CRN Women Of The Year 2023: The Finalists

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Judith Breen

Director, Strategic Partnerships

Insight Enterprises

Judith Breen is a dynamic and caring leader with proven achievements in areas of channel sales, organizational development, relationship management, partnership building and community relations. With more than 26 years of experience in the technology industry, Judith has been at Insight for more than 5 years and has Canadian responsibility for partner alliances. Prior to Insight, Judith spent 13 years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she held roles in sales strategy, sales, international business, and sales operations.

She studied business and psychology at Concordia University and the University of Quebec in Montreal and earned a mini-MBA at McGill University. Judith has a passion for mentoring individuals and building strong teams. She believes in leading from the front, that diversity of thoughts is not an option for success, and that how you conduct yourself is as important as what you accomplish.

Jump to a category:

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Alyssa Hall

Chief Marketing Officer

CDI

Currently serving as Chief Marketing Officer for CDI, Alyssa Hall is responsible for creating and accelerating the company’s marketing strategy and brand recognition across the globe. She is focused on all marketing efforts, including content, marketing operations around leads and data, media relations, campaigns and events, and partner business development. During her 6 years with the company, partner relationships have catapulted from 5 to over 200, and, through acquisitions and organic growth, the company has tripled both in the size of its workforce and in revenue.

In addition to her more traditional responsibilities within the marketing and business development realm, Alyssa often serves as the face of the brand, conducting celebrity interviews at CDI’s many elite events.

Alyssa was awarded the coveted CDI Game Changer Award and has been included in the CRN Women of the Channel Power 60, Power 70, and Power 80 lists for three years running. She also proudly serves as founder and executive sponsor of the Women of CDI Employee Resource Group.

When not working with her amazing team at CDI, Alyssa is employed as chauffer, chef, and bank teller for her 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. They live in Livingston, NJ with their cat, Stevie.

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Tracey Hayes

SVP, Sales

MicroAge

Tracey Hayes, a channel business development expert with more than 25 years of experience, supports MicroAge’s sales management team and account executives in navigating their approach and achieving the best possible results for their clients. She joined MicroAge 30 years ago and has worked in several positions while learning the industry and the business to gain a comprehensive understanding of both. Tracey has been able to do what she loves as the Senior Vice President of Sales at a profitable and fast-growing IT solutions and services company.

Tracey specializes in helping others realize and achieve their personal and professional goals. Servant leadership is at the heart of her work, from collaborating with Human Resources to create an award-winning company culture to helping account executives make a difference for their clients while building brighter futures and even mentoring some of them into sales leadership positions. Making an impact matters to Tracey beyond job descriptions and KPIs. Tracey chairs MicroAge’s ActTogether initiatives—a program dedicated to helping MicroAgers nationwide give back to local and national non-profits and critical causes.

Tracey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Arizona State University.

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Valerie Henderson

President

Caylent

Val Henderson is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in the technology industry. Val is often recognized for her leadership capabilities and consistent ability to exceed growth targets and expectations across a multitude of roles, geographies and remits.

Leading various teams at both SHI and Rackspace over the last decade, Val joined Caylent with an intention to build an elite Go-To-Market engine to elevate Caylent as the preeminent pure-play AWS Premier Services partner. Val’s experience of running large scale organizations lends itself to the acceleration of Caylent’s growth plans for the future.

Powered by drive and a passion for execution, with the promotion to President & CRO, Val leading the sales, marketing and solutions strategy for Caylent. Val’s commitment to customers, the AWS partnership and employees is exemplified in her passion for raising the bar and staying focused on customer engagement.

In addition, Val is one of the co-founders of the Caylien Collective. Caylien Collective’s mission is to empower and foster a more inclusive world and work environment through investing in education, community engagement, inclusive recruitment practices and consciously building a safe and embracive community both internally and externally to Caylent.

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Sandy Hogan

Chief Revenue Officer

SADA

As the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) for SADA, Sandy Hogan is laser-focused on delivering customer value throughout their entire lifecycle, supporting SADA’s customers-for-life mission. With a proven track record of driving hypergrowth through her customer-first approach, Sandy brings a wealth of experience building integrated, scalable go-to-market capabilities as CRO overseeing SADA’s global sales and international expansion.

Hogan joins SADA with 20+ years of experience in tech and 30+ years of experience in GTM leadership roles, driving massive growth through her customer-first approach. She led the $10 billion VMware partner ecosystem and its commercial business. Before VMware, she was EVP and GM at Rackspace and HERE for Americas. Prior to that, Hogan spent 15 years with Cisco Systems in various GTM and transformation roles helping customers improve their business outcomes.

Sandy has led multiple outcome-based, go-to-market models that have transformed how organizations sell and partner, deliver customer value, achieve above-market growth, and scale.

Sandy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Psychology from Lake Forest College and resides in the Chicago area.

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Karen Penticost

VP of Development & Operations

Envision Technology Advisors

Karen Penticost is the VP of Development & Operation for Envision Technology Advisors. Within that role she wears many hats including M&A, Contract Negotiations, Customer Satisfaction, Vendor Relations, & Company Strategy. She is also the VP of Channel & Client Success for Huddle, Envisions Channel Partner arm, which she started two years ago. Huddle brings Cyber Security & Microsoft services to MSP’s & Solution Providers arming them with additional value-added services for their clients. Karen has held a wide range of leadership positions across the US. Her career has been focused on building & strengthening Vendor Relations & Partnerships. She has a passion & a strength for building & motivating high performing teams & strong client relationships. She has won numerous awards for her contributions & is very active in the women’s leadership. Five years ago, along with 2 others she started Women of Massachusetts Engagement Network (W.O.M.E.N), to create a space for women to come together, ignite inspiration & build community. Karen is a former Life Coach & has been an instrumental part in many animal rescue organizations across the US. Karen resides in a suburb of Boston MA with her family & her rescue dogs.

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Kellianne Vanderdys

Commercial Area Sales Vice President

SHI International

Kellianne Vanderdys grew up on Long Island, New York, and after graduating from Hofstra University, she made the move to Austin, Texas. Currently, she resides in Austin with her husband, Alex, and her 9-month-old daughter, Via. They are also excitedly awaiting the arrival of another daughter in December 2023.

Her journey with SHI began when they discovered her on LinkedIn and joined as an Inside Seller. Through hard work and dedication, she quickly transitioned into leadership roles within the Inside Named division. This led to an opportunity in New York City, where she took on the responsibility of leading the field team and driving business growth. She was then presented with an exciting chance to return to Austin and build a new team for the company’s Overlay organization. This experience further propelled her career, and she was promoted to the role of Regional Director for our East Inside Named business.

At the age of 30, she achieved a significant milestone in her career when she was promoted to VP of Commercial Sales in January 2022. She is proud to have held this role since then, and continues to strive to make a positive impact within the company.

Woman of the Year - Solution Provider

Amy Williams

CEO

PIER Group

Amy Williams, commencing right out of college, has been in the IT Channel for more than 30 years. During her first 25 years, Amy served as VP of Marketing and Partner Relationships for a localized IT partner in the Midwest. This role provided Amy the responsibility for building, managing, and maintaining strong relationships with a majority of the industry’s leading IT manufacturers where she formed hundreds of relationships with some of the tech industry’s leading channel chiefs. In December of 2017, Amy made the difficult decision to leverage her experience and channel skills to start her own company, PIER Group LLC. Amy’s new organization was formally founded in January 2018. The company’s sole focus, following Amy’s passion, is in helping our country’s leading research entities continue to advance research and innovation, keeping our country in a leadership position on a worldwide scale. PIER Group provides specialized consulting, design, implementation, and support for many of the nation’s largest research networks and most critical high-performance research compute clusters. Philanthropy, also critical to Amy, is a flagship of the company as well.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Stefanie Chiras

SVP, Partner Ecosystem Success

Red Hat

Stefanie Chiras is Senior Vice President of Partner Ecosystem Success at Red Hat, leading Red Hat’s global partner ecosystem engagement to foster relevance for our customers and growth for our partners. She focuses on setting the global partner strategy and establishing clear paths for partner success across the entire ecosystem. Chiras plays a critical role in articulating the value of Red Hat’s product portfolio and defining the strategy for partnering with Red Hat for customer success.

