. How has AppRiver succeeded in serving its partner base over the past year?

A. In the past year, our partners have taken advantage of our expert driven Master

Class series, which focuses on MSP specific sales, marketing and business intelligence.

Partners have also leveraged our VIP Marketing benefit to build reliable and repeatable lead gen. As the longest-running Microsoft CSP, our partners have also recovered tens of thousands in rebates, training dollars and marketing incentives with our one-on-one MPN consulting services. Aside from enabling our partners’ business growth, AppRiver also brought to market the AppRiver Cloud Backup and Recovery service after the partner-driven acquisition of Cloud Ally.

Q. What is AppRiver Cloud Backup and Recovery and why is it important for partners to offer strong cloud-based data backup?

A. In short, the AppRiver Cloud Backup and Recovery service is an answer to the need

for resiliency and increased use of cloud services. It’s also meant to address our partners’ lack of choices within the vendor space for integrated and easily recoverable backups that go beyond the mailbox. Customers are under the assumption that their cloud-based services are secure, safe and redundant, but recent attacks on SolarWinds and Microsoft have shown even the largest and most-secure platforms in the industry are not immune from being targeted. Customers need education and more importantly, resiliency.

Q. What can you tell us about what is in the AppRiver partner program pipeline in the coming months and how will it benefit partners?

A. We’re doubling down on what got us here: Phenomenal Care. Historically our

Justin Gilbert

”

Senior Director of Channel Marketing

Attackers and bad actors only need to get it right one time.

MSPs need to get it right every time.

The vendors an MSP partners with to combat the threats their customer face are not only critical to their customer’s security, but to the partner’s own business.

”

Phenomenal Care model had everything to do with a support. Our sales model was designed to make our partners look like rock stars. Now, our channel marketing team is taking that same approach and reaching out to partners with introductions to leading marketing and sales consultants and bringing pre-built marketing plans to the table along with funds to help partners accelerate their growth.

Test ride our partner benefits today. Get a free MPN consultation, security audit and a business review: https://zix.com/amplify/msp/

Zix June2021_CRN How to.indd 1

5/24/21 5:15 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Amy McNew

Grainne McQuaid

Director, U.S. Field, Channel Marketing

Leader, EMEA Partner Development

Xerox

McNew led her team to quickly pivot in-person events to virtual amid the pandemic. She identified key commonalities to expand programs across multiple regions to attain broader reach and worked across internal teams to standardize communications.

McQuaid has maintained the investment in Marketing as a Service, which is a targeted initiative to help partners transform their business generation and digital marketing tactics. She also implemented a full package of support for partners as a response to the pandemic.

Lindsay Medeiros Sr. Manager, Global Partner Marketing

Shavonn Mealing

Amy Medeiros

Micro Focus

Partnership, Channel Sales Director, MSSP, VAR

Netsurion

SVP, Corporate Marketing, Inside Sales, DDN and Tintri

Mead negotiated a number of key initiatives to grow partnerships 25 percent. In her new role, she has built a new global team focused on expanding key alliance security partnerships, resulting in 140 percent first-quarter attainment.

Mealing has focused on on-boarding and enabling key strategic channel partners across North America, including large MSPs and MSSPs as well as large technology resellers and distributors.

She helped partners achieve year-over-year revenue growth by identifying new opportunities.

Medeiros encouraged creativity to “change the game” to meet business initiatives while having fun. Under Tintri, her team implemented a new channel SPIF program and virtual partner and customer events including a “Laugh and Learn” featuring a comedian.

Lamia Megdiche

Carilu Melander

Nickell Melo

Denise Mendez

VP, Partner Strategy, Programs

Director, Partner Marketing

Global Programs, Optimization Manager

Sr. Manager, Americas Channel Operations

Having to pivot to a vir tual work environment gave Medeiros an opportunity to develop a new digital go-to-market strategy that begins with BitSight’s value to partners as well as themes and programs that incorporate global campaigns.

Megdiche enhanced and simplified the Partner Advantage Program POWER 100 with competitive, rewarding win, growth and performance incentives. She also streamlined partner tier requirements for higher tier achievement and lucrative benefits.

During the pandemic, the company’s partner marketing team under Melander’s direction contributed to triple-digit growth when it comes to all hosted activities and content created.

Melo develops, leads, implements and executes incentive strategy that aligns to strategic goals and promotes ease of doing business.

She also engages with incentive and profitability vendors to gather, document and manage rollout strategy.

Mendez has been focused on Citrix’s cloud subscription journey, providing support to sales and partner account managers, as well as partners and distributors. Due to the pandemic, a big part of the business in 2020 was driven by business continuity planning and work-from-home.

Jamie Mendez

Tina Mentschik

Gina Merjanian

Sophie Merrifield

Debra Merritt

Sr. Channel Manager, Austria

GM, U.S. Inside Sales

Sr. Director, Vendor Launch Pax8

Commercial Channel Marketing Manager

Palo Alto Networks

BitSight

VP, Global Ecosystem Transformation, Programs

Commvault

VP, Worldwide Security Alliances

AppDynamics

Intel

Poly

DDN

Citrix Systems

Pegasystems

Dell Technologies

Mendez joined Pegasystems in September 2020 and by the end of the year had successfully built the Pegasystems Partner Program team and the road map for program transformation.

Mentschik increased the total number of Dell Technologies medal partners as well as added netnew partners. She also increased partner satisfaction compared with the prior year.

M e r j a n i a n’s team increased customer coverage in 2020 by 25 percent, ensuring a broader scale of support to Intel’s partners. She also improved overall communication to partners to ensure they understood Intel’s role to help them and their customers get back to “normal.”

Merrifield enhanced Pax8’s vendor launch experience and introduced new vendors and products to its line card. Leveraging processes, relationships and stakeholder management, she on-boarded new solutions while automating existing workflows.

Merritt led the field marketing team at Epson America, providing goto-market strategies for the newly formed channel. This provided exceptional value, leading dealer engagement and activation to increase 75 percent year over year.

Rachel Meuser

Sarah Meyer

Stephanie Meyers

Kathleen Meza

Michelle Mezger

Head of NSP Channel

Director, Channel Sales

Director, Worldwide Channel Communications

Director, Partner Program Operations

Manager, Central Region Channel Sales

For Meuser, it was incredibly difficult this last year to manage POWER 100 the channel as she had in the past. She was, however, able to grow the business and continue fostering relationships while at home, without a single customer visit.

Meyer led a sales team that consistently overachieved targets and was responsible for eight Titanium partners. She also drove partner involvement in Dell Technologies’ U.K. partner-first strategy and participated in a feedback and advisory forum to evolve Dell’s partner program.

Meyers scaled the presence of a partner success story to include inclusion on various corporate social channels and exposure with multiple plays during the global partner event. Thinking big allowed her to expand the reach in ways never done before.

Meza’s pro gram team designed the Dell Technologies Partner Program, collaborating with partners throughout the process.

Listening to partners was key to transforming the program, and the latest design leaned into simplifying how partners engage with Dell.

Mezger leads a team of channel managers who exceeded company expectations in fiscal year 2020, despite the pandemic. This was aligned to key imperatives such as channel-driven pipeline creation as well as partner contribution in high-growth areas.

Logitech

68

Tracey Mead

Dell Technologies

Citrix Systems

Dell Technologies

Epson America

Palo Alto Networks

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_601-720.indd 2

5/27/21 4:11 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Cyna Milinazzo

Jaya Milam

Global Partner Content Strategy Manager

President, CEO

Poly

Sr. Technical Program Manager

KMS

Mikulsky did a co m p l e te refresh of Poly’s partner newsletter content and established proper list segmentation, which led to an increase of 40 percent in open and click rates monthly.

M i l a m p ro vides design, development, implementation and commissioning for various audo/visual projects that range from media rooms to auditoriums and video survellience.

During the pandemic, M i l i n a z z o ’s role was not only to maintain growth goals but provide greater value and application of the company’s technologies. She sustained business in the channel and grew it 20 percent over the previous year.

Millard kickstarted a campaign to connect global alliances sellers to partners, including increased accountability and clearer roles and responsibilities. She added resources to advocate and facilitate program capabilities with partners.

Miller used her channel connections to keep customers POWER 60 SP supplied with the technology they needed quickly when switching to a remote workforce. As a womanowned business, she earned certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise through WBENC.

Robin Miller

Laurie Mitchell

May Mitchell

VP, Partner, International Marketing

SVP, Global Marketing

iboss

Maryam Mohammadi

Sukhmani Mohta

Director, Channel

Helping to grow IoTSSA’s channel community over the past year has been Miller’s biggest focus.

She has brought on board new vendor sponsors, content contributors and MSP members.

With Mitchell’s l e a d e r s h i p, Wasabi’s channel strategy is a “better POWER 100 together” story with technology alliances to add value for the channel. Wasabi partnered with over 350 technologies to make it easy to add Wasabi as an affordable cloud storage solution.

The iboss SASE Cloud Platform is designed for partners looking to build POWER 100 a profitable recurring revenue model. Mitchell launched a partner program offering opportunity protection, training, tools and demand programs to drive new business growth and renewals.

Mohammadi worked with manufacturer partners to set POWER 60 SP up successful marketing programs that provide excellent ROI. She thinks outside the box to develop promotional items and programs with these partners to strengthen customer relationships.

Sara Monaco

Roisin Monaghan

Cathy Moncayo

Robin Montague

Global Lead, Software Partner Marketing

SAP

Director, Partner, Channel Marketing

Cohesity

Global Partner Account Director

Monaco has continued to build relationships with partners in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Canada to lead the North America team as the highest deal registration producer.

Monaghan was part of the core team that developed, built and launched SAP Endorsed Apps, providing partners a path to monetize their applications and bring value to SAP customers.

She also developed skill sets and career development opportunities for junior team members.

M o n c a y o ’s goal when she joined Cohesity almost t wo years ago was to lead and grow the channel marketing team. She started by managing two strategic partners and was promoted 18 months into her career to director to lead all partner and channel marketing in North America.

The impact the pandemic had on Montague’s ability to mesh with channel partners was significant.

The adjustment from weekly travel to Zoom meetings added complexity, but the strength of her relationships with all levels within her partners kept Montague engaged.

Megan Moore

Maria Moran

Swati Moran

Isabel Moreno

Sarah Morgan

Director, Strategic Programs

Director, Channel Sales

D&H Distributing

PartnerWorld Program Leader IBM

Technical Sales Consultant

Sterling

Sr. Cloud Development Manager

Moore has wellestablished relationships with top manuPOWER 60 SP facturers and distributors to help push the business forward. She works with partners and key stakeholders on go-to-market strategies and with the technical teams to complete key certifications.

Moran has driven partner conversations toward turnkey technology solutions. She builds partnerships with leading MSP community groups, while working with the field sales team to grow and transform partners’ business by incorporating D&H cloud services.

Moran architected the vision, strategy and execution of the new PartnerWorld Program. She provided partners with the ability to cross-pollinate across “build, service, sell.”

Moreno’s primary role is to meet with prospective customers, understand their business and communication needs, design solutions to address those needs, then communicate the technology, features and benefits of those solutions.

IoTSSA

Channel Manager

Code42

Wasabi Technologies

Liberty Communications

Denise Millard

Jeanne Michele Miller

Erica Mikulsky

SVP, Global Alliances

Dell Technologies

VP, Operations, Projects

IT Management

Veracode

AT&T

President

Ener Systems

Sr. Director, Marketing, Enablement, Display Div.

Samsung Electronics America

The display division pivoted in 2020 to assist partners in meeting their quarterly targets. Mohta led channel events, webinars, marketing campaigns and provided MDF in creative ways to help channel partners drive demand.

Haley Montgomery Director, Marketing

Corsica Technologies

Montgomery led her team to a 700 percent increase POWER 60 SP in qualified appointments for the sales team in 2021. She helped build a strategic, data-driven team and processes from scratch, creating the company’s first inbound and social campaigns in the middle of the pandemic.

Webroot+Carbonite, an OpenText Company

M o rg a n’s efforts leading the MSP team have resulted in massive POWER 100 growth within the MSP partner base. She has provided the MSP community with vital security offerings and tools to further grow their managed services offerings.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_601-720.indd 3

69

5/27/21 4:11 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Valerie Moring

Product Manager, Networking, Software

Cybersecurity, Health-Care Consulting Team Lead

Long View Systems

Moring led her team to year-overyear revenue growth of 101 percent. The team worked with marketing to provide expertise to industry-specific organizations and customer-focused platforms to cultivate new and strengthen existing relationships.

Jennifer Morrison

Helen Morse

Channel Sales Director

Director, Channel Marketing, Operations

Connection

Th e ke y to Moriarty’s success last year was not letting obstacles define her. Last year was the most successful year of her career from a profitability standpoint because of her resilience and focus on the end goal to achieve for her partners.

Lenovo

Edafio Technology Partners

Unitrends, A Kaseya

Kristy Morris

Teresa Morris

VP, Worldwide Channel Marketing

Western Digital

Sr. Manager, Technical Partner Support, Digital Support Programs

Morreau evolved Sync Up Managed Ser vices for POWER 60 SP s o f t w a r e asset management, with revenue tripling year over year. She championed the development of Long View’s own cloud optimization application and supported the rollout to customers.

Morris led global teams in driving awareness and accelerating demand by increasing investments in digital marketing. She adapted very quickly to ensure the investments were helping drive revenue growth across all product lines.

Cloudera Data Platform enabled the company to expand into uncharted market territory over the past year. Morris has built strong relationships with global partners by aligning on go-tomarket strategy and focusing on delivering top-notch support.

Angela Motiani (Barragan)

Sue Moynahan

SVP

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Campaigns

Sr. Manager, Worldwide Partner Marketing, Infrastructure

Cloudera

Harvinder Mudahar International Business Manager

To manage the increased need for technology over the past year, Morrison aligned the product category, demand planning and distribution channel. This enabled her to optimize Lenovo’s in-stock inventory position at distribution.

M o r s e to o k over leading the channel marketing and operations team in 2020, restaffing and streamlining the entire function and retooling to face the new reality of demand generation during the pandemic.

Commvault

Citrix Systems

Motiani (Barragan) implemented best practices from the channel operating model and raised awareness of organizational alignment that is key to partners’ success. She also contributed to building the infrastructure for a better partner experience.

Moynahan built a partner marketing campaign content center, launched the WorkSpan strategic partner collaboration platform and drove development and execution of the Citrix Partner Marketing Kickoff event.

Ariane Mueller

Joyce Mullen

Marlene Mullowney

Brooke Munier

Wendy Munnell

Director, Sales

Director, Connected Workforce Sales

Director, Marketing, Strategic Partnerships

Company

Director, Channel Sales, EMEA

Azul

President, Insight North America

Insight Enterprises

Technologent

Despite the pandemic, Mudahar established net-new relationships with channel partners in new geographies. As a result, Technologent’s international business grew more than 90 percent over the previous year.

Insight Enterprises

WrightCore

Mueller joined Azul in July 2020 and began introducing the EMEA channel to Azul’s Java offering. Now she is driving campaigns to create awareness and build more partnerships across multiple regions, including some where Azul previously had no presence.

The disruptions of 2020 fueled an urgency to rethink how POWER 60 SP organizations connect with their customers and workforce. This fundamental need for transformation led former Dell Technologies channel chief Mullen to Insight, which she says is uniquely positioned for this moment.

Mullowney took a leadership role in implementing internal sales processes as well as helping redesign Augmentt Technology’s channel enablement programs for MSP partners. She also leads the charge in revamping the company’s sales and go-tomarket programs.

In 2020, Munier continued to focus on business transformation, landing a global implementation of sales enablement software, introducing more selfservice tools to speed up services sales and driving integration of services systems for the PCM acquisition.

Through building channel alliances with distributors and manufacturers, Munnell has helped WrightCore achieve consecutive year-overyear growth. Her contributions have built a strong portfolio of providers and offerings that the company can wrap services around for profitability.

Melissa Murillo

Melissa Nacerino

Jenn Nading

Kelly Nagel

Chrsitina Nairn

Director, Business Development

Head of Global Channels, Alliances Marketing

SVP, Operations

President, GM, North America

Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing

Murillo created a business development strategy that will deliver long-term value for Spirion, partners and customers. This strategy aims to promote Spirion to new partners and work with existing channel reps to target and penetrate joint target accounts to achieve revenue goals.

Nacerino launched Netskope Prime to recognize and develop partner technical resources as well as a Partner Delivery Program to enable, authorize and support partners in delivering advanced services. A new “Prove It” marketing campaign focused on core customer use cases.

Spirion

70

Sarah Morreau

Karen Moriarty

Netskope

Augmentt Technology

CoreDial

N a d i n g’s professional services team helped facilitate 160 setups thus far with nearly 3,200 seats provisioned, yielding over $1.2 million in revenue. She has launched an initiative around the delivery of CoreDial’s SMS and pending video capabilities.