Chiras has held several senior product leadership positions at Red Hat, most recently as Senior Vice President of the Platforms Business Group, where she was responsible for defining, building, and executing the company’s cross-platform strategy and the products that support it. Prior to that, Chiras was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux organization at Red Hat.

Before Red Hat, Chiras served as Vice President of Offering Management at IBM Cognitive Systems. As part of the Cognitive Systems brand team, she led worldwide business for the systems and system software portfolios, AIX, IBM i, Linux, and the cloud stack. She also led the portfolio’s transformation to support enterprise workloads and artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning.

Jump to a category:

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Rola Dagher

Global Channel Chief

Dell Technologies

Leadership is not simply a role that you fill; it is an action that you take each day. This philosophy guides Rola Dagher, Dell Technologies Global Channel Chief.

Dagher returned to Dell Technologies in 2020 after leading as President of Cisco Canada for three years. Her impact on the Channel business has been recognized with her being named one of CRN’s 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs of 2022, and a Channel Futures 2022 Channel Influencer.

Dagher’s commitment to empowering women is shown through her recognition as one of the WOI+ 2020 Top 25 Women of Influence™ and a WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™.

Her perseverance and triumph through remarkable life experiences have earned her an Honorary Doctorate Degree (LL.D.) from McMaster University, and she is the recipient of the International Horatio Alger Award.

A champion of mental health and promoting underrepresented groups, Dagher sits on multiple boards, including the foundation board for the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health.

Dagher firmly believes that no one achieves greatness in a silo and that you have to learn it, earn it, and return it, a process that she works through at every stage of her career.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Jenni Flinders

SVP Worldwide Partner Group

NetApp

Jenni Flinders is the global Channel Chief at NetApp, where she is responsible for creating high-value programs that enable NetApp partners to thrive by wrapping their unique services into NetApp’s leading hybrid multicloud solutions as well. Jenni’s approach has always been to add value for partners. Most recently, this resulted in the launch of Partner Sphere, an innovative program that helps partners grow their business and their bottom line faster.

Before joining NetApp, Jenni was responsible for developing and executing partner strategies for world-class technology organizations. She has been recognized multiple times for leadership, including being named in the top 100 most powerful women in the channel and, more recently, by CRN as one of the top 100 executives in 2023.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Sami Jenkins

COO & Co-founder

ThreatLocker Inc.

Sami Jenkins is the COO and Co-Founder of ThreatLocker, a global cybersecurity firm providing Zero Trust endpoint security. With almost two decades of experience as an IT professional, Sami specializes in enhancing cybersecurity measures for businesses. Her role at ThreatLocker has resulted in its rapid expansion by tripling its workforce, driving growth by 4x from the beginning of last year, and providing overall strategic direction. Sami is passionate about cybersecurity and aspires to protect all businesses from ransomware and other cyberattacks through the implementation of a Zero Trust architecture. Sami enjoys figure skating with her husband and traveling with her three children when not at the office.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Colleen Kapase

SVP Worldwide Partners and Alliances

Snowflake

As Senior Vice President of WW Partner and Alliances, Colleen oversees the revenue, profit, and sales success of the Snowflake Partner Network (SPN) globally. Colleen leads the SPN and GTM strategy with Snowflake’s growing Data Cloud ecosystem of cloud, data provider, services, technology, and Powered by Snowflake partners. Under her leadership, the Snowflake Partner Network has grown to be a vibrant ecosystem of over 545 partners, with many building AI/LLM solutions.

Prior to this role, Colleen was Vice President of Partner GTM, Incentives and Programs at VMware, where she led the partner program for thousands of partners working with VMware globally. Kapse holds a masters degree in Business Administration and Management from Stanford University and has been honored as one of CRN Magazine’s Power 100 Women of the Channel as well as named among the top Channel Chiefs in previous years.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Gretchen O'Hara

Channel Chief and Vice President of Worldwide Partners & Alliances

Splunk

Gretchen O’Hara is the Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances at Splunk. She is responsible for evolving Splunk’s channel strategy and ecosystem to improve the customer and partner experience and scaling Splunk solutions to support customers operating in a distributed, hybrid, multicloud world.

With more than 25 years of channel sales, marketing, alliances and ecosystem development, Gretchen brings a passion for building ecosystems, business building and connecting sales, technical and marketing to deliver world-class solutions that address customers’ most important business outcomes.

She has deep experience across all partners and segments from Developers to Global ISVs and Small Business to the Enterprise and Public Sector. She is a people leader, and a channel and customer advocate with a track record of channel transformation, promoting women in STEM and leveraging technology to solve the world’s most vexing sustainability challenges.

Prior to Splunk, Gretchen was the Vice President of AI & Sustainability and Vice President of Go-To-Market for One Commercial Partner at Microsoft where she built multi million-dollar businesses.

Recognized as CRN Channel Chief and CRN Women of Channel Power 100 multiple years, she led the global cloud ecosystem strategy across core cloud solutions and ecosystem transformation to the cloud.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Tracy-Ann Palmer

VP, Global Channel Sales Programs & Channel Compliance

VMware

Tracy-Ann Palmer is Vice President of Global Channel Sales Programs & Channel Compliance at VMware. In this role she leads worldwide partner programs, investments, compliance, partner experience and practice development. Seasoned, well-rounded channel leader with 25+ years of global transformation experience and deep expertise across all areas of the business. Catalyst for change; savvy, courageous leader unafraid to tackle difficult challenges. Optimistic in the face of uncertainty, able to skillfully navigate through ambiguity and stay ahead of the market. Fosters bold resilient leaders through passionate, empathetic mentorship. With an innovative mindset, develops winning cultures and empowers people to deliver value beyond their own expectations. Celebrated motivational speaker known for accelerating growth in the face of adversity and exceptional entrepreneurial success.

Prior to joining VMware, Tracy-Ann held leadership roles spanning global sales, channel, GTM, business operations, and global strategy and transformation at AWS, Rackspace, Cisco, Salesforce, and in the start-up world – where she founded her own award-winning experiential marketing company. She is an active contributor in the community including serving on several boards. She founded We Build Character, a non-profit focused on building future leaders through executive mentoring programs. She is a Zimbabwean native residing in Texas with her husband.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Michelle Ragusa-McBain

Global Channel Chief

SonicWall

As the Global Channel Chief, Ragusa-McBain will be responsible for driving the channel ecosystem, enabling partners to grow and profit from the outside-in shift to cybersecurity.

With more than 18 years of partner experience, Michelle has successfully led, developed, managed, and grown channel ecosystems at Cisco, Office Depot | CompuCom, and JS Group. She has led managed services, subscription/consumption models, distribution, and alliances programs.

She and her teams have been recognized with numerous channel awards, and she has served on multiple boards and communities driving DE&I initiatives and developing the next generation of channel talent.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Mary Beth Walker

Vice President, Global Channel Strategy

Mary Beth Walker is the Head of Global Channel Strategy at HP. She is a seasoned sales executive with a wide range of experience in go-to-market (GTM) strategy and business planning. In her role leading HP’s Channel Strategy organization, she is responsible for the execution of HP’s GTM strategy with a global network of over 15,000 channel partners. She has been instrumental in rebuilding HP’s channel ecosystem to accommodate evolving market dynamics and continuing to propel the company forward as a recognized leader in channel partner program innovation.

Since joining HP in 2011, Mary Beth has held a variety of leadership roles, including management of the HP Amplify global partner program, running the worldwide GTM strategy team and managing the GTM team during the Hewlett-Packard Company separation in 2015 and Samsung print integration in 2018.

Woman of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Michelle Welch

Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Strategy

WatchGuard Technologies

Michelle Welch joined WatchGuard in 2015 and is responsible for shaping the company’s growth and transformation initiatives. She serves as the company’s chief marketing officer, responsible for the development and execution of WatchGuard’s global marketing strategy and channel operations team. As the senior vice president of business strategy, Michelle also leads critical, cross-functional initiatives focused on fueling operational excellence and company evolution.

Prior to WatchGuard, Michelle served as vice president of marketing at SafeNet, one of the largest information security companies in the world, where she worked to rebuild the company’s channel program and partner enablement platform. Michelle has also served in a variety of product, field, sales operations, and corporate marketing leadership roles and brings nearly 20 years of experience in security-focused B2B marketing to WatchGuard.

Michelle works tirelessly to enable WatchGuard’s partner ecosystem to deliver critical security protections for organizations battling increasingly sophisticated threats despite insufficient IT expertise, budgets, and skilled security staff. She and her team are key in supporting WatchGuard’s channel community and mission to make enterprise-grade security accessible to businesses of all types and sizes through simplicity.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Eileen Bishop

Director Channel Marketing & Strategy Execution

Schneider Electric

Eileen Bishop grew up in the Chicago suburbs and graduated from the University of Illinois in 2013. That’s where she learned about APC and Schneider Electric. She has now been with APC by SE for 9 years and held a variety of sales and sales management positions. Like many of the leaders in her company she started in our customer call center and worked my way up from there with each new position teaching her a different perspective around the customer and partner experience with her company. After working as a manager of Schneider’s Strategic Accounts ISRs he moved into the role of National Account Manager managing a significant portion of the company’s top partner revenue under the Channel Sales Organization. Two years ago, she was promoted to a role directly under our Channels VP, Shannon Sbar, where she is now responsible for Channel Marketing and Strategy Execution. In her current role she focuses on developing the strategy of the company’s partner programs in market.A dditionally, she helps create and execute the channel strategy for Channel Sales teams to ensure they are hitting revenue targets.

Jump to a category:

Channel Innovator of the Year

Jennifer Bodell

CVP of Channel

Pax8

As Corporate Vice President of Channel at Pax8, Jennifer is responsible for the channel event strategy, education, and enablement. She develops and manages key IT channel relationships, including new growth opportunities and the company’s award-winning partner program. Before joining Pax8, Jennifer held multiple channel-focused leadership positions at StorageCraft. She has earned several accolades, including CRN’s Power 100, Women of the Channel, CRN Channel Chief, 100 People You Don’t Know But Should, HTG’s Presenter of the Year, and was named a Rising Star by the Utah American Marketing Association. She holds a Bachelor degree in Business Communications from the University of Utah.

Being a true Leo, Jennifer’s creativity and confidence came early. Dancing, gymnastics, and cheerleading fueled her love of public performance. Now, she speaks at industry events, telling the Pax8 story and promoting the company’s value.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Betsy Cook

Global Channel Incentives Leader

Splunk

Betsy Cook is the Global Channel Incentives Leader at Splunk. Betsy is responsible for modernizing the Splunk Channel Incentives programs (including MDF). Betsy brings a background in finance and accounting that enhances her strategy for MDF and incentives. She is passionate about building best in class programs, innovation and collaboration between both sales and marketing, and ensuring compliance and risk mitigation in the programs she manages.

Prior to joining Splunk, Betsy was the Sr. Manager, Global BDF Program management at Nutanix where she built the BDF function from the ground up. Prior to Nutanix, Betsy spent 5 years at Red Hat beginning in procurement before leading the channel and OEM sales MDF function managing multi-million dollar MDF programs.

She holds a B.S. from North Carolina State University. Betsy resides in Wake Forest, NC.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Rebecca Klein

Head of Inside Sales Strategy and Programs, Strategic Partner & Alliances

Hitachi Vantara

Rebecca has 15+ years of IT leadership experience within complex global environments. She is an entrepreneurial, results-focused leader who leverages expertise in research and data analytics to identify and execute on opportunities. She works cross-organizationally with ease, to deliver successful projects and programs. She has a track record of consistently being selected for newly created roles within a complex global organization and charged with building teams/processes and systems from the ground up. She has led teams of various sizes and controlled budgets in excess of $10M. With a laser-like focus on driving sales growth through customer/partner satisfaction, she has transformed our Inside Sales organization and had huge impacts on our Partner Program’s success. She is recognized for her expertise in research and data analytics, as well as readiness and enablement. Rebecca also possesses a strong technical acumen and understanding of the IT Infrastructure space.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Michelle Krajewski

Manager, Distribution-Led Partners

Palo Alto Networks

In her tenure at Palo Alto Networks, Michelle managed one of Palo Alto Networks’ largest distributors for nearly three years before being promoted to the role of Manager for Distribution-Led Partners. She currently manages a team of seven Distribution Channel Account Managers.

She is based in the Denver area and has expertise and passion for the channel, having worked for a reseller partner, a distributor, and a vendor in her 22 year career. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing, International Business and Psychology from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University, and an MBA focused on Strategic Management and Marketing from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Michelle speaks fluent Polish and outside of work, she enjoys real estate investing, off-road and racing adventures with her US Air Force Technical Sergeant husband, Rob and their energetic German Shepherd, Enzo.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Dawn Ringstaff

Head of Cloudflare One Partner Development

Cloudflare

Dawn is a veteran of the technology and security industry with over two decades of experience with such companies as SonicWall, Kaspersky and Oracle.

She has a successful track record for developing channel programs that not only grow partner revenue but also partner sales and technical capabilities. She’s achieved measured success in leading sales teams to grow revenue through a network of solution providers and distributors.

Dawn served as Area 1 Security’s Vice President of Channel prior to Cloudflare’s acquisition of Area 1. Now working on the new Cloudflare One Partner Program, Dawn develops VAR, Solution Provider, MSSP, distribution and cloud marketplace partnerships. In her role she is building a world class partner ecosystem across major industries and multiple channel routes to market.

The Cloudflare One program is focused on addressing the Zero Trust journey for our partners and their customers. Dawn is a 2021 and 2022 Channel Chief Recipient, a recipient of the Women in the Channel, a 2022 and 2023 Power 100 Woman of the Channel and a member of the Women of the Channel Senior Leadership Forum. She continues to be an unwavering advocate for the channel, evidenced by her many lifelong friendships with partners.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Chelsea Rodgers

Director, Channel Marketing

Wasabi

As a founding team member of Boston-based Wasabi Technologies, Chelsea joined prior to public launch in 2017 and has been instrumental in Wasabi’s growth and success. Wearing a number of hats over the years, from Sales and Marketing Operations Manager, Growth Marketing Manager, to now Director of Channel Marketing, Chelsea has taken Wasabi’s channel-first strategy to the next level.

Now as the Director of Channel Marketing, Chelsea is responsible for accelerating Wasabi’s go-to-market strategy with North America based MSPs, VARs and System Integrators by implementing specialized channel activation plans and activities to increase sales revenue. Due in large part to Chelsea’s efforts, the channel is the top driver of business for Wasabi.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Priya Arora Vangimalla

Global Lead for Generative AI Center of Excellence, AWS Partner Organization

Amazon Web Services

Priya Arora is a highly accomplished business leader with a proven track record in driving growth and innovation in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIML). With a robust background at global tech giant Amazon and renowned management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Priya Arora has consistently demonstrated expertise in strategic thinking, partner development, and fostering cross-functional collaboration. As a dynamic professional with a passion for excellence, she brings a unique blend of AIML acumen, strategic prowess, and a strong foundation in athletic discipline to deliver unparalleled results.