Jabra

Sophos

Nagel drove par tners to embrace the new hybrid work stratPOWER 100 egy and worked with them to ensure all their customers had the needed audio/video products necessary to adapt to the changing work-from-anywhere climate. This led to double-digit growth for Jabra and its partners.

Nairn is a comanager of the Par tner Advisory Council, designing incentive programs for partners and assisting partners with generating ROI through marketing activities. Last year, her team drove demand generation for the launch of Sophos Managed Threat Response and Rapid Response.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_601-720.indd 4

5/27/21 4:12 PM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Stephanie Nalick

Pamela Napier

Director, Channel Sales

Manager, Cloud, U.K., Ireland

F5 Networks

Emily Narkviroj Sr. Channel Marketing, Programs Manager

Susan Nash

Emily Natoli

SVP, Strategic Corporate Alliances

Director, Product Education

Liongard

Veeam Software

Jabra

VMware

Nalick initiated a f i ve - ye a r growth plan with incremental investments as a pilot with one of F5’s largest strategic partners. In the first year the plan produced substantial growth of over 25 percent.

The investments included incremental funding to source dedicated resources.

Napier rolled out new cloudpartner-specific business plans to gain valuable insight into partners’ strategies for the next two to three years, which enable both parties to work on specific goals such as service implementation, enablement and marketing.

Jabra saw double-digit growth in channel partner sales under Narkviroj’s leadership, which led to her being promoted to manage Jabra’s entire reseller community. It’s no wonder she’s a two-time winner of the company’s Marketer of the Year award.

Nash negotiated and built business plans for all the hyperscalers and developed a growing business with three of VMware’s global systems integrators.

That business has taken off with growth for VMware in multiple customer opportunities.

Natoli created the curriculum that was used to on-board approximately 415 new partners. She also created and maintained 280 documents and resources to best support teammates and partners in implementing Liongard’s software.

Maeve Naughton

Nidhi Nayyar Tassone

Paige Neary

Christina Neble

Eleanor Nel

National Account Manager

Director, AMS Channel

Head of Partner Marketing

Sr. Manager, Commercial Marketing

Schneider Electric

Micro Focus

VP, Engagement Services, Americas

In her first 90 days at Buurst, Naughton created the new Partner Network, which included a rebranding of the previous partner program. She also put in place a formal process for onboarding and launched a new partner portal.

The commercial marketing team at Acer led the way with partners as Nayyar Tassone pivoted to virtual engagements with resellers and end customers.

She launched a new partner program focused on monitors at the beginning of 2020.

Neary had another year of VAR revenue growth last year at 22 percent as well as growth within the federal and SMB segments.

Growing these reseller segments is one of Schneider Electric’s top initiatives.

Neble started as Channel Manager No. 1 at Vertica. In year one, she grew the Americas channel business by approximately 200 percent by recruiting and enabling partners to build a business around Vertica, and the channel business continues to grow.

Nel recruited and placed the correct skilled and motivated people in the right roles, which she counts among her most significant accomplishments. She has led her team to execute a vision and empowered them to make and own their decisions.

Cheryl Nelan

Marianne Nelson

Katie Nemode

Emer Neville

Debbie Nevin

Director, Operations, Global Business Services

Director, Partner Development

Chief Operating, Transformation Officer

VP, Global Finance, Americas Ecosystem

Buurst

President

Acer America

NTT

CMIT Solutions of Monroe

Ingram Micro

Nelson made sure the Ingram Micro Manila team remained fully engaged, delivering and even exceeding sales targets and contributing efficiency gains. Only 20 percent of the 2,000 operations staff were work-from-home-capable in March 2020. By June it was almost 100 percent.

Arctic Wolf

Nemode led a team that doubled deal registrations and channelsourced revenue. She helped evolve the MSP program to better serve MSP partners and evangelized the Arctic Wolf Partner Program while helping to execute on new program elements.

SAP

Neville leads the NextGeneration Par tnering initiative, nurturing a partner ecosystem through cross-functional teams with a mission to improve the partner experience. Her responsibilities include transforming work processes for partners, customers and employees.

During a tough economic crisis brought on by the pandemic, Nevin was able to continue to support IBM partners with growth in cloud and cognitive and new investmentgrade customers. For example, her team simplified contracts and added incentives for new opportunity identification.

Karen Newman

Sommer Newman

Enit Nichani

Kimberly Nicola

Yumi Nishiyama

Sr. Director, Americas Channel Marketing

Sr. Director, Global MSSP Channel

VP, Marketing, U.S., Global Events IGEL

Sr. Marketing Manager

Director, Global Service Partner Alliances

Nemwan led the way to an increase in channel marketing ROI, partner-led pipeline and closed/won opportunities. She also oversaw a global channel organization redesign and the introduction of a partner enablement function.

Newman launched a global, inviteonly program to enable, authorize and support partners in delivering advanced services across the Netskope platform. She also developed a framework for a global cloud services channel strategy.

With Nichani’s l e a d e r s h i p, all par tners are treated as an extension of the sales organization. She therefore extends most marketing programs to partners so they can repurpose and leverage them with their own marketing efforts, which was key during the pandemic.

Nicola worked with the team to launch the IGEL Velocity Channel Partner Program, IGEL Velocity Launchpad (partner portal) and the IGEL Partner Advisory Council.

She also executed several digital and virtual marketing campaigns and events for partners.

2020 was a year of change for many of the company’s customers and the business as well. Nelan led her team to look at the positives— getting customers working remotely and then spending time enriching the business and preparing for growth.

Nutanix

Netskope

IGEL

IBM

Exabeam

Over the past year Nishiyama built the foundation of a global systems integrator strategy. She inked formal partnership agreements with several major systems integrators and navigated how to get the Exabeam platform integrated into innovative service offerings.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_601-720.indd 5

71

5/28/21 9:39 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Connie Noyes

Kelly Nuckolls

Director, Global Partners, Alliances

VP, Marketing, Alliances

Noyes established a new alliance team and developed the strategy for working with large global distributors to scale Red Hat offerings, expand and enable the partner ecosystem and drive net-new customer growth, especially in the midmarket segment.

N u c ko l l s i s focusing her energy this year on idenPOWER 60 SP tifying optimal solution sets for InfoSystems’ target market, intervolved from multiple service providers and OEM partners, and ensuring the ROI is clear to prospective customers.

Maureen O’Connell

Red Hat

Partner Sales Director

Laura Oberle

Eileen O’Brien

SVP, Partner, Customer Success Star2Star Communications

Director, Emerging Technology Group

Within VMware EMEA, Nurit has developed a new generation of partners focused on skills and expertise.

This leads them to acquire the highest level of certifications and to develop strong services and cloud practices, all with the aim of accelerating customers’ adoption of VMware offerings.

In 2020, Oberle led a team that quickly and agilely enabled partners and customers to move to remote workforces. The team engaged all aspects of the business to provide short-term and long-term strategies for their success.

In 2020, Arrow b ro u g ht o n close to 20 new suppliers to the Emerging Technology Group. O’Brien worked to put the right processes and people in place so suppliers and customers could focus on driving revenue.

Tina O’Dell

Hannah O’Donnell

Erin Oettle

Regan Ogner

Global Channel Marketing Leader

Director, Sales

Sr. Program Manager, North America

InfoSystems

Sr. Director, Multi-Cloud, SaaS, Services Partners, EMEA

VMware

Collabrance

Arrow ECS

Director, Global Partner Marketing

Comcast Business

Juniper Networks

O’Connell manages a team of inside and fieldbased partner sales managers covering the Greater Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and New England markets. She evangelizes the partner program and its benefits to partners, ensuring a good experience when doing business with Comcast.

In 2020, O’Dell led a centralized demand program for Juniper enterprise partners to facilitate the transition from an in-person event strategy to a digital demand motion inclusive of centralized on-boarding, reporting and lead nurture support from Juniper inside sales teams.

O’Donnell was heavily i nvo l ve d i n coordinating and coaching MSPs during Collabrance’s MSSP Accelerator Event and quarterly training. Collabrance is dedicated to continuously helping MSPs successfully sell the company’s offerings.

With the evolution of Unity+, there has been much work to do to help partners understand the updated program requirements and benefits. Oettle’s role in this has spanned many parts of the business from enablement to rebates and incentives to compliance and governance.

This past year Ogner led the charge in adapting the Global Partner Summit to a virtual two-part executive keynote series. She launched a global partner executive briefing program with Splunk’s most strategic partners and supported the upgrade of the Marketing Hub platform.

Kristin O’Grady

Rima Olinger

Elizabeth Olivar Martinez

Janet Oliver

Jean O’Neill

Vendor Management Manager

VP, Channel

Sr. Director, National Channels

Trend Micro

Global Alliance Lead

Amazon Web Services

Channel Marketing Manager

ViewSonic

F5 Networks

Splunk

AT&T

Appgate

O’Grady led Trend Micro’s largest global partner to record revenue and growth. She orchestrated the first cloud customer assessment partner program and pivoted her channel team to differentiate Trend Micro with a reimagined customer campaign generating incremental business.

Olinger is part of the strategic alliance team.

Strategic alliances include key migration workloads such as VMware, SAP, Windows and Red Hat. She leads the alliance whose charter is to grow and expand the migrations of VMware vSphere workloads to AWS.

Olivar Martinez has worked to bridge the gap between the U.S. and Latin America regions by providing much-needed tools and resources to engage the channel and help partners sell ViewSonic. Training to give partners the confidence to recommend ViewSonic to their customers has been key.

Oliver’s work has enabled AT&T solution providers in the specialty branch of the Alliance Channel to identify and solve business problems for end-user customers by providing a vast array of offerings across the broad portfolio of AT&T products and services.

O’Neill has over 20 years of technology industry experience with deep expertise within the channel. She is an early and active member of Cloud Girls—advocates dedicated to educating themselves and stakeholders about the vast and dynamic cloud ecosystem.

Kristina Onyon

Jennifer Orr

Annelise Orthey

Lisa Ortiz

Maribel Ortiz

Head of Global Cloud Partner Marketing

VP, Master Agent Channel

Mitel

Marketing Specialist

Verge.io

Regional Sales Director, Federal Channel

Viavi Solutions

When she started at Palo Alto Networks less than a year a g o, O nyo n began to engage and build relationships with several partners, rethink the cloud partner marketing strategy and quickly adapt to a new virtual model.

Orr lobbied for an agent track in Mitel’s channel program, including a special certification. She also worked with internal teams to better align with channel needs while driving messaging and awareness around Mitel’s contact center capabilities.

As a marketing specialist at Verge.io, a software startup, Orthey is highly immersed in the direct marketing of the company’s technology, dubbed Verge-OS. She aims to have the industry understand the paradigm shift that comes with Verge.io’s platform.

Palo Alto Networks

72

Veronique Nurit

Dell Technologies

Ortiz simplified the federal partner program and drove more complete partner engagement, enabling partners to sell Dell Technologies’ broad portfolio in support of government challenges and IT transformations.

EMEA Channel Director

Ortiz has been focused on driving channel management excellence in the EMEA region with a mission to achieve business diversification for Viavi Solutions in key new business areas. She is now developing strategic joint partnerships in specific enterprise growth markets.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_601-720.indd 6

5/28/21 11:57 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Saida Ortiz Sedano

Tamye Oshman

Channels Director, Latin America

Director, Field, Channel Marketing

Gina Osmun Director, Global Partner Engagement

Susan O’Sullivan

Jennifer Osuna

VP, U.S. Sales

Director, Field, Channel Marketing

Ingram Micro

Vertiv

eSentire

Qlik

In the past y e a r, O r t i z Sedano served as a facilitator of change, contributing to the rapid transformation of selling virtually.

She designed the strategic sales meeting for the Latin America region, which was normally held in person but had to become virtual due to the pandemic.

Oshman was hired last year to head a new field and channel marketing department. By establishing this new team, it put regional marketing support staff in the field nearer to field sales, field channel sales and partners to collectively better support co-selling and comarketing efforts.

Osmun is the partner lead on Qlik’s Analytics Modernization Program.This gives legacy platform users a path forward to modernize their data analytics solution with Qlik’s modern platform. She oversaw the rollout and worked with marketing to develop comarketing material.

For O’Sullivan, 2020 was all about bringing calm and confidence to teams, POWER 100 partners and their customers.

She first made sure employees were safe and could do their jobs effectively remotely and then reached out to partners, asking how Ingram Micro could help.

Morpheus went through major changes in how it goes to market, making the shift from in-person to digital. Osuna shifted her thinking and created digital events, campaigns and programs with partners to affect the funnel and help combined sales teams close business.

Romvadee Overbey

Sirma Ozkan Eren

Laura Padilla

Maryann Pagano

Becky Painter

Managing Director, Southeast Europe

Head of Global Business Development, Channel

CEO

BlackHawk Data

Global Leader, Ecosystem Sales Programs

With a focus on the Zoom Phone, Padilla advocated for launching POWER 100 a Master Agent program and worked with top Master Agents globally to sign as partners. She also created an ISV Partner Program, which resulted in a new revenue stream for Zoom.

Pagano is part of Fortinet’s Executive Council and POWER 60 SP was asked to do its 20th anniversary video.

BlackHawk Data also was asked to take part in the Cisco X-Sell Program, and Arista picked the solution provider to be its professional services go-to partner.

Painter has launched new modernized software and hardware incentive programs with a focus on growth, value and innovation.

She and her team also took on the responsibility of geographybased channel program teams to ensure collaboration.

Tina Pangle

Annette Parker

Virginia Parmley

VP, Life-Cycle Strategy, Global PMO

Partner Director

Sr. Director, IoT Indirect

AT&T

Tech Data

Over the past 12 months, Overbey has been focused on driving an updated indirect channel strategy that aligned with AT&T’s renewed focus on connectivity to support IoT channel partner growth.

Ozk an Eren enabled successful change management for channel partners during a challenging year with an increasing number of online sessions at all levels. She emphasized Tech Data’s global focus on growing in next-gen technologies in local markets.

Tracy Pallas

Tracy-Ann Palmer

VP, Worldwide Channels

Agari

VP, Partner Programs, Experience

Zoom Video Communications

Morpheus Data

IBM

VP, Marketing

VMware

Infocyte

VMware

Insight Enterprises

With Pallas’ direction, Agari grew its partner base in the U.S. by 31 percent, and these new partners have accounted for more than 42 percent of the overall partner revenue year-to-date. She also launched a new partner portal to provide enhanced training.

Coming into a new organization, Palmer hit the ground running. She POWER 100 helped form the strategy for the recent Customer Lifecycle Incentives launch, which plays an essential role in accelerating cloud adoption for VMware and encompasses the value of creating customers for life.

Pangle leads Insight’s RPA team that is laser-focused on automating order entry. She has also assumed responsibility for software and warranty renewals and is driving standardization of processes and data to ensure timely renewals for customers and channel partners.

Parker works with a crossfunctional VMware team at CDW. Her role is to provide guidance and create strategy around the VMware go-to-market across the product portfolio, including certifications, enablement, partner programs and engagement.

Parmley has worked to align with key Infocyte partners, driving joint programs to help them achieve their goals, reach target markets and ensure success. She also developed ready-to-use campaign kits to help partners with key verticals and rapid response topics.

Susan Partington

Michelle Pas

Vicki Patten

Heather Paunet

Diane Pefferle

Sr. Manager, Strategic Channel Alliances

Global Partner Manager

Manager, Partner Programs

RSA Security

Rackspace Technology

SVP, Product, Marketing

Jabra

Director, Global Channel Marketing

Having spent many years in the channel with the past five focused on personal devices and shared spaces, Partington enables regions and the channel with powerful tools, programs, campaigns and content to drive revenue growth with Jabra+ solutions.

Pas oversaw the migration to one partner platform for all partner POWER 100 deliverables. Her team executed a relevant, well-attended, multiple-partner webinar series, streamlined communications and created a social media schedule.

Fo r Pat te n , last year was focused on expanding globally with the channel program. Prior to the pandemic hitting the U.S., she went to the U.K. to launch the program to a key strategic partner and to the Rackspace U.K. team.

Paunet rolled out a new partner portal at Untangle because as the channel grew it became time to invest in a one-stop shop to provide everything partners need to inform their growth. The same channel-centric approach also led to focused product and marketing activities.

Pefferle was integral to the launch of Zoom’s first Master Agent program, allowing partners to market and co-sell Zoom Phone.

She also introduced a partner success team that takes first-line calls from partners and channel account managers.

Untangle

Zoom Video Communications

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_721-840.indd 1

73

5/28/21 11:19 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Karen Penticost

Bethann Pepoli

VP, Development, Operations

AVP, Go-To-Market Partners

Splunk

Penticost focuses on vendor relations, partnerships POWER 60 SP and operations at Envision. In 2019, she started a Massachusetts-based group called Women Of Massachusetts Engagement Network (W.O.M.E.N) to bring together inspiring women in the community.