Key Highlights:

Successfully orchestrated a pioneering generative AI strategy for AWS's partner channel, fostering alignment among 200+ top leaders globally, reaching 1000+ APO partners through comprehensive and enablement plan, and securing multi-million dollar ($ confidential) investments to address $3Trillion generative AI market .
Spearheaded creation of a a specialized AIML partner development and sales team (30+ global resources) at Amazon Web Services (AWS), achieving $150M+ in global channel business and driving a remarkable 76% YOY growth.

Channel Innovator of the Year

Michelle Welch

Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Strategy

WatchGuard Technologies

Channel Innovator of the Year

Lisa Wight

VP, Global Partner GTM, Programs and Distribution

Cradlepoint

As Vice President of Global Partner GTM, Programs and Worldwide Distribution for Cradlepoint, Lisa Wight leads global distribution sales, partner GTM as well as the corporate partner strategy and programs teams responsible for the enterprise corporate go to market. Lisa is focused on market acceleration and expansion via the channel where the Reseller program holds CRN’s 5 star rating in addition to Cradlepoint’s recent launch of MSP specific SKUs and program.

Lisa has extensive global, distribution and channel experience. Prior to joining Cradlepoint, Lisa spent over nine years at VMware where she held a variety of roles in communications, partner programs and was responsible for leading teams overseeing global solutions aggregators, OEM and Training Centers. Lisa entered the workforce directly into the world of technology. She spent six years at Applied Materials, which was followed by almost 10 years at Dell. With increasing responsibility both in the channel and out, Lisa has directed 24/7 services, third party (channel) strategic partnerships and driven accretive growth, exceeding sales goals and targets.

Sales Executive of the Year - Solution Provider

Sandra Antoun

Director of Sales & Marketing

Vintage IT Services

Sandra Antoun has been the Director of Sales and Marketing at Vintage IT Services, a Managed Services and Cloud Services Provider in the Austin area for over 13 years. Sandra has been instrumental in driving growth for the company, thanks to her strong leadership, strategic vision, and deep understanding of the Managed Services landscape. Under Sandra’s leadership, Vintage IT has expanded its client base and increased its revenue, thanks to innovative marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships. Sandra’s focus on building strong relationships with clients and understanding their needs has helped to position Vintage IT Services as a trusted partner for businesses looking to leverage technology to drive growth and success. In addition to her sales and marketing expertise, Sandra is also known for her commitment to mentoring and developing other team members. She has played a key role in building a collaborative and supportive team culture at Vintage IT, helping to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute to the company’s success. Sandra’s contributions to Vintage IT Services over the past 13 years have been invaluable. She is a true leader in the Managed Services industry and an inspiration to others looking to build successful careers in IT.

Jump to a category:

Sales Executive of the Year - Solution Provider

Krista Cathey

Executive Account Manager

Tego

Krista Cathey is an Account Executive with Tego. With more than seven years’ experience in the IT and cybersecurity space, Krista has a proven track record of consistently exceeding sales expectations. She singlehandedly built a strong base of State, Local Government, and Education (SLED) accounts in her first role in IT Sales and would go on to cultivate these relationships through mutual respect and trust. As a result, these clients have followed Krista to her current position at Tego.

Krista has secured high-value accounts through consultative selling, effective customer solutions, and promoting compelling business opportunities. She is skilled at identifying customer needs to achieve service levels that meet and exceed client expectations. In addition, Krista is able to consistently maximize revenue by servicing accounts and proposing new products and services to established customers.

Sales Executive of the Year - Solution Provider

Melissa Graham

SVP, Global Sales

SHI International

Melissa Graham has worked for well over three decades to build a 150-person sales organization that currently generates $2.2 billion in annual revenue, making Melissa one of the most respected sales leaders in the channel today.

Melissa’s customers are who’s who of the Fortune 250, including over 135 different global leaders in the financial services, high-tech manufacturing, defense and aerospace, pharma and life sciences, and communications, media and entertainment industries.

Like the customers Melissa supports, the employees she manages are extremely loyal. The average tenure of account executives on Melissa team is over 10 years and the sales leaders who report to Melissa have an average tenure of 23 years.

Beginning her career as the first employee for a company then-called Software House International in 1989, Melissa excelled at understanding the unique needs of Fortune 500 customers and tailoring custom solutions to solve their business problems.

Often starting with just a single product line or manufacturer, clients have consistently asked SHI to support additional technologies as Melissa and her team grew mutually-beneficial partnerships over time.

Today, Melissa’s Globals organization provides new end-user computing, security and data center solutions to the most recognizable companies in the world.

Sales Executive of the Year - Solution Provider

Heather McLelland

Senior Account Executive

Calian IT & Cyber Solutions

Heather McLelland began her career as a financial planner in 2005. A move to Fort Worth, TX in 2010 opened the door for an opportunity to use her finance background in the fast-growing technology sector. Her role as a Senior Account Executive involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to design and implement cutting-edge solutions for clients in various industries. Heather’s technical acumen, combined with her strong communication skills, and financial background allowed her to effectively bridge the gap between her clients and technical teams, ensuring successful project outcomes.

Sales Executive of the Year - Solution Provider

Gail Nichols

Director, Public Sector Sales

Yorktel

Gail Nichols is a seasoned leader in the technology sector, currently serving as Director of Public Sector Sales at Yorktel since December 2022. She started her career at Yorktel in 1995 as a Senior Sales Executive.

She has also held positions as Federal Sales Director at Solutionz Conferencing, Inc. for over a year and later served as VP of UCC Sales at MicroTech for almost four years.

Gail has extensive expertise in Information Technology, Managed Services, Cloud, and FedRAMP, along with specialties in Enterprise-wide Unified Communications Services and Solutions, Microsoft Business Practice, and Modern Workplace.

She has a successful track record in relationship-building, leadership, and pipeline development. Her understanding and provision of technology solutions, particularly in services like Video as a Service (VaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Device as a Service (DaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), make her a valuable asset in the field.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Natalia de Greiff

VP, Ecosystem Americas

IBM

Natalia de Greiff was named IBM VP, Ecosystem Americas, in January 2021. In this role, she is responsible for leading one IBM Ecosystem mission in the Americas to accelerate clients’ open hybrid cloud and AI journeys. Natalia has extensive experience leading software, cloud, systems and services teams across Latin America.

In 2019, Natalia was named vice president, Cloud and Cognitive Software unit for IBM Latin America, responsible for expanding IBM software and cloud portfolio expertise and presence inside the company and in the market.

In 2016, she was named vice president, IBM Services in South America.

In February 2015, she was appointed Sales Director of TSS LA, after having been Director of the Systems and Hardware unit for IBM Mexico and Executive of Business Continuity Resiliency Services for Latin America.

Prior to joining IBM in 2001, Natalia worked at Informix where she held the positions such as Commercial Director and General Manager, and at Xerox where she served as Manager of the Medellin Branch, Senior Account Manager and Government Branch Manager. Natalia de Greiff holds a technology degree from the Eafit University in Medellín, Colombia.

Jump to a category:

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Tamara Ells

Vice President and General Manager, U.S. Public Sector

Arrow Electronics (immixGroup, Arrow’s public sector practice)

Tamara Ells is vice president and general manager of Arrow Electronics’ public sector practice, immixGroup. Before joining immixGroup, she served in a variety of sales leadership positions within Arrow Electronics, formulating revenue generation strategies for legacy and alternative consumption models through channel partners.

Ells has a proven track record of developing strategic alliances and partnerships with key IT manufacturers, and leading successful growth initiatives throughout her 25-year career. She is recognized for developing winning teams and creating success-oriented cultures.

Ells has received several awards, including CRN Channel Chief 2020 and 2023; 2020 Women Worth Watching in Leadership, Diversity Journal Award; and CRN Power 100 Women of the Channel 2019. She is a graduate of Northwestern University where she earned a BA in economics.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Jennifer Heard

Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Sales

Red Hat

Jennifer Heard is an accomplished leader with over 30 years of experience leading global sales within the technology sector. She currently serves as Senior Vice President for Global Commercial Sales at Red Hat. In this capacity, she leads a partner-first sales organization to accelerate growth by leveraging their high valued, trusted ecosystem.

Previously she spent four years as Senior Vice President of Cloud Alliances at Turbonomic, a leading application resource management software company, where she built a strong cloud alliance with Microsoft, AWS and Google. Prior to that, she spent 22 years at Microsoft as their Worldwide Vice President for Corporate Accounts and Partner Sales to deliver consistent double digit growth while transforming the ecosystem and shifting 40% of revenue through new cloud business. During her time at Microsoft, she was a 12-time Top Performing Sales Leader award winner.

Her passion for diversity and inclusion has also been recognized across many organizations. She was recently recognized by CRN’s 2022 Women of the Channel Power 100 list. Plus, numerous other recognitions including 2010 as the Most Influential Women in Texas, multiple years featured in CRN’s Women in the Channel and Microsoft’s Women Executives Channel Advisory Network.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Cheryl Kasper

Vice President of Sales, Southeast

Cradlepoint

Cheryl Kasper has been with Cradlepoint since 2014 and currently serves as Vice President of Sales for the Southeast. During her time at Cradlepoint, she was instrumental in creating the Strategic Service Provider and Managed Service Provider team before moving on to build the Southeast field sales organization. Prior to joining Cradlepoint, she led the the Verizon carrier sales team focused on commercial and public sector business across the US for Juniper Networks.

Kasper has worked with a number of high growth companies focused on telecommunications, networking, and cybersecurity including UUNet, MCIWorldcom, IBM Internet Security Systems, Checkpoint Software, Blue Coat Systems and Juniper Networks.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Jessica Moore

Senior Regional Partner Manager

RingCentral

As a tenured RingCentral employee of ten years, Jessica is a valuable member to the RingCentral team and family. Jessica is passionate about growing revenue through strategic partnership and developing go to market strategies to increase productivity. This University of Colorado Boulder graduate is a joy to be around and bring success to all of those that she touches.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Gill Newsome

Group Vice President, Amazon Global Partnership

Splunk

Newsome is a competitive, ambitious and proven sales person. She is a driven and successful Sales Director with over 28 years across diverse markets, having worked at Resellers, SI, vendors across public and private sectors.

In the last 5 years, she been dedicated and focused on CSP and SaaS organisations including Salesforce, Microsoft, GCP and AWS as EMEA Alliance leadership for several Global ISVs.

Being a results driven professional, Newsome seeks to demonstrate vision to spearhead and launch strategies that drive business growth. Possessing excellent leadership skills, managing teams of Global and EMEA wide alliance managers and enterprise sales executives, she has a proven ability to lead by example, improve best practices and support both team and individual development.

Newsome is a strong advocate for empowering organisations by supporting their digital transformation, driving value through optimised operational efficiency and modernisation as they move to the cloud.

Her peers and recommendations will testify that she is a high-energy business partner; adept at fostering strategic innovation to enhance corporate image and customer experience.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Shannon Orr

Director of National Strategic Partners

AVANT

Shannon has been with AVANT for 12 years and started as employee #6 in 2011, as an intern in the early entrepreneurial days of the company, and is now a Director of Sales managing AVANT’s top strategic partners. Shannon has a broadcasting communications degree from the University of Toledo, which lends well to the present day, where she participates in numerous panels and conference stages in front of the industry and her peers. Shannon is currently the Charity Committee President and Co-Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the Alliance of Channel Women. She lives in Chicago with her husband and corgi, Larry David, who is famous in his own right and a known member of many Zoom meetings.

Shannon understands success is earned and never handed out. The daily grind of preparations leads to successful meetings and events unlike any other. She has a strong attitude and natural leadership personality; many people state they work with Shannon and AVANT because they enjoy working with her. Relationships are key. Mentorship; both being a mentor and having a mentor is a huge contributing factor to success. If you want to get it, you have to give.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Jas Sood

SVP, Sales, Enterprise

Palo Alto Networks

Jas is the SVP of Sales for Palo Alto Networks Enterprise business. Her extensive background and passion with building and growing enterprise sales teams gives her the motivation and inspiration to lead this growth segment for PANW. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks 24 months ago, Jas spent 25 years at HPE and its predecessor companies in a variety of roles in a number of different functions and business units. Over the past 10 years, she has held executive level positions in Finance, Operations, Go To Market and Sales. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ondas Holdings, Inc.

Jas holds a BA in Economics from the University of California at Irvine and an MBA with a concentration in Technology Management from Pepperdine University. She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is married with 3 kids (19, 15 ,and 13) and lives in Pleasanton, CA. When not working, she enjoys High Intensity Interval Training, weight training and trail running. Her weekends are full of watching youth competitive soccer, 49ers, Warriors and Giants games.

Sales Executive of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Regina Vignone

VP, Channel Sales, East

Sophos

Regina Vignone is a successful sales leader with 20 years of experience in the IT channel. Regina has an extensive track record of achievements and is well known for recruiting, building and managing teams that drive significant channel and end user sales, and working with IT solution providers who specialize in security. A self-motivated leader and relationship builder, Regina is focused on creating lasting professional connections with partners and end users/customers. This long-time philosophy has helped Regina establish and grow her career as VP of Channel Sales East at Sophos and achieve success not only for herself, but for her team and partners.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Valerie Berezuk

Sr. Director, Channel Marketing

Intermedia Cloud Communications

As a 20+ year veteran of the communications industry Valerie has held a variety of Marketing, Sales and Leadership positions. She is passionate about the customer experience and believes communication & collaboration between employees and customers is vital to a business’s ability to thrive. She challenges herself to look for ways to simplify complexity and make great impacts with small tweaks. Valerie is currently the Head of Channel Marketing at Intermedia Cloud Communications.

Valerie received her Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater and Television Arts from Valparaiso University. She is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society for collegiate schools of business.

Jump to a category:

Marketing Executive of the Year

Aimee Catalano

Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing

Google Cloud

Aimee leads the Global Partner Marketing organization at Google Cloud. This team is responsible for joint marketing across the portfolio of Google Cloud partners and products.

Through her 20+ years of experience in enterprise marketing, Aimee’s held a variety of leadership roles with large and small companies including the VP of Corporate Marketing for Pure Storage and the VP of Alliance Marketing at Citrix.

Aimee is an industry-recognized thought leader in go-to-market strategy for partner ecosystems, and for her impact on DEI efforts.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Cheryl Cook

SVP, Global Partner Marketing

Dell Technologies

As Senior Vice President, Cheryl Cook spearheads development and strategy for the Dell Technologies Global Partner Marketing Organization. Beyond her main responsibilities for branding, partner program marketing, channel events, partner communications, and MDF program investment and execution, Cheryl drives long-term partner marketing strategy, together with Global Alliances, OEM and global/regional business teams. A vocal advocate for the partner community, Cheryl is an innovative, collaborative leader who creates compelling business solutions that accelerate partners’ success.

Prior to her current role, Cheryl served as Vice President, Global Channels and Alliances, leading channel strategy for the company worldwide. Her responsibilities included setting Dell’s partner strategy, as well as developing and executing channel programs, training, certification, and global marketing programs that enabled partners to grow their business with Dell. Prior to running Dell’s channel business, Cheryl served as Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, where she was responsible for the go-to-market strategy and execution for Dell storage, server, networking and related software businesses.

An active proponent of women in technology, Cheryl is the founder/executive sponsor of the Dell Technologies Women’s Partner Network. She also serves on the board of directors for ARC Document Solutions. Cheryl holds a BS in Computer Science from University of Florida.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Marlena Fernandez

VP, Marketing

Scale Computing

Marlena Fernandez has more than 20 years of results-oriented global marketing experience helping organizations reach their business, marketing and sales goals.