Pe p o l i h a s been developing Splunk’s cloud alliances and consulting partner ecosystem. She reallocated head count to ensure relationships and goals were strong. She also managed service agreements with top systems integrators for government.

Tiffany Person Sr. National Partner Account Manager

Person implemented key strategies to build partner engagement, which included being “better together.” The consistent message has led to executive sales, technical and marketing alignment and resulted in more alignment between Citrix and partner teams.

Gena Phelps

Head of Content Strategy, Global Partner, SME Marketing

Maureen Perrelli SVP, Chief Channel Officer

Lindsay Rae Perry CEO

Secureworks

Apps Admins

Pereira participated in a COVID-19 task force delivering support to over 20,000 partners. Timing of communication was crucial to support partners in helping customers with digital transformation needs accelerated by the pandemic.

2020 saw the launch of Secureworks’ Global Partner Program and POWER 100 the build-out of a global channel team. Perrelli also recruited over 200 partners, with 20-plus partners bringing multiple security deal wins to Secureworks.

With the entire world dealing with the global pandemic, Perry drew from her natural characteristic trait of resilience. She was able to strategically plan a pivot to service small businesses struggling with digital transformation.

Jo Peterson

Emily Petropoulos

April Petty

Yen Pham

VP, Cloud, Security

Channel Marketing Team Lead

VP, Field Sales

Synnex

Sr. Channel Program Manager

Peterson acted in a non-fee-paid advisory role to a large channel master agency to help them develop a more robust managed cybersecurity stable of vendors, utilizing a three-bucket approach to threat, vulnerability and compliance management.

Pe t ro p o u l o s grew Rittal’s social media presence by 110 percent.

She also restructured the MDF program, which increased partner participation by 36 percent, and created a dedicated marketing resource page for distributors.

Despite being virtual, Petty continued to brand herself and Synnex to stay top of mind with the partner community during the pandemic, outperforming the marketplace. She delivered information about Synnex events, service offerings and overall value-add.

As the leader of a special customer acquisition project, Pham oversaw a cross-functional task force comprising members from the channel, marketing, sales and product management. She worked with the team to develop programs, incentive offerings and partner enablement plans.

Anke Philipp

Jennifer Phillips

Reagan Phillips

Director, Embedded Solutions Business Unit, EMEA Partner Ecosystem

Sr. Manager, Channel, Distribution

Security Alliances Manager, Americas

Sherlaender “Lani” Phillips

NTT

VP, U.S. Channel Sales, One Commercial Partner

With Phelps’ direction, the regional field and partner marketing team built demand generation programs and aligned with the partner sales organization on measurable joint marketing campaigns with channel partners.

Philipp leads a team that has increased IBM’s embedded business by double digits in just two years, growing IBM market share and expanding its ecosystem of technology partners into new markets and industries.

Phillips took over leadership of the channel sales organization in January 2020, when businesses, including partners, were rapidly evolving during the pandemic.

She revamped the program to better meet the needs of SolarWinds partners and customers.

Phillips led recruitment and on-boarding of new partnerships, creating new teaming agreements with channel partners. She has implemented key milestones, created scorecards to ensure goals are met and maintained execution of business strategy.

Phillips has accelerated progress with the channel by architectPOWER 100 ing an operating model that is mainstreamed in the field sales organization. She is helping partners to have a seamless cosell engagement with the field sales team.

Penny Philpot

Leslie Pickering

Jessica Pidgeon

Lorna Pierno

Zuzana Piling

Sr. Director, EMEAR Managed Services Cisco Systems

Sr. Director, U.S. One Commercial Partner

Partner Programs Manager Acumatica

Director, Channel Marketing, Communications Extreme Networks

Incubation Channel Sales Lead Worldwide Microsoft

With Pickering’s leadership, 243 new partner solutions were launched across POWER 100 Azure, business applications, modern work and security. There also were 114 industry-aligned solutions built for health care, financial services, manufacturing, retail, education and state and local government.

Despite the difficulty of inefficient communication between teams last year, Pidgeon fostered cohesion. She developed new communication pathways to overcome silos and create more efficient processes, programs and platforms, all of which benefited partners.

Pierno delivered more than a dozen new engaging and interactive digital campaigns for channel partners to use. She also helped drive over 5,000 channel partner and distributor registrations to Extreme’s annual partner conference.

Piling developed a global channel strategy to grow a completely new product category from incubation to scale via a strong partner network, which helped reach and activate 2,000-plus new resellers worldwide.

Envision Technology Advisors

Citrix Systems

Director, Americas Partner, Regional Marketing

UiPath

With her 30 years in the indirect channel business, Philpot is now hard at work refining and rolling out Cisco’s managed services strategy in the EMEA region to ensure it is a significant growth opportunity.

74

Diane Pereira SAP

Clarify360

IBM

Microsoft

Rittal North America

SolarWinds

Trend Micro

Microsoft

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_721-840.indd 2

5/28/21 11:19 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Maria Pinto

Missy Pitcher

Director, Field Marketing, EMEA

CEO

WatchGuard Technologies

CMIT Solutions of Atlanta Northeast

Renee Pizarro Sales Director, North America Channel Development, Inside Sales

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Shannon Platz

Katie Popowski

Global VP, Software Partner Success

Sr. Channel Sales Manager

SAP

Nasuni

Pinto is instrumental to modernizing marketing channel efforts, driving adoption and enabling programs that align with how partners want to engage with the company. She has helped build strong relationships with key partners throughout EMEA.

With Pitcher’s l e a d e r s h i p, CMIT Solutions supported customers’ transition to work-from-home, allowing them to continue to be productive and provide their services during the global pandemic.

Pizarro and her team built a portfolio of differentiated offerings that POWER 100 are focused on re-engaging dormant partners, accelerating partner development and recruiting new partners. These efforts increased the partner population by over 20 percent year over year.

Platz designed SAP’s go-tomarket strategy for partners innovating around business transformation in the cloud. This is a business model that ensures each partner builds and delivers solutions to successfully and aggressively support customers.

In the past year, Popowski grew Nasuni’s current partners and the mindshare within those partners. Gaining more champions and trust at premier partners so they knew they could rely on and trust Nasuni with their customers and business was key.

Jamie Porter

Ayesha Prakash

Tamara Prazak

Kate Price

Christy Prosapio

Director, Marketing

VP, Global Channels, Alliances

National Channel Director Appgate

Sr. Manager, Global Channel Operations

Extreme Networks

Tripp Lite

Porter has been focused on the evolution of MNJ’s brandbuilding and the development of vendor engagement marketing strategies. She also led the efforts that enabled MNJ to stay connected to customers, prospects, partners and employees throughout the pandemic.

Prakash joined KELA to build the company’s strategic alliances and expand global engagement with channel and technology partners.

Joining with years of expertise from other Dark-Web-focused companies, she began launching the elements to ensure a successful partner program.

By wo r ki n g closely with partners, Prazak helped increase the channel pipeline growth by a factor of 4X in her territory and contributed to companywide year-over-year growth of 120 percent. In part by encouraging partners to position security as a network access conversation.

Price developed and launched a new global channel selfservice tool for partners and distributors called Empower. She also led the development of Extreme’s internal sales playbook for the EMEA and APJC regions, including the training and rollout for all employees in those regions.

Prosapio swif tly had her team jump i n to a c t i o n­ — “g u e r i l l a marketing mode”­­— during the pandemic by taking a deep dive into plans and making difficult but necessary changes to focus efforts on only the most effective strategies for partners.

Amy Protexter

Karen Pugliese

Deborah Purfurst

Bana Qashu

Lisa Quinby

Partner Leader, Americas

Regional VP, Sales, East

Director, Global Partner Marketing

MNJ Technologies

SVP, Marketing

KELA

Director, International Marketing

Insight Enterprises

CommScope

VP, Channel Sales, Distribution

When the pandemic forced rapid changes, Protexter led a POWER 60 SP pivot to digital engagement, orchestrating 60 percent more traffic to insight.com and $1.78 billion from e-commerce. Her global “serve, don’t sell” tenet to marketers assured customers they would navigate the crisis together.

P u g l i e s e ’s focus over the past several months has been keenly on POWER 100 the redevelopment of the consultant and integrator programs as an extension of the partner program. That kicked off with a “listening tour” in order to grasp first-hand the opportunities and challenges facing partners.

Th e ke y to success for Purfurst last year was the motivation and mental health of her sales team during the pandemic. Constant communication and tips to help them through, coupled with support, encouragement and celebrations of small victories were critical.

Qashu’s team continues to exceed company revenue goals, and the regional goal is to achieve No. 1 for the fourth year in a row.

Qashu has focused on enhancing the partner experience and strengthening vendor-partner relations.

Quinby suppor ted the growth of the channel business through expanding Veracode’s strategic relationship with AWS, including on-boarding and launching Veracode into the AWS Marketplace as an AWS partner. She also led the launch of new partner training and certification paths.

Laikin Ragsdale

Jamie Rahbany

Norma Ramos

Cheryl Rang

Kristen Rank

Director, Global Channel Marketing Sectigo

Director, Americas Marketing

Partner Account Manager

Veeam Software

Director, Advanced Solutions

Channel Leader, West, Latin America

D ue to the pandemic, 2020 saw the massive shift to digital marketing activities. Rahbany pivoted the marketing organization and made it easier for partners to execute digital demand generation by providing guidance and resources.

The role Ramos has developed within Veeam for the achievement and the positioning of the channels she manages has always been undertaken with a collaborative approach and an attitude of service toward her partners and colleagues.

Ingram Micro’s data center software business achieved double-digit percentage growth because of Rang’s relentless focus on the customer experience and new technology. In 2020, she found ways to accelerate automation and operational efficiencies.

Since joining Contrast Security, Rank has spent time with over 80 percent of the partners in the region. Her focus is to make it easy to do business with them and educate them on its technology along with specifics on where to place its offerings.

Ragsdale revolutionized the par tner resource center and led the launch of the Sectigo Web Security Platform. She also led partner recruitment, enablement and through-partner marketing initiatives, delivering new revenue while driving existing partner sales growth.

SUSE

Xerox

Avant Communications

Ingram Micro

Veracode

Contrast Security

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_721-840.indd 3

75

5/28/21 11:20 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Sarita Rao

Karen Ray

SVP, Portfolio Integration, Partner Solutions

Sr. Director, Americas Field, Partner Marketing

AT&T

Worldwide Partner Development, Readiness Manager

Anna Reardon

Debjani Reddy

National Partner Manager

Alliance Manager, Global System Integrators

Wasabi Technologies

F5 Networks

Red Hat

Rao launched new products and services to meet the needs of solution POWER 100 providers’ customers, including 5G nationwide, DDoS and more.

She is making it easier to help solution providers find revenue growth opportunities with IoT, cybersecurity and wireless WAN.

Ray developed integrated sales and marketing strategies that help partners uncover new business. By making sure partners are front and center in the go-to-market strategies, Juniper has seen a significant improvement in lead generation over the last year.

Ream’s team implemented a new partner relationship management platform to make it easier for partners to do business with F5.

Ream played a key role in reviewing and preparing all content to be migrated as well as building the front-end user experience.

Reardon has over 10 years of experience in partner relations, sales and marketing. She makes a positive impact on partner relationships while focusing on the ultimate goal: sales growth. She is now activating and enabling major partners at Wasabi.

Reddy received R e d H a t ’s President Club award last year for her work with large global systems integrators in India. She focused on building competency of the project delivery teams to help with the execution of projects built on Red Hat technologies.

Brittany Redmond

Jennifer Reid

Debra Reiter

Jenna Renaud

Kate Reuther

Public Sector Channel Account Manager

Regional Field Marketing Director, North America

CEO, Chief Technology Advisor

Director, National Accounts Barracuda Networks

Redmond led AT&T’s public sector channel sales, operations, strategy and business development for indirect sellers and helped spearhead an indirect distribution strategy. She also expanded her channel organization through coaching and leadership.

Reid joined Watc h G u a rd from Panda, so she spent half the year in her previous Panda role and the other half in her new WatchGuard role. Her biggest accomplishment was navigating that transition, helping Panda partners to do the same and introducing a new solution to WatchGuard partners.

Reiter’s long career in applying technology to solve business solutions creates real value for her customers. She says she does not believe that one size fits all, and helping customers find rightsized solutions is a challenge she finds rewarding.

Being the channel director of multiple partner accounts is fun and challenging, Renaud says, as each partner has its own strengths and weaknesses. She has been able to accelerate growth within each partner because of her team’s gogetter attitude.

In her new role, Reuther is focused on driving operational improvements and efficiencies in the way Barracuda MSP serves partners and enabling them to interact with the company. Her ultimate goal is to improve the partner experience.

Lou Anne Reynolds

Nancy Reynolds

Monique Rezaei

Paula Rhea

VP, Channel Sales, Alliances, Global Partner Programs

Director, Americas Channels, Device Partner Solution Sales

Manager, Product Marketing

Brenda Richardson

Netsurion

Sr. Director, Head of Channels, Americas

AT&T

Director, Global Pathways Programs

NetApp

WatchGuard Technologies

Securonix

CMIT Solutions of the Tri-Cities

Microsoft

Sr. Partner Success Operations Manager

Barracuda MSP

Extreme Networks

Reynolds’ objec tive is to accelerate partner readiness and create POWER 100 compelling programs and meaningful incentives to promote growth. She has now updated the NetApp partner programs, focusing on four areas: simplify, expand, invest and differentiate.

Reynolds played a critical role in significantly growing S e c u r o n i x ’s channel sales business by over 600 percent. She also helped move more direct business over to partners, resulting in 80 percent or more of sales in 2020 going through partners.

The channel landscape is under major tra n s fo r m a tion and as it evolves, Rezaei has joined Microsoft to develop the growth strategy for the next-generation partners for Microsoft Teams Rooms.

Rhea led the marketing launch of three large solutions encompassing sales enablement, training and collateral: remote workforce threat detection; endpoint prevention with deep learning; and MITRE ATT&CK integration.

Richardson restructured the Americas channel goto-market strategy and aligned with internal and external distribution resources. She centralized partner on-boarding and support as well.

Kristy Rieth

Elke Ringler

Dawn Ringstaff

Laura Ripans

Robin Ritenour

Director, Channel Sales, East

Director, Channel Sales, Ecosystems, Central Europe

Sr. Director, Global Channels

Director, Channels, Alliances

Datadog

Global Director, Partner Programs, Strategy

Rieth led the team responsible for the development and launch of Lenovo’s Business Partner Communities. She also reinvigorated a veteran channel sales team with leadership initiatives around efficiency, motivation and career development.

R i n g l e r answered the immediate need for business continuity during the pandemic by leveraging the channel. She is putting an increased focus on global systems integrators, leveraging strategic alliance partners and growing the solution provider channel in Central Europe.

Ringstaff established the Area 1 Accelerate Par tner Program, initiated partner recruitment and built a new sales and technical enablement platform. Her efforts resulted in the recruitment of 50 partners within the first quarter of the program’s launch.

Ripans is all about the “winw in -w in”— encompassing customers, partners and Datadog. She was the first hire in the channel/alliance/partner program to start the motion, and she now has a strong team that is rapidly growing and becoming a larger part of global sales.

Ritenour delivered a new global coverage model by converting global partner advisers from inbound partner support to outbound partner development for 5,000 previously unmanaged partners.

She is driving consistent engagement to increase productivity and revenue at scale.

Lenovo

76

Juniper Networks

Jennifer Ream

Citrix Systems

Area 1 Security

Google Cloud

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_721-840.indd 4

5/28/21 11:20 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Angela Roberts

Lorna Rivero

Isabelle Robert

Director, Latin America Partner Marketing

Channel Account Director, Dell France-SAS

VP, Americas Channels

Rivero launched an awareness campaign around the Dell Technologies Partner Program and expanded marketing enablement events to the entire partner ecosystem with an emphasis on digital transformation. She also launched an outbound initiative for partners to proactively sell into key accounts.

Robert built relationships with two new partners that selected Dell Technologies as their preferred infrastructure vendor. She helped them align their teams to a preferred sales strategy with Dell covering the full portfolio.

Chelsea Rodgers Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing

Rodgers is responsible for accelerating Wasabi’s goto-market strategy with North Americabased MSPs, VARs and systems integrators. She doubled partner MDF activities every quarter in 2020 and launched a “Campaign in a Box” program for partners.

Annie Rooke

SecureAuth

Jessica Robertson Director

Kelly Robinson Global VP, Storage Sales

Carahsoft Technology

IBM

Roberts was recruited to SecureAuth to help rebuild the channel and the programs surrounding the company. With this came a relaunch of the company’s partner program and partner portal and enhanced enablement.

R o b e r t s o n’s team assisted many resale and professional services partners supporting Carahsoft’s vendors in working in the public sector. Training them to understand procurement processes helped them with their business initiatives.

Over the past year, Robinson has been able to offer a far easier approach to IBM’s Flash System line from a portfolio and incentive perspective. She is driving simpler pricing, incentives and engagement.

Mari Rodish

Carla Rodriguez

Tina Romero

Lacey Rondon

CFO

Sr. Director, Partner Ecosystem Enabling, Client Computing Group

National Account Manager

Schneider Electric

Rackspace Technology

Rodish runs Evotek’s financial functions, legal, human POWER 60 SP resources and operations. She led the team in opening several foreign subsidiaries as well closing the company’s first acquisition. This resulted in the expanded leverage of channel partnerships.

Rodriguez outlined a strategy where she led her team to drive results in technical integrations; goto-market and sales motions; unlocking monetization paths for the channel; and serving as a testing ground to incubate new business models.

Romero last year focused on managing customers’ needs and expectations during an unprecedented time. She utilized retail and e-tail best practices to ensure inventory optimization and flow in order to satisfy customer demand.

Rondon helped partners make a pivot to embrace and position new technology solutions to their customers. She ensured they understood the cloud and the critical role it plays and worked with them to capture new services and revenue.

Mayka RosalesPeterson

Erica Rose

Kaylina Rossi

Cathy Rowell

GitLab

Telesystem

Director, Global Channel Marketing

Micron

Channel Marketing Manager

VP, Global Partner Programs, Enablement

Rooke onboarded and continued to build DMRs, VARs and alliances. She allowed her team to “own” their franchise and execute against their goals. She has used her 25-plus-year relationships to introduce GitLab to the partner community.

RosalesPeterson was integral to Telesystem winning a direct agreement with master agent Intelisys. With extensive messaging and branding efforts within the partner community such as panel discussions and partner education, Telesystem was able to secure the partnership.

Rose delivered new MDF guidelines and s t re a m l i n e d global MDF processes to improve efficiencies. She led the effort to expand the partner portal into a tool where all MDF plans can be accessed and reviewed and claims can be submitted in one centralized location.

Rossi helped drive growth for the organization supporting master agents and their subagents through MDF and sponsorships, event planning, content creation, education, enablement and digital and social marketing.

Rowell introduced a new, end-to-end par tner e n a b l e m e nt function to Genesys that is aligned to the partner’s journey. This covers recruitment, on-boarding, enablement and ongoing management.

Anansha Roy Choudhury

Kate RoylanceSmith

Erin Rudy

Dawn Rundell

Gabrielle Russell

Director, Marketing

Cloud Platform, Partner Engagement Leader, Americas

Sensormatic BDM Smart Sensors, EMEA

TRG

Director, E-Commerce, Retail Channel

Ergonomic Group

RoylanceSmith provides support and educates the channel by aligning with the right product mix. She supports the EMEA teams with sales positioning to win and negotiate security solution deals.

Rudy’s team has been key to supporting and building momentum for TRG’s transformation with projects including a new website, brand refresh, service expansion, and partner/vendor marketing program execution.

Rundell aligned with e - commerce tools that provide actionable insight into opportunities to further improve the customer buying journey through the company’s channel partner sites.

R u s s ell h as been helping to innovate h e a l t h - c a re IT, specifically focusing on improving patient point of care and the experience of patients when they are within a hospital system.

Dell Technologies

Wasabi Technologies

Director, Channel Sales, Americas

IBM

Roy Choudhury led three critical functions for the channel business: public cloud, Build partnerships and partner engagement teams.

She developed and launched the “Think Build Grow” program to recruit and develop new ISVs.

Dell Technologies

Evotek

Manager, Channel Strategy

Sensormatic Solutions

by Johnson Controls

Intel

AT&T

Schneider Electric

Regional Partner Leader

Genesys

Technical Account Manager

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_721-840.indd 5

77

5/28/21 11:20 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Gwendolyn Madison Rye

Sandi Rygwalski Fryer

Dell Technologies

Director, North American Channel Management

VP, OEM, Channel Sales

Sr. Manager, Channel Programs, Mobility

Rutherford increased attendance at partner webinars by delivering relevant content to partners globally. She also planned and executed strategic events such as Distributor and Reseller Advisory Councils.

Ryan worked with partners and internal stakeholders on a strategy that will enable full participation including resale and hosting for all Apex offers. She leads Apex partner workstreams to ensure execution of the vision.

Rye focused her team on relationshipbuilding with customers during the pandemic, driving initiatives to support pipeline development and directing two initiatives that are bringing new business to the channel.

Rygwalski Fr yer works with the OEM channel teams to i n c re a s e share-of-wallet through their organizations. She implemented a new global channel partner program with a new reseller contract and deal registration.

Sacco implemented a new incentive management system for toptier Toughbook partners. She engaged in an extensive search for the right provider, made a selection and transitioned to the new platform in July 2020.

Bonni-Jo Salazar

Jessica Samuels

Terra Samuels

Alba San Martin

Kim Sanchez

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Programs

Global Partner Sales, Marketing Enablement Manager

Sr. Director, Global Channel Enablement, Operations

Channel Sales Director

Akamai Technologies

Sr. Director, Latin America Partner Organization

Cisco Systems

Tracy Rutherford

Kirstan Ryan

Global Channel Enablement Program Manager

Partner Apex, Services Strategy Lead

Poly

Zoom Video Communications

Poly

CDS

Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America

Attivo Networks

Salazar is responsible for reseller and distribution programs and strategy. She has rolled out a distribution strategy to support and promote continued growth and Zoom’s expansion into international markets.

Samuels created several new programs designed to shor ten the partner path to revenue. These include partner journeys, toolkits and a redefined new product launch process.

Samuels led the redesign of Akamai’s partner certification program. This enablement program is product- and persona-based with curricula, certifications and tools, as well as post-certification mentoring.

Cisco’s Global Par tner Organization recognized San Martin’s team for increasing the number of partners trained through the Black Belt enablement platform.

The team achieved the highest number of IoT specializations in 2020.

Sanchez’s role includes building the channel program and strategy for field engagement, enablement and growth with partners. She grew the channel business 13 percent year over year through focused demand generation and strategic partnership growth.

Michelle Sanchez

Kelly Sander

Kayla Sanderson

Diana Santariello

Kristin Sargent

Sales Director, SMB

Channel Marketing Manager

Director, Sales, Marketing

Sr. Partner Manager

Director, OEM Sales, Americas

Nutanix

Ingram Micro

Zix | AppRiver

Techworks Consulting

Amazon Web Services

Sanchez and her team led the Americas on-boarding of key strategic OEM partners, integrating and aligning joint teams from executive leadership to the field level.

She has realized significant ramp and success through enablement, driving sales and support in various processes.

Sander oversees 20,000 channel partners, connecting resellers and vendors through the SMB Alliance Community.

Her motto is that the customer experience starts with the associate experience.

Sanderson developed a scalable, proactive VIP Marketing program for top channel partners to assist them in a proactive approach to building a sales marketing funnel. She has made the program scalable to enable more partners each quarter.

Santariello has built up the sales team and created a new marketing plan and vision for 2021. She also has assumed responsibility for the account management division and created proven processes, strategic business review plans and an asset management lifecycle platform.

Sargent enabled Smartronix to deliver Amazon Connect to West Virginia, supporting remote delivery of emergency unemployment benefits. She also delivered an $18 million-plus contract for the Department of Defense through partners, expanding cloud innovation for pandemic response.

Jennifer Sasser

Jordan Saylor

Shannon Sbar

Emily Scales

Director, Channel Programs

Sr. Channel Manager

Shirley Scarborough

Scales helped grow the CodeAlliance reseller program 18 percent year over year. She developed new criteria and activities, including top-10 focus accounts, education, individual marketing efforts and touchpoints that will better serve partners in the future.

Channel Marketing Manager, Data Center Group

Pax8

VP, Channels, North America

Joining Lenovo in March 2020, Sasser quickly stood up a programmatic events package to help partners drive pipeline in a new virtual environment and drove attendance for advisory and executive business meetings, main-stage events and marketing launches.

Saylor transitioned all Pax8 partner e n a b l e m e nt events to a virtual environment and learned several new videoconferencing platforms to host the events.

By implementing creative interactions, she drove high engagement for all events.

To ensure partners had the support they needed last year, Sbar and POWER 100 her team quickly pivoted and adapted their strategies. She challenged them to think differently and led several initiatives to better support partners through the power of simplification.

Lenovo

78

Siemens Digital Industries Software

Christy Sacco

Schneider Electric

Code

Director, Partner Program Experience

Commvault

Scarborough focused on uplifting the value of Commvault’s brand with partners. She elevated deal registration engagement to mutually win new business and collaborated with partners and account managers to implement a new seller incentive program.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_721-840.indd 6

5/28/21 11:21 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Meredith Scheraldi

Dallas Scheeler

Nicola Scheibe

Marketing Manager

Sr. Director, Global Field Marketing

Marketing Manager, Signature Events

Scheeler is in constant communication with the channel partners for Revel’s Houston and MidAtlantic teams. Her marketing initiatives have brought many leads and much revenue to the channel and local teams.

Scheibe is building a global field marketing organization to support to- and through-partner communication and enablement. She has revitalized global partner communication via email, social and communities.

Elizabeth Schneider Sr. Director, Global Channel, Alliances

Schneider implemented a strategy to transition Armor from a direct sales organization to a channel-first one. She has built out three routes to market from scratch while hiring key talent, fast-tracking partner relationships and accelerating channel success.

Amid the pandemic, Schnell concentrated on improving communications and sales support across the channel, working with Barco’s accounts and IT partners to drive success. She also laid the foundation for an Americas training site and an on-boarding program for resellers.

Gavriella Schuster

Revel Solutions

Armor

Corporate VP

Caryn Scherer

Diane Schmidt

Arrow Electronics

Director, Global Channel Strategy, Programs

Zebra Technologies

Regional VP, Partner Development

Scheraldi has managed the North America shared services team, providing support for the outcome-based marketing organization. Her focus areas include events, creative services and campaign management and execution.

One specific area Scherer has focused on over the past year is the partner experience. Working with teams she created closed-loop partner feedback mechanisms that allowed Zebra to make changes to programs, communications and tools.

Schmidt leads a team that manages over 150 partnerships in North America with nearly 40 new partnerships added in 2020. Despite the pandemic, many of Optimizely’s key strategic partnerships had a successful year supporting mutual customers.

Jennifer Schnell

Cynthia Schreiner

Lisa Schroeder

Susan Schuetz

Strategic Account Coordinator

Community Manager

VP, Sales, U.S. National Major Accounts Division

SonicWall

Barco

Liongard

Optimizely

Director, Partner, Distribution Marketing, EMEA

Synnex

Dell Technologies

With the challenges of 2020, Schreiner was able to pivot from in-person events to virtual events. By implementing an updated process, she executed a large number of virtual events, co-marketing initiatives and webinars each month.

Sy n n ex h a s been in business for 40 years as one of the top distributors in the channel with 134 consecutive profitable quarters.

Schroeder has contributed to that success by building a team to manage the national major accounts.

Schuetz has supported Dell Technologies’ partner needs through demand generation, partner buyer base growth, digital marketing, virtual events and campaign activation aligned with key market trends.

Theresa Schwab

Mindy Schweitzer

Patty Scire

Gianna Scorsone

Growth Strategist

Director, Marketing

Sr. Director, North America Channel Programs, Strategy

GM, Head of North America

Microsoft

CMIT Solutions

Sterling

Listening to par tners helps Schuster develop capabilities that enable greater success for organizations. Facing unprecedented disruption with the pandemic, partner feedback was critical, and she drove adaptations to partner programs to provide flexibility for organizations.

S c h w a b completely revamped the sales prospecting, discovery and solution presentation process. She continues to coach MSPs and help new owners launch their business and get to revenue quickly.

Schweitzer developed and executed multifaceted POWER 60 SP m a r k e t i n g campaigns that promote the technology solutions of the channel partners to specific vertical audiences. She also established relationships with the industry’s top manufacturers.

S c i re d rove the North America channel program, initiatives and process improvements. She was responsible for ensuring channel sales teams and partners were fully educated around all of the programs, incentives and tools.

Since joining Aircall several months ago, Scorsone has made a number of key hires and developed meaningful relationships with partners. She also aligned with marketing where she increased budget and resources as a means of advancing the channel business.

Caroline Scott

Kristina Scott

Leanne ScottWilliams

Malin Sederholm

Ariane Seiferth

Cloudflare

Managed Services Product Director

Director, Marketing, Nordics

Tech Data

Director, Channels Sales Americas

Scott has built a diverse and highperforming partner marketing team; achieved over 160 percent of pipeline goal in the first full year as a partner marketing organization; and spearheaded the launch of at-scale marketing resources for partners.

Scott-Williams led the channel engagement for an initiative to make Cisco managed services capabilities available to partners. She has enabled partners globally so they can take advantage of these new services and build additional recurring revenue streams.

Sederholm supported SMB resellers in growing the cloud business through providing services, tools and training at a higher scale.

When the pandemic hit, she set up training around digital meetings on different platforms for resellers and end users.

In 2020 Thales launched a new channel program and a new portal.

Seiferth worked to make sure her team was well-versed on both, which resulted in the team being instrumental in navigating partners through this process.

Channel Marketing Director, North America

Dell Technologies

Scott is focused on delivering high-value marketing to support Dell Technologies partners and enable high pipeline and return on investment. Over the past year, she has enabled the partner community to pivot to digital and virtual marketing.

Head of Worldwide Partner Marketing

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Aircall

Thales

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_841-960.indd 1

79

5/28/21 11:24 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jana SellersMunford Executive Director, B2B Technology

Chief of Staff, Strategy, Customer Experience

Traci Sever Sr. Director, Global Alliances

Tech Data

iboss

In 2020, many channel members were dealing with uncer tainty.

Sellers-Munford’s focus was on supporting over 150 vendors and channel members by providing insight to reveal areas of growth and information on key verticals.

One of Serden’s main accomplishments this past year was continuing to keep the Tech Data HPE Executive Advisory Council going by switching to a monthly video call.

This helped bring new ideas and resources to the council in a much more timely way.

Kari Shafer Channel Marketing Manager

Laura Seymour

Lindsay Seymour

Sr. Director, Global Partner Marketing, Operations

Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Technology Partners

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Code42

S e ve r b u i l t strong relationships with iboss’ most strategic partners and developed a strategy with key alliance partners. She has helped partners build a growing, profitable and predictable recurring revenue model where their opportunities are protected.

Seymour launched HPE Marketing Pro, a partner marketing enablement program, and scaled partner engagement.

She drove significant programs to pivot to a digital-first world and support HPE’s partners in that journey.

Seymour led the launch and go-to-market strategy with five of Code42’s technology partnerships, where go-to-market activities intersect in the channel. She also developed Code42’s first set of virtual proprietary events done together with partners.

Laura Shafer

Komal Shah

Irina Shamkova

Susanne Shanahan

Director, Channel Marketing

Sr. Director, Global Partner Operations

EVP, Product Management

Mobility Business Development

Shafer helped Zoom launch and grow its Master Agent Referral Partner Program as marketing lead for to- and through-partner marketing. She also helped grow the partner marketing organization by on-boarding new team members.

Despite the pandemic, Shafer’s team was able to increase partner engagement and sales by reimagining how to market to and through the channel. The team moved events online, expanded marketing campaigns and raised awareness of online training certification programs.

Being a business lead that must represent the channel has allowed Shah to challenge the limitations on processes. She has been able to leverage her past channel experience and expand it in a way that is relevant in a rapidly changing go to market.

This past year proved to Shamkova that partners cannot be successful POWER 100 without an easy-to-use, easyto-deploy and easy-to maintain feature-rich product set to provide to their customers. It is up to her to make sure the product team understands this and ensures this promise holds true.

Understanding AT&T’s mobility products, systems, pricing and products along with building key relationships internally and with indirect sellers has allowed Shanahan to build a mobility-first mindset across the team. She oversees competitive custom pricing and training of AT&T’s indirect sellers.

Joy Shanks

Nicole Shanley

Pamela Sharma Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing

Erin Shaw Crowley

Margi Shaw

Manager, Order Services

The NPD Group

Zoom Video Communications

iland

Poly

Worldwide Channel GTM Leader, Financial Services

Climb Channel Solutions

In response to the pandemic, Shanks re assessed roles within the POWER 100 channel team to provide the best partner experience. She worked with her team to set clear key performance indicators that included driving meaningful and measurable engagements.

Over the past year, Shanley became more involved in the EDI processing side of Climb. She was involved in testing for new processes and was able to provide her feedback to ensure a seamless transition and avoid disruption to reseller and vendor partners.