Currently, she is the Vice President of Marketing for Scale Computing. Fernandez is responsible for all aspects of marketing, with a focus on positioning the brand as a leader in the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), edge computing and virtualization markets. Prior to joining Scale Computing,

Fernandez served in a number of leadership positions including Senior Marketing Director for Avoka, Vice President of Marketing at Cloud Lending Solutions and Managing Director for JustSmart Communications.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Robin Holden-Wolf

Senior Director, Enterprise Partner Marketing

NVIDIA

As a passionate partner marketing leader, Robin Holden-Wolf, Senior Director of Enterprise Partner Marketing at NVIDIA, is a proven global alliances leader, marketer and strategist. She leads the go-to-market strategy, planning and execution for multiple partner ecosystems including NALA Channel including solution providers and distributors, global OEMs, global storage partners and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). Her team focuses on maximizing partner experience and increasing partner profitability through high ROI from our marketing campaigns and partner lead generation programs. Robin is a 20+-year veteran of developing co-branded global alliance programs with many companies including Dell, HPE, Lenovo, NetApp, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, WWT, CDW, Techdata, Arrow and many more. She holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas and a Masters of Business Administration from St. Edward’s University. She has also held leadership roles supporting Women in Technology and supporting her daughters in National Charity League. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling with her family and friends, listening to live music, boating on Lake Travis and snow skiing.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Heather Lockhart

Chief Marketing Officer

Compucom

Responsible for Compucom’s marketing, demand generation, brand management, communications, and field event activities. Heather Lockhart has more than 20 years of experience in both B2B and B2C Marketing. Holding an MBA in international marketing from Virginia Tech (where she earned her undergraduate degree and played NCAA division 1 soccer), Heather has led marketing for established brands like Disney and Volvo, as well as early-stage and hyper-growth B2B technology companies.

Marketing Executive Of The Year

Laurie Mitchell

Senior Vice President, Global Partner Marketing

Wasabi Technologies

Laurie is a successful marketing leader with experience leading diverse global teams and building alliance and channel programs that drive revenue in close partnership with sales.

Laurie has spent over 25 years in roles driving strategic partner alliances, channel programs, and field marketing, having created and managed alliance and channel programs from the ground up at several startups as well as evolving programs to meet the needs of a growing business in larger companies.

She has experience in all aspects of partner program development, strategic relationship management, contract creation and negotiation, partner enablement and demand generation programs that drive business and scale revenue. Laurie has broad expertise across go-to-market models including MSP, reseller, systems integrator, two-tier distribution, OEM, and co-selling with technology alliance partners.

She also has strong interpersonal relationship building skills and is passionate about building teams that thrive in a fast paced, do everything environment. Her happy place is building from the ground up and scaling up companies to win with the right channels.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Danielle Post

Global Vice President, Marketing and Customer Experience

Arrow Electronics

As the global vice president of marketing and customer experience for Arrow Electronics’ enterprise computing solutions business, Danielle Post is dedicated to leading the company’s global demand generation and marketing efforts. With over 15 years of integrated marketing experience, she has deep expertise in strategic planning, demand generation, partnership building and omnichannel communications to drive sustainable growth.

Prior to Arrow, Post worked in the IT channel, leading the development and execution of marketing and demand generation strategies for IT vendors and channel partners. Outside of work, she is committed to supporting her community and actively serves on the advisory board of The Children’s Home Society. Post holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, and she lives in Tampa, Fla. with her family.

Marketing Executive of the Year

Meredith Scheraldi

Marketing Director

Exclusive Networks

Meredith Scheraldi is the Director of Marketing, North America for Exclusive Networks, a globally trusted Cybersecurity distributor, where her primary focus is marketing strategy, demand generation, vendor and event marketing.

Prior to Exclusive Networks, Meredith spent over six years in several marketing leadership positions at Arrow Electronics Enterprise Computing Solutions team, including Manager of Signature Events, manager of North America shared services, strategic programs, business development marketing and field marketing.

Before joining Arrow Electronics, she held several high-profile channel positions, offering her expertise in various capacities. She has led global teams focused on field and channel marketing, marketing communications, channel marketing promotions, program development and channel event management.

Meredith earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Cabrini University and is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Virtual Event Meeting Manager (VEMM).

She has previously been named to the Women of the Channel and the Women of the Channel Up and Comers lists and sits on the Women of the Channel Advisory Board. She has 29 years of experience working with partners, vendors and distribution marketing.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Lori Cornmesser

SVP Global Channel and Alliances

deepwatch

Lori has 28+ years of experience in sales, business development, and marketing for the Channel. Her commitment and contribution lead to her being named CRN Channel Chief for the past 9 years and a coveted spot on the Power 100 list. Lori continues to be recognized as Top Woman in the Channel for the past 14 years and her additional distinctions include; 2011 Women Worth Watching, 2014 recipient of the Diversity First Leadership Award and most recently honored with the Top 50 Women in Technology Award in 2022. Prior to joining deepwatch, Lori has served as CyCognito’s 1st channel chief helping to build the foundation for execution and in the 1st year developing over $80M in partner pipeline. She served as Channel Chief for Infoblox and supported the growth of the company from $100M to over $500M+ in revenue. Lori spent over 10 years at Juniper Networks where her leadership roles helped propel channel revenues from $500M to $5B. Diversity Equity and Inclusion continues to be a passion of Lori’s and she’s been honored with the Leadership Excellence Award in 2023 as well as Inclusive Leadership Award from the Diversity Council and the Racial Justice Champion by Diversity First Organization.

Jump to a category:

Executive Mentor of the Year

Bernadette Davis

Vice President, Global Strategic Alliances

Kyndryl

Bernadette is an experienced executive with global experiences as a management consultant, strategist, and people leader across alliances and partnerships, digital, and organizational change management. Bernadette currently leads business strategy and transformation for Kyndryl’s Global Strategic Alliances organization, focused on building this fast-growing area for the 1.5 year old company, Kyndryl. Bernadette is the co-founder and inaugural leader of Kyndryl’s global business resource group for Women, called the Women’s Kyndryl Inclusion Network (KIN). This global community was built to be a central resource for women and allies among Kyndryl’s ~90k employees to engage and collaborate with one another. She is a passionate mentor and sponsor of women with a deep commitment to helping women identify their talents and take on growth opportunities. She is also an Executive Council member for the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), an award-winning nonprofit working in crisis-affected communities to grow small businesses, especially women-owned businesses, and expand the economic power of women. She delivers top-quality experiences and outcomes to partners, customers, and employees. Bernadette is known for building excellent relationships at all levels, communicating complex ideas simply, and bringing a collaborative style that balances quick decision-making with team consensus.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Alona Geckler

SVP Business Operations, Chief of Staff

Acronis

As SVP of Business Operations / Chief of Staff, Alona Geckler, is responsible for the CEO’s operations and rhythm of business. Alona oversees internal communications, Acronis culture, corporate initiatives, government relations, and special cross-company projects. She also brings a passion for diversity and women in leadership, leading the Women in Tech program that helps elevate women’s careers within the Acronis community through mentorship opportunities.

Based in Israel, Alona is also involved in developing Acronis Israeli site in Herzliya.

Alona brings two decades of leadership and operations management. Before joining Acronis in early 2019, Alona spent 11 years at Microsoft, serving as a Chief of Staff for Global Services at Microsoft HQ as well as leading several divisions on her own (Microsoft Services, Microsoft Business Solutions, etc.). Before Microsoft, Alona served as a Vice President for Global Marketing at an IT consulting company Columbus IT (HQ in Denmark).

Alona holds a Master’s Degree in Economics.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Tina Gravel

Vice President and Global Head of Channels

Quantexa

Tina’s expertise in security, outsourcing and cloud has positioned her as a fixture in the North American Technology Channel.