Sharma helped Zerto pivot from accrual MDF to proposal-based MDF, allowing it to plan multitouch marketing programs. She also elevated the brand by leading joint marketing activities with top strategic partners Microsoft, IBM, AWS and Google.

Michele Sheets Warburton

Cory Shehan President

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sr. Program Manager, Channel Development, Communications

Juniper Networks

With Sheets Wa r b u r to n leading the charge, Juniper launched several partner initiatives that served to boost partner opportunities in high-growth areas like enterprise AI—leading to increased revenue for Juniper.

80

Diane Serden

Intelisys, a ScanSource

Intermedia Cloud Communications

AT&T

Chief Operating Officer

Sr. Marketing Manager, Events

Nitel

Shaw Crowley planned and executed International MSP Day in 2020.

She revamped the event as a truly global celebration across four time zones, capturing 340 MSPs who joined for the celebration and education.

Over the past ye a r, S h a w has led Nitel’s service delivery excellence initiative, which includes channel partner and customer experience management and an overhaul of Hyperdrive, Nitel’s customized OSS platform.

Corinne Shepard

Nicola Sheppard

Molly Sherwood

Director, Worldwide Channel Enablement

Director, Global Partner Business Transformation, Partner Success

Sr. Director, Marketing

S h e p p a r d ’s focus in 2020 was enabling partners with an integrated quoting solution, understanding their needs in each region and tailoring her approach to driving the right training and engagement to ease the transition.

The pandemic meant that Sherwood had to think differently about how to stay connected with vendors and resellers. She provided change management leadership so teams were empowered to execute new campaign strategies.

Zerto

Company

Palo Alto Networks

Over the past year, Shehan has led and collaborated on several initiatives that have helped Intelisys partners adapt and transform their business across new verticals and technologies.

Shepard launched Palo Alto Networks’ first Partner Sales Enablement Program, Amplify. Within Amplify she has created over 40 different learning paths that include roughly 100 assets, videos and e-learnings.

Barracuda MSP

Synnex

Dell Technologies

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_841-960.indd 2

5/28/21 11:25 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Sarah Shields

Shannon Sholtis

VP, GM, Central, Northern Europe Channel

Executive Dir., Creative Services, Corporate Communications

Andrea Short Director, Marketing

Diana Sibay Team Lead

Jeanine Sicinski Cloud Solutions Consultant

Ingram Micro

Carahsoft Technology

Rapidscale, a Cox

Dell Technologies

D&H Distributing

Despite never visiting the re g i o n a n d meeting her team since starting as its channel leader, Shields has grown the business, achieved the highest employee satisfaction scores and partner Net Promoter Scores and recruited more partners than ever before.

Sholtis’ team developed end-to-end resources to help partners build go-to-market strategies.

The team customized a panel session following COVID-19’s shutdown, connecting partners with manufacturers to identify immediate partner needs.

Short leads a new organization focused on the channel that is designed to exceed in tomorrow’s new normal. By taking a vision to execution mentality, her team is earning channel partner and industry recognition.

Over the past ye a r, S i b ay has led the Broadcom commercial team and expanded its commercial presence at Carahsoft by over 200 percent, resulting in an additional $10 million in new business for the company.

2020 was a pivotal year for Sicinski and her partners. She built a foundation, earned their trust and was able to earn more of their customers’ business. Her performance delivered 60 percent year-overyear growth that accelerated Rapidscale’s channel growth.

Sara Siddiqui

Kedra Simm

Bonnie Simmons

Vanessa Simmons

Ann Simon

Manager, Partner Alliances

Director, Global Partner Programs, Initiatives

VP, Enterprise Channel Sales

SVP, Business Development

Sr. Manager, Americas Strategic Partner Marketing

Siddiqui worked with strategic partners to realign POWER 60 SP the alliance and channel strategy to meet customers’ new needs. Red River was rewarded with substantial year-over-year growth and with several industry and partner awards.

Simm has been focused on growing relationships with current partners as well as expanding the Splunk ecosystem to include net-new strategic partners such as Google Cloud. As a newcomer, she is working to understand the channel community and address its needs.

By positioning Sectigo’s security offering, Simmons was able to onboard key security resellers and distributors. Through marketing, training and business development efforts, the pipeline grew by 160 percent and partner revenue contributed to 40 percent of total enterprise revenue.

2020 was a strong year for Pythian despite COVID-19, parPOWER 60 SP ticularly with its key go-to-market Google Cloud partnership. On Simmons’ recommendation, Pythian added Google resell capabilities and acquired Agosto to accelerate and increase that business.

With Simon’s l e a d e r s h i p, the Americas saw doubledigit growth from partners. The tight alignment between marketing and the partner sales team led to a more holistic marketing strategy inclusive of VARs, service providers, global systems integrators, distribution and alliances.

Nadine Singer

Lata Singh

Samantha Sisk

Liza Sisler

Andrea Sittig-Rolf

Director, Partner Ecosystem

North America Distribution Manager

Partner Marketing, Alliances Director

BlitzMasters

Red River Technology

Worldwide Channel Project Manager

F5 Networks

Splunk

IBM

Sectigo

Pythian

Company

Citrix Systems

CEO

Bitdefender

Perficient

To p r o v i d e greater partner visibility and a better partner experience, Singer assisted in the initiative to migrate F5’s old systems to a new platform. This was done across the entire partner journey from the start of the partner application stage through approval and portal access.

As a channel leader at IBM, Singh drives the focus to look at the players who are part of the IBM ecosystem as well as engage with a larger set of players. As 5G, blockchain and AI emerge as hot technologies, it is important to engage with players who would be delivering those services.

Sisk’s dedication to her channel distribution partners re s u l t e d i n rock-solid gains for 2020. She achieved 80 percent year-overyear growth within the channel partner community through increased mindshare and expanded partner relationships.

Sisler leads a combined alliances and partner marPOWER 60 SP keting team within Perficient. Centralizing alliances and marketing while removing additional decision points allowed the team to drive economies of scale for programs and increase speed to market for partner-focused solutions.

Sittig-Rolf helped channel customers pivot from onsite events due to the pandemic to drive revenue with partners and enabled vendors to continue to grow their business with partners in a safe and effective environment.

Dawn Sizer

Faith Sizto

Claudia Slane

Amy Smith

Ellen Smith

3rd Element Consulting

Head of Field, Partner Marketing

Global Director, Channel, Alliances

IBM

Smith has redesigned and executed IBM’s strategy for low-end, volume hardware products in North America. She has also led both global and Americas projects for IBM’s go-to-market model transformation, which was unveiled in January 2021.

CEO

Sizer educated MSPs on how to do business with local and POWER 60 SP state government and law enforcement agencies as a speaker with ASCII (Success Summits). She also educated MSPs at The Channel Company’s XChange about acquiring and retaining talent.

Dialpad

Obsidian Security

Director, Americas Collaboration Partner Sales, Engineering

Sizto built a new channel marketing program from scratch, including awareness, recruiting and building partner evangelists. In response to COVID-19, she positioned Dialpad’s offering with partners to address the new remote work environment.

In her first year at Obsidian, Slane has built a channel program that now encompasses a network of over 28 strategic partners. The official Magma Partner Program launched in August 2020 with coverage across channel, alliance and service partners.

Smith safely connected partners and customers to help them thrive during the pandemic.

Taking a creative approach, she and her team learned how to do sales kick-offs and events remotely while creating that energy virtually.

Cisco Systems

Partner Recruitment Leader

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_841-960.indd 3

81

5/28/21 11:25 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Kim Snopik

Joo Sohn

Director, Marketing

Director, North America Partner Programs

AT&T

Sage Software

Technical Director

AT&T

Catherine Solazzo SVP, Marketing

Tech Data

Heather Somerville Gonzalez VP, Global Communications, Strategic Alliances

Technologent

Snopik leads a diverse marketing team that over the last year enabled AT&T to maintain strong connections with its solution provider partner community via interactive webinars as well as virtual events and customer experience opportunities.

Sohn’s team effectively led the effort to support and accelerate Sage’s move to be a unified SaaS company by enhancing and delivering key updates to the Sage North America Partner Program.

Soik aligned resources to better sup port the needs of solution providers and carriers’ unique business models. She also restructured the service delivery strategy using parallel and automated functions to create a proactive ecosystem.

Having recently joined Tech Data, Solazzo is laser-focused on the creation POWER 100 and transformation of Tech Data’s new marketing initiatives through digital marketing, platforms, data and analytics, and agency services.

Kilynn Sommer

Susanna Song

Jas Sood

Jessica Soqui

Caroline Spadacinni

Sr. Director, Global Channel Marketing, Partner Programs

Director, Marketing, Communications

VP, GM, North America Infrastructure, Services

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Director, Infrastructure Services

Logicalis US

Sr. Regional Channel Manager, Florida

Sommer has developed channel incentive initiatives and demand programs that helped partners fast-track customers in the move to the cloud. One program that gained enormous traction was a cloud incentive focused on driving lead registrations and wins.

Song started Overwatch University, a free course in cybersecurity for the company’s network of 15,000 field technicians, MSPs and VARs to learn about cybersecurity so they can better serve their business customers.

Over the past year, Sood was tasked with growing HPE’s North America POWER 100 commercial and SLED sales business with a limited sales resource pool. She had built a go-to channel partner program five years ago that she expanded to include key SLED partners.

Soqui improved alignment with practice and presales POWER 60 SP organizations through a reorganization of her team, moving from a regional approach to a technologyfocused approach that enables them to better position offerings to meet business goals.

Spadacinni has created and executed business plans and analyzed revenue pipeline targets within top 10 partners with a focus on driving new revenue from existing partners along with recruitment of next-gen partners.

Christy Sparks

Jill Spatola

Linda Spence

Nancy Sperry

Kayla Spiess

Associate Product Manager, Emerging Technology

Velocity Channel Lead, Partner Development

VP, Eastern Region Channel Sales

Head of North America Partner Marketing

Extreme Networks

Partner Sales Program Manager

VMware

82

Catherine Soik

High Wire Networks

Vonage

Connection

Xerox

Sparks has co-developed and led the commercial strategy in the Americas sales channel partner organization at VMware with an emphasis on creating consistency within the partner sales programs and offerings.

In the past year, Spatola has been able to establish a great deal of strong, personal relationships with her supporting channel partner managers that have in turn enhanced success and grown the partnership and business within Connection.

Spence developed a new framework for Xerox’s national partner programs that enabled partners to engage more efficiently. She also evolved the global partner program for solution providers to optimize and reward growth within the program and to recruit high-value partners.

As a key part of the channel leadership team, Sperry works closely with executives and partners in the region to advance their practices. In this past year, she engaged with partners to help them grow their sales over 20 percent to 40 percent.

Pi vo t i n g to solely digital marketing last year meant Spiess had to quickly refine her approach with partners in North America. Spiess also co-led the Partner Advisory Council and North America Partner Summit.

Susan Spitz

Cindy Spring

Sonia St. Charles

Ashley Stachura

Kristen Stallard

Technical Sales Consultant 3

AT&T

Director, Global ISG Channel Specialty Strategy, Programs

CEO

Sr. Manager, Trust X Alliance

Spitz took the lead for the East region with COVID-19 expedites. Last year she saw a gap in mobility escalation support so in addition to her everyday responsibilities, she volunteered to oversee East region mobility support and escalations to drive results.

Spring accele rate d D e l l Technologies’ Global Channel Led Technology Refresh Program with improved channel guides and tools. She also launched a midrange storage incentive program, enhancing focus and profitability for partners.

Dell Technologies

Sage Intacct

Somerville Gonzalez launched Technologent’s first public relations campaign, producing news releases and editorial pieces that directly increased web traffic by 300 percent. The campaign drove brand exposure, influence and increased sales.

Google Cloud

Davenport Group

Ingram Micro

Director, Product Management, Stellr

As a member of Dell Technologies’ Partner Advisory Board, POWER 60 SP S t. C h a r l e s has the opportunity to engage with Dell to improve channel strategies. She says she believes that the relationship positively impacts customers and advances the channel business and the channel itself.

With the assistance of the Advisory Council and executive sponsors, Stachura led the strategy and team responsible for the continued success of the Trust X Alliance community. Moving from physical to virtual interaction was the result of incredible collaboration.

Stallard’s role has her suppor ting the Synnex Stellr Cloud product management team including Microsoft, Google and cloud ecosystem vendors. Over the past 12 months, these lines have contributed to substantial growth in profitability and revenue year over year.

Synnex

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_841-960.indd 4

5/28/21 11:26 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Brenda Stallings

Sandi Stambaugh

CEO

VP, Product Management

Matrix Integration

Synnex

Stallings is actively involved in a networking POWER 60 SP group consisting of companies like-minded in size, scope and future growth.

She is sharing key company data and metrics to continue the growth of Matrix Integration year over year.

Through the challenges of COVID-19, Stambaugh’s team delivered above-market growth in visual solutions, device mobility and collaboration. This was accomplished through a commitment to reseller enablement and strategic product positioning.

Jackie Steinberg Channel Account Manager

AT&T

Alex Stanton Director, Channel Marketing

Stacy Staver Alliance Director

Nicole Stavroff VP, Worldwide Channel

Evotek

SecurityScorecard

Stanton helped shape channel marketing and leads a team responsible for driving the partner experience, which influences partner engagement and program growth and benefits. This includes program incentives, sales enablement tools and a monthly newsletter.

Staver helped increase business revenue to the company through funded head programs, marketing dollar funds, rebate programs and margin relief through certification management, increasing marketing revenue 68 percent.

S t a v r o f f ’s priorities last year were to strengthen partner relationships and build professional services. She formalized a consistent meeting cadence with top partner executives and developed integrated solutions and services offerings for each to deliver to customers.

Sally Stephens

Caralyn Stern

Michele Stern

Shanley Stern

VP, Alliances Programs

VP, Global Channel, Americas Marketing

Managing Director

SVP, Marketing, Communications, Americas

Coupa

Arctic Wolf

Sophos

IBM

NTT

Steinberg has wo r n m a ny different hats over the past year, recently transitioning to a development manager role for the central regional team. She supports them as a co-pilot with the central region director and focuses on indirect seller activations and sales funnels.

Stephens focused on channel strategy, operation and execution over the past year. This included establishing strong relationships with channel partners including global systems integrators, technology partners, managed service providers, payment partners and more.

Stern helped launch Sophos’ enhanced Global Partner Program, POWER 100 which is aligned around its next-generation technology. It aims to streamline processes and further support partners in how they want to sell and how their customers want to buy.

During the social and health crises that the world experienced in 2020, Stern was laser-focused on aiding IBM’s partners to help mutual customers quickly adapt to new digital business models, ensuring their ability to serve their customers.

Stern led the transition to an all-digital marketing approach with a supporting, fully virtual event plan to reach customers remotely. She also drove a datafirst approach for the business through a new client segmentation and targeting strategy identifying propensity.

Bryce Stokes Grow

Daniela Stolz

Michele Stone

Kristen Stoneman

Jacque Strand

Marketing Director, DACH

Sales Director, Channel

Marketing Executive, Social Media Manager

Manager, Communications, Channel Marketing

Director, Alliances, Channels

Sophos

Stokes Grow had a pivotal role in the launch of the new Summit Partner Program. With a focus on partner technical enablement and field sales alignment, her team leads the Americas channel organization in partner deal registration percentages.

Building on an existing foundation, Stolz and her team implemented new processes to make Sophos’ channel marketing more successful, transforming traditional marketing initiatives for the digital world and offering digital marketing training to partners.

Stone’s team and solution providers, master agents and sub-agents pivoted quickly to navigate through changing dynamics last year. Stone led the channel team supporting solution providers in growing their business.

Stoneman is the sole content creator and social media manager for 5S Technologies. She has grown the company’s channels over 400 percent via Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

By wo r ki n g with partners, Strand pivoted scheduled events from in-person networking to virtual meetings within weeks of the remote work implementation.

She surpassed the marketing development funds goal for 2020 initiatives by 10 percent.

Ann-Louise Strandberg

Alice Strange

Tamara Striffler

Lisa Strunk

Lisa Strydom

Channel Account Manager

Sr. Director, Product Marketing

Manager, Channels, Africa

Informatica

Channel Marketing Director, U.S. Commercial, Distribution

Striffler built a new partner marketing organization focused on cloud-first go-to-market marketing and content strategies.

She also created differentiated joint messaging, assets and activities to extend Informatica’s footprint.

2020 was a time of championing rapid change with the rollout of the new Elevate Partner Program and the Partner Support Center, where Strunk continued to focus heavily on partner enablement, program value and making it accessible to more partners.

As a 100 percent channel organization, Veeam relies solely on the channel to help drive solutions to the market. With Strydom’s leadership, Veeam saw over 20 percent year-over-year growth in the Africa business.

Zscaler

Marketing Manager

SonicWall

2020 changed how Evotek engages with the channel in every possible way. Going from a 100 percent in-person engagement model to virtual, Strandberg’s focus was on communication and nurturing relationships and focus partners in a new digital era.