Prior to joining Quantexa, Gravel was Appgate’s Senior VP/Global Channels and Alliances, where her expertise in security applied directly to the company’s strategic development initiatives. Prior to Appgate, she was Senior VP/Global Channels and Strategic Alliances with Cryptzone and Dimension Data’s GM/VP Cloud Services Business.

She was Nirvanix’s VP/Worldwide Sales and Marketing and held key roles at Terremark, where she helped guide the team from $400,000 in sales to an eventual acquisition by Verizon for $1.4 billion. She’s held senior positions at NetGravity, SAS, Sybase and CSC, and as an independent consultant, she was passionate about empowering start-up technology organizations to increase revenue, monetize intellectual property and secure funding.

She has won countless awards from CRN as well as other sources Women in the Channel (7 times), Channel Chief (3 times). She serves on Advisory Boards for Dark Cryptonite, Channel Partners Online, Cloud Girls and past member of CompTIA Talent and Diversity board.

Tina is a founding member of Women in Alliances and on the Board of Managers for the Service Club of Chicago, a 133 year old women’s organization.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Nina Harding

Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, Americas, Global Partner Solutions

Microsoft

Nina Harding is the Microsoft Americas Corporate Vice President of Global Partner Solutions. Nina and her organization are responsible for empowering partners to unlock more for our customers- more agility, more efficiency, more innovation, more of whatever their goals are. They are transforming our US partner ecosystem into a strategic asset to drive digital transformation.

Microsoft’s US Partner business includes strategy, management, partner sales, and overall partner ecosystem health. To maximize the benefits our mutual customers realize from their investments in technology, the team works with US partners to develop strong practices aligned to Microsoft’s workload and industry priorities.

The organization is comprised of Partner Management, Channel Sales, Go-To-Market (GTM), and partner-facing Technical Specialists and Architects. A 25+ year veteran in the technology industry, Nina has extensive experience working with partners.

Prior to joining Microsoft, she was the Chief of Global Partner Strategy & Programs for Google Cloud, leading a worldwide organization that drove Google Cloud’s partner strategy and program across the ecosystem of all partners that sold, serviced, and built with Google Cloud.

She also spent 13 years at SAP as Vice President of Global Business Development and Sales Program building SAP PartnerEdge for their expanding partner ecosystem.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Brenda Hudson

SVP Commercial Sales, Sales Enablement and Learning and Development

Insight Enterprises

Brenda Hudson assumed her role as senior vice president of commercial sales, sales enablement, and learning and development in January 2021. She joined Insight in 2015 as vice president of inside sales.

Before joining Insight, Hudson served as executive director of sales at Dell Technologies. During her 15-year tenure, she held several sales leadership roles, including growing the business into new territories across the U.S. Hudson also held global positions developing Dell’s acquisitions strategy and supporting managed services.

Hudson earned a degree in business management from Ashford University. Before entering the IT industry at Dell, she worked for American Airlines, developing sales training programs and leading global sales teams focused on expanding into new business opportunities.

Today, Hudson leads Insight commercial sales teammates across North America to help clients achieve desired business outcomes through Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™. She lives out Insight’s core values by building trust first. With confidence in place, Hudson guides others into new growth opportunities so they can achieve their highest potential.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Dangvy Keller

Vice President of Americas Alliance and Distribution Sales

Veeam

Dangvy Keller is responsible for the sales, strategy, enablement and execution of the Americas’ Alliance and Distribution business at Veeam.

Prior to joining Veeam, Dangvy spent eight years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in various sales roles with her most recent responsibility leading the $10B global distribution business for HPE. In addition to managing global distribution, she helped lead the channel integration plans for HPE’s acquisitions of Aruba, SimpliVity and Nimble Storage.

Dangvy also spent eight years at Ingram Micro where she held a variety of marketing and vendor management positions. Dangvy has over 15 years of IT channel experience and is focused on accelerating Veaam’s growth by leveraging all the value add of our alliance and distribution partners.

Dangvy graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a BA degree and from the University of Southern California with an MBA degree. Dangvy currently resides in Anaheim, CA with her husband Andy, sons AJ and Mason.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Maryam Mohammadi

VP, Operations

ITM

Maryam Mohammadi, VP of Operations & Project Management at IT Management Corporation, ITM, since 2014, is a dynamic professional in Silicon Valley, leading the company as a system integrator and UCaaS provider for k-12, local government, and healthcare sectors.

Before immigrating to the US a decade ago, Maryam dedicated her career to primary education, excelling as a foreign language teacher and voice principal, fostering communication skills and global perspectives in young students.

Upon arriving in the US, Maryam pursued an MBA and discovered her passion for technology’s positive impact on daily life. She joined ITM as a project coordinator, facilitating technology deployment in Northern California’s k-12 schools. Her dedication led to rapid advancement to PM and eventually Vice President.

Maryam balances her thriving career with her roles as a devoted mother to two young children, ages 6 and 3. In her spare time, she actively volunteers at their school, inspiring and engaging with young learners.

Her journey from education to technology showcases a relentless pursuit of excellence and a commitment to creating a better world. Through her leadership at ITM and community involvement, Maryam exemplifies the transformative power of education and innovation, driving positive change for future generations.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Christina Nairn

Director, Americas Regional Marketing

Sophos

Christina Nairn serves as the director of Americas regional marketing at Sophos where she oversees the Americas Channel Marketing and Demand Generation teams with a focus on developing, driving and implementing channel marketing activities within Sophos’ VAR and MSP communities. A results-driven marketing professional and consistent top performer, Christina brings a wide range of experience and leadership roles in marketing and sales strategy from her 20 years in the technology sector, most of which has been spent focused on cybersecurity. Christina has proven success in the planning and execution of marketing programs that drive sales targets for both direct and indirect channels. Prior to joining Sophos in 2005, Christina spent several years within the financial industry at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and CM Investment Management. Christina received her Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Trinity Western University, and currently resides in Vancouver, BC.

Executive Mentor of the Year

Tracy-Ann Palmer

VP, Global Channel Sales Programs & Channel Compliance

VMware

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Dede Casewell

Director of Sales Operations

Abacus Group

Dede has been in the MSP field for 20 years. She currently serves as the Director of Sales Operations for Abacus Group. In her current role, Dede is responsible for Abacus’ sales systems which include Salesforce, DocuSign, and CLM. Dede and her team also manage all reporting to management of sales data. These systems and processes handle lead and customer management, as well as proposal and contract for a sales and relationship management team of 18 client facing staff.

Dede’s strengths of being organized, detailed oriented, and dedicated help immensely in supporting all teams at Abacus.

Dede is originally from New England and now happily resides in the warmer temperatures outside of Nashville. She has been happily married for 42 years and has 3 children and 4 grandchildren. She loves spending time with family and friends and especially when she FaceTimes with her grandchildren. She even cheers for her 11-year-old grandson who has mastered full flips on his bike, although she advises against trying that at home! In her spare time, she is as productive as she is at work and enjoys working out, reading, and recently took up crocheting and kayaking.

Jump to a category:

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Gwen D’Arcy

Partner Marketing Digital Campaigns Manager

Commvault

As the Partner Marketing Digital Campaigns Manager at Commvault, Gwen D’Arcy is responsible for driving the partner campaign activation strategic plan for the company’s global partner and distribution network.

With 18 years of IT industry experience, Gwen has developed a deep and well-rounded understanding of the partner ecosystem by holding various roles in partner programs, partner marketing, and field marketing.

Based in Chicago, Gwen enjoys volunteering, coaching softball, and spending time in nature with her family.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Claire Deacy

Director, Partner Management

Kyndryl

Leading the Kyndryl Ecosystem Business Management platform and integration with new Kyndryl enterprise business applications and alliance partner portals, Alliance Analytics Dashboard, global alliance data model, Ecosystem digital transformation process & data team. Re-imaging processes to provide our ecosystem partners a modern, simple and effective digital experience which develops a competitive advantage and accelerates time to revenue.