Strange has worked closely with SonicWall’s partner community to drive adoption of its security platform, a vital step amid the shift to a primarily remote workforce. She has ensured resources to protect partners’ customers and their ability to be agile.

Evotek

AT&T

5S Technologies

Adapture Technology Group

Veeam Software

Nutanix

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_841-960.indd 5

83

5/28/21 11:26 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Marivi Stuchinsky

Alliances Director

EVP, Chief Transformation Officer

Marketing Director, Latin America

Stuart brought her expertise in developing partner frameworks and engagement models to bear as Perficient built its official partner program. This program will help partners differentiate themselves within the ecosystem and gives them a clear path to growth.

Stuchinsky was able to transform the organization POWER 60 SP into a highperforming team by establishing mature delivery processes, which include digital portals, workflows and automated tools and instrumentation.

Kathleen Sullivan VP, Commercial Accounts

Perficient

Nadezhda Subbotina

Diane Sullivan VP, HPE, HP Inc. Business

Vertiv

EMEA Partner Marketing Lead

Commvault

Synnex

Due to the pandemic, Suarez had to pivot and adapt her communications approach with partners and specialists involved in managing data centers in the region. She led several virtual communications initiatives designed to empower them with the tools to respond to customers’ critical needs.

Subbotina was part of a team that ran a panEMEA virtual event for the partner community to share the company’s vision and future strategy. She also worked closely with Arrow ECS on a pan-EMEA project with a specific focus on next-generation data management and storage solutions.

Sullivan and her team of business development managers guided reseller partners through various vendor program changes this past year, educating them on how to adopt best practices and use the changes to their advantage.

Meaghan Sullivan

Stuti Sureka

Kelly Sutton

Stephani Sutton

Head of Partner Marketing, SME

VP, Service Delivery

Director, Marketing

SAP

Director, Cloud, Technology Alliances

Tibco Software

Sullivan has advanced the North America segmentation strategy with the creation of commercial accounts, applying cloud knowledgeable resources focused on the needs of the midmarket, small-business customers and the partners that serve them.

Sullivan’s team transformed SAP’s ecosystem, enabling par tners to drive demand and build pipeline with cutting-edge technologies and digital assets. She also launched a program to recruit new software partners to build their IP and specializations on core SAP platforms.

Sureka envisioned Tibco’s cloud partnership strategy and execution plan to bring focus, enable scale and build organizationwide alignment, which resulted in triple-digit growth. She also gave ISVs access to the same benefits available to the rest of the partner ecosystem.

S u t to n wa s hard at work over the past year improvPOWER 60 SP ing customer satisfaction and retention. She also diversified Peak UpTime’s product offerings in support of the “new normal” of work from home.

Sutton drove e n a b l e m e nt of key vendors and emerging technologies to the partner community through new marketing efforts in 2020 while also executing and promoting a company rebrand from Lifeboat Distribution to Climb Channel Solutions.

Alison Suzuki

Suzanne Swanson

Wendy Swanson

Melissa Swisher

VP, Global Partners

Channel Account Manager

Chief Revenue Officer

Jenna Tabatabaian

Avaya

Head of Distribution, Americas

Technologent

Peak UpTime

Climb Channel Solutions

Trustwave

AT&T

Socrates.ai

Suzuki’s focus was on helping to support a dramatic i n c re a s e i n demand related to Chrome solutions with the transition to work from home and remote schooling. She also continued her work around expansion of the two-tier distribution footprint within Google Cloud.

Swanson overhauled the referral and reseller programs to deliver enhanced profitability, invested in better marketing tools and more funding, and expanded product portfolios as part of Trustwave’s primary objective of being the cybersecurity partner of choice.

Swanson implemented a strategic and tactical approach in supporting her indirect sellers this year. Through teamwork and collaboration, she has increased their proficiency in AT&T practices in the channel and increased master agent mindshare.

Swisher leverages people, processes and technology to transform the enterprise workplace. Her leadership and expertise contributed to Socrates.ai gaining market momentum and multiple business partnerships.

Focusing on growth in the SLED markets, Tabatabaian launched a program that brought a variety of channel partners to the ecosystem, lending the opportunity to engage with and support companies that her group wasn’t previously involved with.

Wendy Taccetta

Masako Takagi

Cortnie Talbot

Sr. Director, GSI Sales, Worldwide Partner Sales

VP, Service Delivery

Julie TalbotHubbard

Cheryll Tan

SVP, Global Leader, Commercial Operations, Channel Chief

Citrix Systems

Taccetta led the curation of the partner team, bringing together chanPOWER 100 nel strategy, sales enablement, program management and operations functions across the entire company to better serve all stakeholders. Now she has begun building a new partner portal.

The par tner that Takagi’s team manages has received “Par tner of the Year” award two years in a row. She has also been actively engaged in mentoring professionals in the technology and nonprofit sectors in the U.S. and U.K.

Ta l b o t h a s been developing strong skills with Power BI, helping Apex improve how it uses data in the organization. She has also helped continue high customer satisfaction scores and adapt how Apex delivers services to end users.

Google Cloud

Verizon Business Group

84

Yadira Suarez

Liz Stuart

Apex Digital Solutions

Team Lead

Carahsoft Technology

Director, Marketing

SVP, Cyber Protection, Identity

Ingram Micro

By partnering with Optiv’s top identity and data partners, POWER 60 SP Talbot-Hubbard has enabled the creation of joint solutions—the partners’ products paired with services that solve customers’ most critical security problems.

Ta n h e l p e d vendors and partners keep business moving for ward through innovative digital marketing programs and platforms that were deployed in seven different countries in select business areas. These efforts kept partners focused and engaged.

Optiv Security

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_841-960.indd 6

5/28/21 11:27 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Jessica Tanoury

Kathleen Tandy

Maude Tanguay

VP, Global Partner, Alliances Marketing

Lead, Partner Success, Partner Marketing

VP, Product Management, Stellr Mobility

Loqate

Tandy spearheaded efforts to i n c re a s e investment in partners for demand creation. She also championed the expansion of partner engagement and marketing programs to deliver resources and tools to thousands more partners to help grow their business.

Tanguay launched a marketing program for MSPs aimed at building their funnel regardless of the technology they use. She also provides one-on-one marketing consultations for partners and helps them leverage Microsoft co-op funds and other funding.

Synnex’s cloud and mobility practices were more crucial than ever last year to ensure partners and customers were able to stay connected. Tanoury and her team quickly adapted programs and investments to fit the new environment.

I n Lo q a t e’s annual “Voice of the Customer Survey,” nearly 25 percent of the company’s respondents— including from different countries—highlighted Tapper’s channel contribution as key to their successful relationship with the company.

Ta y l o r wo n $42 million in co m p e t i t i ve market share and secured significant investments for two growth initiatives. She also helped secure promotions and advancement for two of her colleagues.

Calhoun Taylor

Lovisa Tedestedt

Nancy Teixeira

Monie TenBroeck

Director, Product Business Management

Uma Thana Balasingam

Schneider Electric

VP, North America Partner Strategy, Sales

Director, Partner Marketing

Synnex

Sr. National Account Manager

Taylor helped drive revenue growth with the core business to grow a multibillion-dollar business and increase channel share. This was made possible through her team’s creation of lucrative new routes to market.

During the pandemic, Te d e s t e d t organized an APC Vir tual Campaign where she connected CDW corporate sellers with the field organization through Webex calls. She created specific messages to the 3,000 sellers at CDW to optimize communication.

Teixeira made significant organizational changes to the channel team to allow focus in six key areas: partner enablement, ISV strategy, X3 channel sales, Sage 100 and Sage 300 channel sales, customer retention and partner programs.

TenBroeck was deep into planning for the Partner Connect conference when COVID-19 shut everything down. To maintain a connection with partners, she ramped up the cadence and quality of digital communications, initiating regular webinars and portal updates.

Andrea Tharp

Desraie Thomas

Julie Thomas

Amy Thompson

Gina Thompson

ActivTrak

Channel Development Manager

Datto

Director, Partner Strategy, Programs

Cisco Systems

Director, Channel Marketing

Fortinet

VP, Cloud, Carrier Operations

NWN Carousel

Tharp’s main accomplishment last year was growing A c t i v Tr a k ’s partner program approximately 325 percent across all categories of solution providers, distributors and MSPs. She also oversaw an approximate 140 percent increase in year-over-year annual recurring revenue.

Thomas started off the year by creating a short video as a way to keep people laughing and provided tips and tricks for the work-from-home world. Now she creates content for Datto, partners and vendors with the overall goal of making people smile.

Thomas leads alignment across the new Cisco Partner Program. She is also responsible for evolving the integrator role and incentives as part of the new program and ensures profitable partner growth while aligning partners with Cisco across the foundational partner incentives.

Thompson played a key role in the evolvement of the Engage Partner Program, driving awareness, growth and enablement for partners. The program has been well-received by the channel community and serves as a differentiator for Fortinet and its end users.

Revenue and growth goals were exceeded last year parPOWER 60 SP tially due to the building and standardization of a scalable business model that Thompson and her team delivered. The implementation of partner support programs and alignment with partners contributed to success.

Reyna Thompson

Sarah Thompson

Stacy Thompson

Lynne Thornton

SVP, Product Management, North America

Worldwide Service Provider Program Manager

Sr. Director, Finance

Trace3

Executive Director, Software, Sales Operations

Cathy Timmerman

Thompson expanded investments in resources for new vendor POWER 100 recruitment, technology solutions and channel enablement.

She also launched offers specific to remote work, including Work-From-Home Readiness Assessments.

McAfee rolled out a significant initiative around managed endpoint detection and response offerings, and Thompson oversaw the launch coordination—tracking progress across product, channel, marketing and executive teams.

T h o m p s o n’s execution of financial policies and controlling costs played a crucial role in the company’s growth. During the COVID-19 crisis, she was instrumental in implementing procedures for managing a remote workforce.

With a focus on using data and automation, Thornton rolled out RenewVue 2.0—giving partners end-toend visibility into their renewals and providing access to customized and actionable renewal quotes that convert to an order with a button click.

VMware

Director, Worldwide Channels

Synnex

Sherweb

McAfee

Synnex

Sage Software

Gabby Tapper Customer Success Manager

Brittany Taylor

Manager, IBM Software, Cloud, Red Hat Business Development

Tech Data

Reltio

Ingram Micro

VP, Channel Chief, Partner, Commercial Organization, APJ

VMware

The leader of a team of 700 with revenue of over $1 billion, Thana Balasingam is responsible for driving the regional commercial segment strategic plan and revenue attainment, in addition to the execution of go-to-market plans with VMware’s ecosystem.

Director, Global Partner Programs, Strategy

Nvidia

Timmerman was responsible for the launch of three strategic proPOWER 100 grams in the partner ecosystem: Global Systems Integrator, Federal Systems Integrator and Data Center Provider. She also made significant enhancements to the Regional CSP Partner Program.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 1

85

5/28/21 11:31 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Pauline Tng

Anna Kate Tobin

Director, Channel APAC

Sr. Channel Marketing Manager

Splunk

Global Partner Marketing Specialist

Amy Tomlin

Natalie Tomlin

National Account Manager

Eaton

Director, North America Channel Sales

VMware

CommScope

Tn g h e l p e d establish new routes to market, driving a 42 percent increase in new partner user accounts in the first half of 2020.

In APAC, she enhanced partnerships with MSPs, global strategic alliances and cloud service providers like AWS and Google Cloud.

Tobin overhauled the CloudHealth partner portal to streamline channel sales and marketing operations to ensure a positive user experience. She also drove CloudHealth partner integration efforts with the VMware Partner Connect Program.

Toledo led her team to develop and launch new marketing concierge services for channel partners with a focus on social selling, social presence, marketing campaign execution and best practices. She also launched a new marketing “how-to” video series.

Tomlin’s key accomplishment in 2020 was her ability, with the support of the marketing team and channel organization, to quickly adapt to the changing virtual work environment and maintain growth within her channel partners.

Tomlin helped partners support customers on their digital transformation journeys, giving them tools to bring incremental business in the most efficient way. She also supports McAfee’s “channelfirst” global strategy through resources and marketing efforts.

Kerry Trevino

Angela Trillhaase

Kandyce Tripp

Natalie Troia

Shawn Trotter

Distribution, National Accounts Marketing Manager

Juniper Networks

Global Director, Business Partner Experience

IBM

Partner, Global Security Services Alliances

IBM

Global Partner Strategy, Program Manager

Commvault

VP, North America Channel Sales

Trevino is in an engaging and collaborative working relationship with Juniper’s U.S. distributors and national accounts to generate specialized technology and vertical market plans that cater to the specific needs of channel partners and customers.

Trillhaase led a team that took feedback from IBM Business Partners using multiple input platforms and worked with transformation teams to boost Business Partner satisfaction with IBM, resulting in an improvement of 15 percent.

Tripp defines the IBM Security Services Alliances Program, which drives strategy for alliance partnerships based on program tiers, requirements and benefits.

She developed segmentation to align portfolio leaders with sales and offering management.

Troia contributed to the rollout of the Partner Advantage Program.

This included building a foundation for project management between cross-functional business areas and establishing working relationships with all “workstream” owners to ensure deliverables stayed on track.

As everyone quickly pivoted to remote work, Trotter zeroed in on POWER 100 how to best support employees and the partner community.

She focused on employees and remote availability so Dell Technologies could provide critical technology needs and best practices to partners.

Kara Trovato

Rachel Tuller

Rachel Turkus

Nathalie Turner

Emily Tyack

Global Sr. Director, Channel Programs

Sr. Channel Marketing Director

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

Sr. Manager, ISV Partner Programs

With a heavy focus on federal channel alignment in 2020, Trovato was able to grow the federal channel pipeline by 4X. The investments she made in the partner community also afforded Thycotic numerous strategic keynote opportunities at federal conferences.

With a passion for connecting others and creating new go-to-market opportunities that benefit all, Tuller has recently moved into a leadership role at Cloudera where she will oversee the channel programs and related enablement for all channels.

Although new to NetFortris channel marketing, Turkus has had an immediate impact in expanding the perception of the brand, creating a cadence of partner communications, strengthening relationships with master agents and enabling partners with marketing tools.

In 2020, partners had to quickly pivot to digital campaigns and shift to virtual events. Turner set up weekly marketing cadences, invited all stakeholders to participate and raised the bar on the number of activities to continue building pipeline, setting up VMware to achieve revenue goals.

Over the past year, Tyack led the evolution of AWS’ co-selling strategy with ISVs. She and her team drove innovations and scale to the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, a programmatic framework through which ISVs and the AWS field can learn about and execute coselling together.

Tina Valdez

Jana Valenti O’Connor

Cathryn Valladares

Sara Valtin

Katherine Van Gheem

Sr. Director, Americas Partner, Emerging Markets Marketing

VP, Enterprise Solutions

VP, North America Channel Sales

Va l e n t i O’Connor worked hard with her team to pivot physical events into virtual events after the pandemic hit. She also launched several new channel incentive programs to better engage with partners during the shutdown.

By focusing on enterprise for Nextiva, Valladares has been able to POWER 100 set records with some of the top performers in the channel. She has helped change the mindset of how partners do business and opened the shift in the telecom conversation.

Valtin focused and aligned her team to channel goals and her North POWER 100 America strategic vision amid the constant challenge of the pandemic. She made it a priority to increase communication and keep her team moving as fast as they could.

National Partner Manager

Thycotic

Chief Operating Officer

Morpheus Data

Cloudera

Palo Alto Networks

Morpheus grew to 95 percent bookings through the channel in 2020, a testimony to the company’s channel-led focus under Valdez. Morpheus has onboarded 30 new partners and five new distribution partners.

86

Nayra Toledo

NetFortris

Nextiva

VMware

KnowBe4

McAfee

Dell Technologies

Amazon Web Services

Director, Channel Management

Cattron Global

Va n G h e e m is tasked w i t h c re at ing a channel framework for all of the Cattron Global product markets and tailoring it to their specific needs. She also launched the company’s first channel program.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 2

5/28/21 11:32 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Noemi Van Nest

Andrea Vanegas

Global Partner Marketing, Promotions Manager

Sr. Manager, Partner Plus Programs

Van Nest relaunched a Partner Demo Equipment Program and standardized the company’s internal operations for launching promotions and programs globally, which includes a formal internal review process, marketing and reporting.

Sandra Vaz

Poly

Latin America Sr. Director, Global Partners, Alliances

Judy Vansell

Jen Vasin

Sonia Vasudeva

SVP, Human Resources

Channel Marketing Manager

Juniper Networks

Sr. Global Alliances Manager

Rackspace Technology

Insight Enterprises

Vanegas oversaw the execution of a new go-tomarket partner program focused on building Juniper’s footprint in the enterprise market. The program produced significant year-overyear sales growth and optimized sales collaboration activities.

The partnership business exceeded operating targets by more than 180 percent due to global transformation. Vansell has ensured partners have the correct tools and necessary support to refer and close business with Rackspace Technology.

In 2020, Insight completed its integration of PCM, on-boarding roughly 4,000 new teammates under Vasin’s direction. The acquisition significantly grew Insight’s global footprint in terms of geographic reach, revenue and teammates.

Vasudeva focused on the expansion of Acer’s VAR programs through increased incentives as well as a further reach in the reseller community. She continued to fortify the Acer Elite and Alliance VAR Programs and focus on the launch and expansion of the Acer Select VAR Program.

Cathleen Ventura

Neha Verma

Alysia Vetter

Natalia Vianden

Partner Business Development Manager

VP, Channel, Field Marketing

VP, Marketing

Director, Global Channel Programs

The ASCII Group

Acer America

Red Hat

Cisco Systems

Code42

Vaz has extensive experience in the technology market, mainly in key companies in the area of channels and alliances. Having recently joined Red Hat, she is seeking to create a win-win situation so people feel comfortable investing.

Since joining Cisco in 2019, Ventura has helped the channel business in the SD-WAN market increase significantly. She has been able to help build programs that have led to significant revenue and enabled her to achieve her quota.

Ve r m a h a s over 10 years of marketing exper tise in various areas and has seen its evolution over the years. She joined Code42 as vice president of channel and field marketing in December.

Over the past year, Vetter showcased the importance of belonging to an IT community. This includes communicating the benefits, expanding business opportunities and sharing peer knowledge with MSPs across North America through a variety of outlets.

Due to COVID19 impacts, Vianden adapted her approach to POWER 100 partners. She created the Lending Enablement and Assistance Program in response to the crisis to support partners with preferential financial terms, alleviated program requirements and free training options.

Regina Vignone

Beth Villalpando

Samantha Vince

Susan Vincent

Kim Visconti

VP, Channel Sales, East

Director, North America National Solution Providers, Distribution Marketing

VP, Marketing, Alliances

VP, Partner Enablement

Sage Intacct

Regional Channel Director, Southeast

With her promotion to vice president, Vignone took on new responsibilities to lead Sophos’ East Coast sales efforts and accelerate midmarket channel business. She also played a key role in transforming Sophos’ sales team.

Villalpando’s marketing team collaborated with sales and created and executed a number of marketing initiatives. These initiatives enabled growth in channel sales in Dell Technologies’ last fiscal year.

Vince pivoted to a fresh way of enabling sales and partner teams to reach new and existing customers. She assembled virtual events that had great success, driving business and providing an environment that kept the team, partners and customers connected.

Along with her domestic channel e n a b l e m e nt role, Vincent is responsible for the international launch and enablement programs to help Sage Intacct grow abroad. These programs accelerate the company’s entry into new markets.

Visconti developed and continues to evolve an effective channel partner go-to-market “recipe.” The initiative emphasizes strategic partners and leverages Fortinet’s “threepillar” approach: engage, educate and execute.

Leslie Vitrano Hubright

Cheryl Vlacilek

Dorothea Vlasic

Colleen Voltz

Marlen von Roth

Sr. Director, Global Partner Compliance

Worldwide Garage for Cloud Ecosystem Sales Executive

Partner Business Development Specialist, Enterprise Networking

SUSE

Sophos

Edge Solutions

Dell Technologies

Director, Global IT Channel Programs, Digital Experience

Schneider Electric

Vi t r a n o Hubright enabled growth through the management POWER 100 and services opportunity in edge computing. She focused on expanding that opportunity into industrial edge through collaboration across IT and OT channels.

VMware

Vlacilek has developed a global partner remediation p ro g ra m to drive consistency and clarity throughout the partner ecosystem. She also has created a number of new training courses.

IBM

Cisco Systems

Vlasic drove the digital transformation of the partner ecosystem as customers go on their journey to the cloud. She also infused artificial intelligence into partner sales solutions and business models.

Voltz assisted her partners in hitting doubledigit growth in the midst of the pandemic. She worked to help bring solutions to their customers that were relevant to the current environment.

Extreme Networks

Fortinet

Sales Director, EMEA Cloud

Von Roth was instrumental in establishing a partner ecosystem for SUSE Cloud Application Platform. She is now turning her attention to nurturing and growing cloud and managed service partners in the SUSE Partner Program.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 3

87

5/28/21 11:32 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Julie Vries

Sehar Wahla

EMEA Partner Marketing Lead

Manager, Partner Business Development

Vries led the transformation of the EMEA partner funds p ro g ra m to provide a better framework for building growth into partners’ business. From planning to execution to outcomes, she has worked with the teams across EMEA to make this program more impactful.

Wahla has built C a r a h s o f t ’s distribution strategy for AWS, influenced Carahsoft’s overall cloud strategy and built a team to accelerate the growth of its cloud partnerships. In 2020, her team recruited over 50 new AWS consulting partners.

Yvonne Walker Sr. Manager, Demand Generation

Christina Walker

Kelly Walker

Global Director, Channel

Partner Marketing Manager

When the business community locked down because of the panPOWER 100 demic, D&H was one of the first channel companies faced with converting a live conference into a virtual event. Within a week, Walcott developed the new THREADcast virtual engagement format.

Wa l ke r h a s been integral to g ro w i n g Blancco’s channel footprint.

Channel revenue accounts for 47 percent of the company’s enterprise business, and that share is growing. She also led a significant expansion with global systems integrators.

Walker worked quickly with her partners during the pandemic to pivot their previously planned in-person events and campaigns into virtual and digital experiences that would continue to drive revenue. Digital workspace was a winning focus for the first half of the year.

Kim Walkey

Cheryle Walline

SarahJane Walshe

Danielle Walter

Director, U.S. Channel Sales Distribution

Head of Channel Sales, Distribution

Distribution Marketing Manager, Americas

VP, Marketing

Walker built a new tier within the channel program that is specifically segmented toward partners of a distinguished grouping. This dedicated program is designed to provide those partners with the tools, education, product access and discounts needed to be successful in AI.

Walkey’s team was nimble and flexible enough to meet the challenges created by the pandemic. The team pivoted to a digital/virtual platform, adapted strategic direction and adopted business continuity plans to accommodate the uncertainty while meeting the needs of partners.

Walline enabled partners to expand their portfolios and find added revenue streams. The lack of travel during the pandemic proved to be an initial challenge but industry adoption of more video calls allowed for continued “face-to-face” meetings, albeit from a distance.

Walshe focused on optimizing the alignment between the company, distribution sellers and partners to achieve growth. She spearheaded the Americas initiative to refine the distribution business planning process to determine the best use of MDF investments.

As the pandemic hit, Performive set out to build a new channel program and a new brand from the ground up, as the company was formerly known as Total Server Solutions. Walter helped launch both in August 2020.

Michelle Wang

Adrianne Ward

Tiffany Ward

Shannon Warner

Jaime Waterfield

Sr. Director, Commercial, Alliance Presales

VP, Cloud, Ecosystems

Okta

Director, Professional Services

D&H Distributing

Synnex

Apex Digital Solutions

Over the past ye a r, Wa n g optimized the Canada channel marketing strategy and execution, managed a virtual engagement push and led her team to be productive and accomplish more in challenging times.

Ward has built a team that has delivered e n a b l e m e nt and accreditation programs to expand Okta knowledge worldwide throughout the partner ecosystem. This maturing of partners’ technical abilities allows Okta to drive more revenue and deal recognition.

After recognizing the market demand and importance of offering full solutions to partners, Ward spearheaded a new services division. She developed a robust catalog of value-added services that propelled D&H’s channel business to new levels.

Wa r n e r l e d business development within the Stellr cloud, mobility and IoT organization for Google, mobility and ecosystems, delivering substantial revenue growth. Her organization also led the 5G acceleration initiative, partnering with key market leaders.

Waterfield has l e d s e ve ra l go-to-market initiatives to POWER 60 SP bolster Apex’s brand, portfolio and pipeline, including acceptance into exclusive partner programs for Meetings Rooms and security and co-selling with Microsoft to drive Teams adoption.

Diana Waterman

Lindsey Watts

Alison Webb

Sunnie Weber

Kysha Weeks

Sr. Director, Partner Experience

Sr. Director, Marketing

Avalara

Director, Solutions, Marketing

True Digital Security

IoT Scale Channel Partner Programs Manager

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Programs

An overhaul of the company’s partner program documentation under Waterman’s leadership resulted in updated messaging, revamped web pages, new partner program pitch decks and a new partner advocate program.

2020 presented challenges to one of the c o m p a n y ’s strongest channel partners, as many of its end-user industries were struggling. Watts worked hand in hand with partnership heads to drive research, innovative engagements and sales.

Webb launched a strategy to accelerate the channel business through POWER 100 partner recruitment. She designed a comprehensive partner recruitment strategy and exceeded annual targets to bring more channel partners into the Vertiv family.

Weber developed a value exchange, integrating the best of Intel’s offering capability to support solution providers in their IT/OT convergence strategies, regardless of their vertical market focus. A key value of the program is being able to extend it to ecosystem partners as well.

Weeks came on board to create the framework of the new Secure Partner Program. In eight months, she analyzed the partner community, developed programs to drive partner growth and launched the program. She also took ownership of refreshing goto-market channel messaging.

Citrix Systems

DDN

Director, Marketing, USA, Canada, Western Europe Channel

Tripp Lite

88

Jennifer Walcott

Carahsoft Technology

Tripp Lite

VP, Marketing

D&H Distributing

Jabra

Vertiv

Blancco Technology Group

Extreme Networks

Intel

VMware

Performive

Chief Revenue Officer

Sectigo

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 4

5/28/21 11:32 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Michelle Welch

Peyton Wegleitner

Polly Weiss

Channel Sales Manager

Sr. Strategic Partner Manager

SVP, Marketing, Channel

The launch of a competitive and resourceful channel program that will serve HPN’s partners across the nation was Wegleitner’s key accomplishment. The program includes pricing, partner benefits and more. She is also establishing new solutions to present to the channel.

Weiss guided her joint Citrix and channel partner team to quickly move to a secure remote working environment during the pandemic.

She also implemented a structure of consistent virtual pipeline reviews, training and end customer co-selling activity.

We l c h w a s instrumental to managing WatchGuard’s acquisition of POWER 100 Panda Security and subsequent efforts to utilize a common, channel-centric go-to-market across both organizations, making the combined company’s complete portfolio available to all partners.

Delivering t r a n s p a re n t communications due to the unique POWER 100 challenges of the pandemic was Welch’s priority. She supported her organization as it converted overnight from a field sales organization to 100 percent virtual channel account management.

Dalyn Wertz

Jamie Werve

Cheri Wesinger

Jennifer Whaley

Sheryl Wharff

Executive Director, Indirect Program Management

Director, Digital Commerce Strategy

Director, Channel Marketing, North America

Director, North America Data Center Group Channel Programs

Global Alliance Marketing Director

High Point Networks

Comcast Business

Citrix Systems

Insight Enterprises

WatchGuard Technologies

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Wendy Welch Executive Director, U.S. Distribution, Partner Sales

Lenovo

Lenovo

Maitjian Welke Founder, Principal

CMIT Solutions of Silicon Valley

As founder and principal of CMIT Solution of Silicon Valley, Welke continued to focus the company’s channel and alliance program this past year to deliver and implement cybersecurity product solutions.

Quantexa

In an industry that is so e ve n t - a n d relationshipheavy, Wertz’s POWER 100 team last year had to quickly shift over 100 events to virtual activities. She built virtual team-building opportunities for channel managers to engage with partners.

Werve led the e - commerce team in onboarding customers, providing differentiated experiences to streamline the acquisition of technology solutions and helping customers to achieve their desired business outcomes.

Wesinger has become a stronger “partner-first” advocate by POWER 100 increasing partner executive sponsorships to learn more about partners’ marketing practices. Thanks to these perspectives, she has been able to nurture greater mutual success.

As the director of the North America Data Center Group channel team, POWER 100 Whaley has led the design of programs and promotions that have been well received by partners, who are seeing some of the highest rebates since the adoption of these programs.

Wh a r f f h a s managed integrated marketing strategies and campaigns that have built 22X pipeline. She also provided program support that helped to increase year-over-year SaaS alliance partner sales by 27 percent.

Christi Whipple

Kimberly White

Marcia White

Lena Wiegering

Heather Wilcox

Director, National Partner Sales

Dir., Digital Transformation Business Process Leader, Financial Services

Sr. Manager, Americas Cloud Provider Marketing

VMware

Field Marketing Director, Client Solutions

Dell Technologies

White and her team developed and launched innovative financing offers to the partner community on top of facilitating numerous webinars. As a result, they grew the North America channel business in fiscal year 2020.

Th e l a u n c h of the Cloud Acceleration Pro g ra m , a Marketingas-a-Service program for cloud provider partners, was the top accomplishment for Wiegering last year. It allowed partners to easily roll out digital programs in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Wilcox focused on growing premium produ c t s w h e re partners make the most profit, remaining No. 1 in commercial core notebooks and Precision workstations and displays. Partners were able to grow their SMB customer base and win business.

Kristin Willard

Amanda Williams

Amy Williams

Channel Manager, West

Channel Marketing Manager

Pier Group

Director, Partner Marketing

Avalara

VMware

Whipple collaborated with other marketing leaders to overcome the biggest challenge of 2020— pivoting from live events, the top partner marketing channel, to focus on doing more and better webinars with partners.

White leveraged partners’ strengths to create life cycle services mapped to VMware’s platform.

In some cases, partners became MSPs, delivering VMware SaaSbased solutions with design, architect, on-boarding and consumption services.

Raquel Wiley

Nichole WileyMarks

Sr. Channel Marketing Manager

TPx

Wiley helped the channel team and sales partners through two significant transitions in 2020.

The first was communicating the shift to TPx 2.0, including new ownership, leadership and vision. The second was enabling partners to adapt to new ways of selling during the pandemic.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

VP, Customer Experience

Exabeam

Wiley-Marks led the organ i z at i o n i n the implementation of intelligent automation throughout the quote-to-cash cycle. She also delivered end-to-end information capabilities, providing suppliers and channel partners with a 360-degree view into their book of business.

Diving headfirst into virtual e ve n t s a n d training was key for Willard.

She had to rethink how Exabeam was going to market with the channel and was able to create marketing events for partners to leverage and co-brand.

Arrow Electronics

Barco

Williams identified an oppor tunit y to recharge Barco’s MDF guidelines to better support channel partners through marketing investments. Collaborating with her European counterpart, she developed Barco’s MDF program in the Americas.

CEO, Owner

Williams guided Pier Group’s vendor and distributor POWER 60 SP relationships in response to the pandemic and its impact on customers. This included expanding net terms and developing new offerings to meet the shift to remote learning.

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 5

89

5/28/21 11:33 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Rachel WilliamsPetit Outside Channel Manager

Tanya Wills Sr. Director, Channels, Alliances

Barracuda Networks

Ensono

The majority of the partners Williams-Petit manages overachieved their revenue targets, and most experienced significant year-over-year growth due to long-term investment with Barracuda Networks.

Wills has leve r a g e d ke y relationships in the channel, POWER 60 SP s p e c i f i c a l l y public cloud with Microsoft, as Ensono builds out its cloud practice. She is leading strategy, partner field alignment and partner marketing to drive leads.

Andrea Winkle Director, Marketing

Mary Catherine Wilson Sr. Director, Global Marketing

Sara Wilson

Amy Wingate

Channel Sales Director, Latin America

Chief Credit Risk Officer, Global Partner

Veeam Software

Cisco Systems

Wilson looked at how to engage channel partners to offer VirPOWER 100 tustream solutions in joint marketing and go-to-market activities. She enabled partners with customer-facing material and expertise.

Just before the pandemic hit, Wilson held the first Latin America and Caribbean Partner Advisory Council, with 20 top partners in attendance. Veeam achieved No. 2 market-share position in first-half 2020, according to IDC.

In her role at Cisco, Wingate can speak the language of CFOs around risk management and payments.

Whenever there is a complexity, she is the bridge that gets everyone on the same page.

Ola Witukiewicz

Andrea Wolf

Robin Wolf

Andrea Wolff

Sr. Community Manager

Executive Director, Strategic Accounts

Sr. Director, Enterprise Partner Marketing

Director, Professional Services

Virtustream, a Dell

Technologies business

Insight Enterprises

N-able

During the pandemic, Insight marketing helped customers maintain continuity by providing new channels of digital engagement. Winkle guided the team’s pivot to remote work and digital events during a challenging time.

The rollout of high-value engagement programs to help support the success of MSP partners was Witukiewicz’s top accomplishment. She listened, learned and contributed to the conversations happening within the ecosystem’s communities and forums.

Wolf has been instrumental in building solutions around POWER 60 SP Trace3’s offering, especially in emerging areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, innovative IT infrastructure solutions and cybersecurity for Trace3’s most strategic accounts around health care.

Wolf increased the ease of going to market with Nvidia and accelerated partner activation. She focused on increasing partner leads through a programmatic approach to help partners easily execute global marketing campaigns.

Wolff ’s work ethic is the single most influential POWER 60 SP attribute to support Evotek’s success and hypergrowth. Her passion for quality, bias for action and genuine interest in doing what’s right for the customer, and for the business, contribute directly to the company’s bottom line.

Sara Wollesen

Deborah Wong

Kelly Wong

Leslie Wood

Sandra Woods

Success, Services Lead

Cisco Systems

Director, Global Partner Program Operations

President

Qlik

CMIT Solutions of Columbus

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

IntelePeer saw t re m e n d o u s growth among enterprises l o o ki n g fo r new technologies to maintain business operations during the pandemic. Wollesen helped partners navigate this new territory and position IntelePeer’s communications platform with customers.

Wong founded the first dedicated regional partner success team, establishing the goals and strategy while executing the plan with targeted initiatives that transform partners’ customer success practices. This included building a team across the region.

Wong ensures Qlik’s program health and back-office functions for the channel are in top form. She worked cross-functionally to put channels top of mind in key corporate initiatives to improve the partner experience and ease of doing business.

Wood has been able to market and sell to many new managed services customers this year, even with the pandemic. She enabled the company to grow and increase gross revenue sales from last year with hardware and installation projects.

Wo o d s wa s ke y to t h e Public Sector Partner Experience Event that educated 1,400-plus emerging partners on cloud migrations and other topics to help accelerate their activation. She also launched a Public Sector Concierge Marketing program to help partners execute joint marketing.

Diane Wright

Traci Wright

Christie Y’Barbo

Sr. Director, Global Field, Partner Marketing

Sasha WrightNeville

Isabella Yani

Director, Business Operations

Director, Sales Operations, Business Development

Channel Account Manager

Wright drove the advancement of API t e c h n o l o g y, built out additional organizational structure to support the ArrowSphere cloud delivery and management platform, and led the move to agile project management.

Wright’s 2020 goal was to reposition the channel to become a strategic revenue contributor to Sungard AS, ensuring its highly available hybrid IT offerings can help partners address customers’ unique requirements.

Director, Partner Marketing

IntelePeer

Arrow ECS

90

Sungard Availability Services

Trace3

Nvidia

Evotek

Amazon Web Services

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Program, Strategy, Innovation Lead

Cisco Systems

AT&T

The evolution of the partner oppor tunit y re g i s t rat i o n program has been Wright-Neville’s focus.

She is aligning the program to VMware’s business objectives and creating a platform to demonstrate value.

Ya n i c a m e into her role following a reorganization and was tasked POWER 100 with ensuring that the organization’s sales operations and business development teams were rightsized and focused on the correct areas to move the business forward.

Y’Barbo is laser-focused on driving revenue growth across AT&T business segments by expanding indirect seller distribution, growing relationships and transforming market strategies.

VMware

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 6

5/28/21 11:33 AM

of 2021 Women the Channel

Sherry Yu

Maya Zakhour

Global Director, Cloud Success Architect For SAP

Director, Channel Sales, EMEA, Italy, Spain

SUSE

Within the first six months after joining SUSE, Yu helped to remove technical roadblocks that had prevented partners from recommending SUSE to their customers, including a lack of competitive intelligence and an SAP certification.

NetApp

As NetApp introduced a partner-led strategy across EMEA in 2020, Zakhour worked with the partner community to introduce the program, which is focused on building top partners’ and distributors’ growth areas with rich, guaranteed incentive programs.

Jessie Zhang

Farrah Zidehsarai

Global Partner Sales Director, Greater China

Director, Advanced Solutions

UiPath

Over the past year, Zhang achieved over 100 percent of global systems integrator partner bookings. She established strategic partnerships with Accenture, Capgemini, EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC and worked side by side with them to wrestle with the challenges of COVID-19.

Ingram Micro

One of the priorities last year at Ingram Micro was to further enable partners’ success through up-skilling and expansion of engagement. Zidehsarai focused on the partner journey and developed a path for partners to advance certifications.

Michelle Zeid Sr. Partner Marketing Manager, North America

Citrix Systems

Zeid continues to share ideas and best practices with her marketing colleagues and sales leadership. She has prospected new third-party resources as part of her efforts to find new and unique ways to help create and spruce up demand generation activities.

Rebecca Zsolnay Product Marketing Coordinator

Connection

Zsolnay has expanded her knowledge of digital marketing to better assist in the transformative working environment. She earned her HubSpot certification in inbound marketing and attended various industry workshops on current business topics.

Join for Free Today!

An online community dedicated to helping women from across the IT Channel thrive both professionally and personally. www.thechannelcocommunities.com

JUNE 2021

2021_WOTC_961-1086.indd 7

91

5/28/21 11:34 AM

S OLUTI ON PR OVI D E R 5 00

Fast-Forwarding To The Future It’s been over a year since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, and solution providers are still innovating to meet the new demands for digital transformation

By Rick Whiting

T

o say that 2020 was a challenge for the IT industry would be an understatement. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and the economy sputtered, businesses and organizations froze IT spending amid the uncertainty and slammed the brakes on IT projects. At the same time, demand surged for laptop computers, collaboration and videoconferencing applications, and cloud computing systems needed to support millions of employees suddenly forced to work from home.

Amid all the challenges, solution providers—from the biggest global systems integrator to the smallest local PC repair shop—quickly pivoted to meet the rapidly changing needs of their customers.

One year later, it’s clear that the pandemic has brought many changes for solution providers and their customers.

“COVID has hit a giant fast-forward button to the future, and we believe the demand to innovate at unprecedented speed and scale with rapid adoption of cloud, AI and other disruptive technologies is accelerating,” said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet during an earnings call on March 18.

On the following page we provide the top 50 companies on the 2021 edition of the CRN Solution Provider 500, the annual ranking of the largest solution providers by revenue in North America.

IBM Global Services has been No. 1 on the Solution Provider 500 for many years and Accenture No. 2 since 2015. But this year they have reversed positions, with Accenture taking the No. 1 spot.

Accenture managed 3 percent revenue growth to $44.33 billion in its fiscal 2020. Some of that was certainly driven by the company’s aggressive acquisition strategy that resulted in some 30 acquisitions in 2020.

IBM, including its services operations, has been operating under new management since April 2020 when Arvind Krishna took over as CEO. In October IBM surprised the industry when

92

it announced a plan to split into two companies, spinning off its Global Technology Services (GTS) business as a separate $19 billion company named Kyndryl that will focus on managed infrastructure services. IBM will retain $8 billion of the GTS cloud service consulting business as well as the $17 billion Global Business Services unit.

Those changes are sure to reorder the top of the Solution Provider 500 in the future—possibly with both IBM and Kyndryl making the top 10.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, Tata Consultancy Services moved up to No. 3, swapping places with DXC Technology (now No. 4).

Capgemini moved up to No. 7, trading positions with NTT Data Services (now No. 8).

Throughout the top 50, a number of companies made impressive gains on this year’s list, either through organic growth, acquisitions or a combination of the two. AHEAD, which acquired solution providers RoundTower Technologies and Kovarus in September, jumped from No. 36 in 2020 to No. 28. Computacenter FusionStorm surged from No. 44 to No. 27, due at least in part to its acquisition of Pivot Technology Solutions last year.

Elsewhere on the top 50, Converge Technology Solutions moved up from No. 50 in 2020 to No. 39 this year while Denali Advanced Integration leaped from No. 75 to No. 48. And Sterling, No. 57 in 2020, cracked the top 50 this year at No. 50.

This year’s Solution Provider 500 list also includes 21 companies that are new to the list, including Trox (No. 60), CDS (No. 391) and Edafio Technology Partners (No. 463).

When it comes to revenue, the Solution Provider 500 collectively generated $403 billion, up 2.5 percent from the previous year’s list.

Scan here to see the full report. To purchase the list with all collected firmographic data, contact sales@thechannelcompany.com or call 508-416-1175.

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_SP500.indd 1

5/28/21 12:39 PM

THE LIST: 1-50 2021 Rank

2020 Rank

Company

North America Location

Website

Top Executive

1

2

Accenture

Chicago

accenture.com

Julie Sweet, CEO

2

1

IBM Global Services

Armonk, N.Y.

ibm.com

Arvind Krishna, CEO

3

4

Tata Consultancy Services

New York

tcs.com

Rajesh Gopinathan, Managing Director, CEO

4

3

DXC Technology

Tysons, Va.

dxc.technology

Mike Salvino, President, CEO

5

5

CDW

Vernon Hills, Ill.

cdw.com

Christine Leahy, President, CEO

6

6

Cognizant

Teaneck, N.J.

cognizant.com

Brian Humphries, CEO

7

8

Capgemini

Wayne, Pa.

capgemini.com

Aiman Ezzat, CEO

8

7

NTT Data Services

Plano, Texas

nttdata.com

Bob Pryor, CEO

9

9

World Wide Technology

Maryland Heights, Mo. wwt.com

James Kavanaugh, CEO

10

10

Leidos

Reston, Va.

leidos.com

Roger Krone, CEO

11

12

CGI

Montreal, Quebec

cgi.com

George Schindler, President, CEO

12

11

SHI International

Somerset, N.J.

shi.com

Thai Lee, President, CEO

13

14

GDIT

Falls Church, Va.

gdit.com

Amy Gilliland, President

14

15

Insight Enterprises

Tempe, Ariz.

insight.com

Ken Lamneck, President, CEO (Retiring this year)

15

17

Carahsoft Technology

Reston, Va.

carahsoft.com

Craig Abod, President

16

13

Wipro Technologies

East Brunswick, N.J.

wipro.com

Thierry Delaporte, CEO, Managing Director

17

16

SoftwareOne North America

Waukesha, Wis.

softwareone.com

Ashley Gaare, President, North America

18

18

CACI

Reston, Va.

caci.com

John Mengucci, President, CEO

19

19

Perspecta

Chantilly, Va.

perspecta.com

Mac Curtis, President, CEO

20

20

Conduent

Florham Park, N.J.

conduent.com

Cliff Skelton, President, CEO

21

21

Sirius

San Antonio

siriuscom.com

Joe Mertens, President, CEO

22

22

Presidio

New York

presidio.com

Bob Cagnazzi, CEO

23

27

EPAM Systems

Newtown, Pa.

epam.com

Arkadiy Dobkin, President, CEO Dave Seybold, CEO, North America

24

25

Atos

Irving, Texas

atos.net/en/northamerica

25

26

Optiv

Denver

optiv.com

Kevin Lynch, CEO

26

24

Connection

Merrimack, N.H.

connection.com

Timothy McGrath, President, CEO

27

44

Computacenter Fusionstorm

New Yorkx

computacenter.com

Mike Norris, CEO

28

36

AHEAD

Chicago

ahead.com

Daniel Adamany, CEO

29

23

Unisys

Blue Bell, Pa.

unisys.com

Peter Altabef, CEO

30

28

Zones

Auburn, Wash.

zones.com

Firoz Lalji, CEO

31

28

Avanade

Seattle

avanade.com

Pamela Maynard, CEO

32

37

Softchoice

Toronto

softchoice.com

Vince De Palma, President, CEO

33

30

Slalom Consulting

Seattle

slalom.com

Brad Jackson, CEO

34

31

ConvergeOne

Bloomington, Minn.

convergeone.com

John McKenna Jr., CEO

35

35

ePlus Technology

Herndon, Va.

eplus.com

Mark Marron, President, CEO

36

34

Consolidated Communications

Mattoon, Ill.

consolidate.com

Bob Udell, President, CEO

37

38

Virtusa

Southborough, Mass.

virtusa.com

Kris Canekeratne, CEO (Leaving June 30)

38

36

AVI-SPL

Tampa, Fla.

avispl.com

John Zettel, CEO

39

50

Converge Technology Solutions

Toronto, Ontario

convergetp.com

Shaun Maine, CEO

40

33

CBTS

Cincinnati

cbts.com

Leigh Fox, President, CEO

41

39

Trace3

Irvine, Calif.

trace3.com

Rich Fennessy, CEO

42

–

CDW Canada

Etobicoke, Ontario

cdw.ca

Ginette Adragna, VP, GM

43

42

CyrusOne

Dallas

cyrusone.com

Bruce Duncan, President, CEO

44

45

Diversified

Kenilworth, N.J.

diversifiedus.com

Fred D’Alessandro, CEO

45

43

Iron Bow

Herndon, Va.

ironbow.com

Rene LaVigne, President, CEO

46

41

CompuCom

Fort Mill, S.C.

compucom.com

Mick Slattery, President

47

40

HTC Global Services

Troy, Mich.

htcinc.com

Madhava Reddy, President, CEO

48

75

Denali Advanced Integration

Redmond, Wash.

denaliai.com

Majdi Daher, Founder, CEO

49

49

Red River

Claremont, N.H.

redriver.com

Alan Dumas, CEO

50

57

Sterling

North Sioux City, S.D.

sterling.com

Brad Moore, President, CEO

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_SP500.indd 2

93

5/28/21 12:40 PM

ON TH E R ECOR D

Why Strategic Service Providers Are Accelerating

I

By Robert Faletra N HIGH-TECH WE LOVE to talk about how fast

things move. But do they? In some ways, yes, but in reality the big changes take time.

For someone like me who has been watching and chronicling the industry since the early 1980s, I can rattle off a lot of fast-moving trends that were hyped as rapid accelerators that often took a decade or more to take hold.

Perhaps it’s because CRN has always watched, researched and predicted these changes, it seems to take longer because we start talking about them long before they become a reality.

Cloud computing is a great example. We began debating how it was going to happen in our editorial pages and at our XChange events four or five years before the world even had grasped the concept behind it.

As part of the cloud movement, we did some major research in 2015 and presented much of the findings in 2016 where we began to categorize the solution provider business models in new ways. It was then that we introduced the term “strategic service provider.”

Now here we are five years later and it’s still evolving, and the industry is talking about the speed at which it’s happening. In the end, the speed isn’t important. It takes time for the market to adjust and for business models to change, but we always get there.

The strategic service provider model is now coming into its own in a more visible and pronounced way because the market forces have helped the acceptance of it. The partner community was ready for it when we identified it in 2015, but the end-user community and the vendor/supplier world were not.

Let’s face it, the internal IT departments inside the customer base did not have a lot of incentive to push for the outsourcing of their own jobs.

There were a lot of IT departments that resisted the idea of everything from pushing server farms and data backups

94

into the cloud, knowing that meant fewer jobs internally. It’s human nature to protect your own self-interests.

Having the ability to walk over to a user’s desk when a problem occurred was an essential pitch of why it needed to be handled in-house. Being part of internal strategic meetings where IT would need to understand its role to help move the business forward was key.

In addition, the vendor community needed to rework and reconceptualize its programs and how it needed to interact with the evolving sales and strategic service provider world.

The vendor community began the transition far earlier than the customer base because there was little reason to attempt to slow its pace. What did slow it down were compensation plans for the sales force that needed to be fixed.

But when COVID-19 came along and suddenly nearly every employee in most businesses vanished from the office, the internal IT department was as remote as an outsourced strategic service provider.

And if much of what was used in terms of productivity applications wasn’t already in the cloud, it sure needed to be ASAP. Cost-cutting by customers became important, and outsourcing what wasn’t a core competency become an easy conversation.

So now here we are more than a year after the COVID-19 virus arrived from China, and we are seeing an acceleration in the strategic service provider model.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell, Cisco and other major suppliers have their programs and strategy keyed up in such a way to push this forward.

The end-user customer base is ready and accepting that it’s the way forward. If you’re not on board yet, you better get there fast. n

BACKTALK: Make something happen. Robert Faletra is Executive Chairman of The Channel Company. You can contact him via email at rfaletra@thechannelcompany.com.

JUNE 2021

CRN_June2021_Faletra.indd 1

5/27/21 4:20 PM

CRN Newsletters Keep You Up To Date Breaking News Alerts  Industry Event Coverage  Highly Acclaimed Lists

Subscribe Today!

CRN.com/Newsletters

©2021 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN and The Channel Company logo are registered trademarks of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

HPE DISCOVER 2021 WHERE INSIGHTS COME TO LIGHT HPE Discover is coming to shine a light on digital transformation, and take your customer’s data out of the darkness. Dive into talks with global industry leaders, can’t-miss announcements, and hands-on tech demos—and get ready to bring insights to light in an edge-to-cloud world.

It all starts June 22.

Register today and build your custom agenda.

hpe.com/discover

HPE_Discover2021_CRN_Ad_v01.indd 1

5/24/21 2:33 PM