Leading a high-performance team who are based in the US and Europe and collaborating with cross functional teams around the world.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Emily Dunn

Partner Program Manager - Cloud Specialization

Atlassian

Emily Dunn runs the Cloud Specialization Program at Atlassian, where she is responsible for building out a program of high performing Atlassian Solution Partners to help define & scale customer’s journey to Atlassian Cloud. Emily has 8+ years of go-to-market strategy & activation experience, as well as 5+ years in channel partnerships through marketing, programs, and development. Emily has a proven track record of driving successful program launches, facilitating cross functional improvements, and streamlining partner experience for joint success, all with a high emphasis on cross-team collaboration. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband and Rhodesian Ridgeback, Beau.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Veronica Garcia

Partner Success Delivery Manager

HPE Aruba Networking

Veronica Garcia is a dedicated and accomplished Partner Success Delivery Manager at HPE Aruba Networking, in this role she manages Delivery Partners in The Americas and French islands, enabling them to provide services to HPE Aruba Networking products in nonpresence countries with the objective to help them increase their attached services sales.

With 12 years of experience at HPE, Veronica started her career in Guadalajara Mexico where she performed roles in Sales Operations, Business Development, and Global Alliance Account Manager. In 2018 she receive a relocation to the US as DXC Channel Account Manager that evolved into WW Accenture, PTC, Deloitte, and SAP incubation and Go to Market lead at the WW Ecosystem Sales Organization. She holds a bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering at ITESO, University in Guadalajara Mexico.

Beyond their professional achievements, Veronica is committed to championing diversity and inclusion within the IT industry for the Women’s community by being the Programs Chair at HPE Americas Women’s Network, Lastly, she also has a project where she coaches and empowers Latin people to succeed at their job interviews and recruitment processes.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Jessica Lawther

Senior Events Manager

N-able

Jessica has been with N-able for 10+ years based in Ottawa. She has been through the changing seasons every step of the way, most recently seeing N-able become a stand-alone public company in 2021. This February she was promoted to Global Events Manager, where she gets to live out her love for traveling. Jessica has been the behind-the-scenes person for a large number of events at N-able including Roadshows, Tradeshows, peer groups, and our largest partner conference, Empower. Her role on the Events Team plays a huge part in the success of brand awareness and ROI in for N-able. Reaching new heights is a personal goal of Jessica’s, and she’s grown and developed the team to create a refreshing experience across all channels.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Nicole Maile

Account Executive

Pax8

Nicole is an experienced channel professional who started her career in IT (Information Technology) in 2008 at Ingram Micro while she was working towards her bachelor’s degree at Canisius College. Throughout her career in the channel, she has developed her skills around sales and account management that has allowed her to grow professionally and continuously achieve organizational goals.

Now as an Account Executive, Nicole manages some of the largest MSPs within the Pax8 portfolio and enables her partners to focus on efficiencies, retention, and customer expansion.

Nicole is a Buffalo, NY native that enjoys the outdoors, traveling to new places, reading, and watching Buffalo sports. She has lived in Denver, Colorado for 4 years and spends her time hanging out with her dog Ziggy and friends.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Charlotte Sanderson

Worldwide Leader – Financial Services Technology Partnerships

AWS

Charlotte lead’s all of AWS’s technology partnerships with companies who specialize in Financial Services uses cases across Banking, Payments, Insurance, and Capital Markets. Her global team is made up of industry specialists who support some of the world’s largest financial services technology partners like Guidewire, FIS, Unqork, Bloomberg, Temenos, KX, Stripe, Mambu, & Murex, by co-developing and executing GTM strategies on the AWS cloud that create meaningful business value for our mutual end customers.

Charlotte has been with Amazon for more than 8.5 years, starting her career with Amazon in retail leading the launch of our Prime Now Partnerships in the UK before transferring to AWS in late 2019. Charlotte also holds a PHD in Management from the University of Leicester.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Tanja Tomic

Senior Director, Channel Marketing, EMEA

HYCU, Inc.

As a marketing specialist with 9+ years of experience in both, the digital and traditional marketing fields, Tanja helps clients to find the subject and medium that best fits their unique identity. Strategic planning and the conceptualization of high-quality content imbedded in the right context is one of the main objectives of her every day work.

Due to Tanja’s past work experience and her business understanding she remains convinced that the strong interlock between the digital transformation and big data is driving significant changes to traditional business models and will set the future for innovation and competition.

Colleagues know her as a creative and highly operational marketer who can always be trusted to come up with a new approach and lead an independent team. She is a selfless and tireless team leader that is at her best collaborating with others.

Hidden Gem Of The Year

Ola Witukiewicz

Sr. Channel Engagement Manager

ScalePad

If someone told Ola 10 years ago she would be in a career she enjoyed so much, working within a channel that embodies community, she would not have believed them. Her background is Polish, and she moved to Canada at the age of six without speaking a word of English.

Throughout her career, she’s supported multiple departments, including demand generation; brand management and creation; communications planning; event planning; management and execution; direct marketing and advertising; competitive analysis; managed multiple Partner Advisory Councils. She’s even stepped into an HR and accounting role closing multiple year ends for emerging startups.

As the Sr. Channel Engagement Manager at ScalePad, her role is focused on strategic event execution, working closely within the channel, and supporting ScalePad’s sales team to help build working relationships with our ScalePad partners and prospects.

Ola spent her early 20s travelling. She has visited 47 countries and plan to continue traveling to achieve a country count of 75. She lives close to the Rocky Mountains and has conquered over 60 hikes, reaching elevation gains of 2000m and 20+km. She completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification almost 10 years ago and continue to teach and practice yoga daily.

Role Model of the Year

Amy Belcher

Director, Independent Software Vendors Sales, Worldwide Public Sector

Amazon Web Services

Belcher leads Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Sales at AWS. In her role, she leads a sales team that supports some of the largest global software partners serving government, national security, education, non-profit, and public health industries.

As an award-winning Channel Chief, Power 100 & Fortune 100 Executive, Belcher has a track record of success with global partner sales, strategy/operations, and marketing. With more than 20 years of channel experience, she is a skilled global executive who transforms underperforming organizations.

Prior to AWS, she was the Vice President of Global Partner Programs & Partner Investments at Xerox. In just 18 months, her team improved Xerox market share by five percent for the first time in five years, and increased partner satisfaction ratings by 25 percent. Before joining Xerox, she held a variety of leadership roles at Dell, EMC and Tech Data.

Belcher received a dual Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and Eckerd College, and completed Master of Business Administration courses at Northeastern University.

Jump to a category:

Role Model of the Year

Kim Carlton

Director of Americas Partner Program

Intel

Kim Carlton is Director Americas’ Partner Programs for Intel Corporation. Kim is responsible for the development and execution of Intel’s channel programs in the Americas and Canada. Kim joined Intel in 2000 and has held several roles in Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group. Kim has led vertical marketing teams, managed Intel’s external sales force and been responsible for sales and market development with some of Intel’s most strategic partners. Prior to joining Intel, Kim worked for GTE where she led a team that managed channels of distribution. Kim also worked at AT&T Wireless where she helped launch wireless service in Chicagoland and Target Corporation where she managed Target stores in the mid-west. Kim holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and an MBA from the University of Illinois. Kim has been an active member of Intel’s Women at Intel Network. She served on the board for 3 years and chaired the Speaker/Events Committee. Kim serves as a board member for the Women of the Channel Advisory Board. And is a member of The Channel Company Senior Leadership Forum. Kim enjoys mentoring other women and volunteering in her community.

Role Model of the Year

Larissa Crandall

VP, Global Channel and Alliances

Veeam

Larissa Crandall has spent her entire career in the channel working for security, networking, and cloud vendors. The foundation of her career was spent working for Connection, a large solution provider leading enterprise, commercial, and public sector teams.

She joined Veeam after four years at Gigamon where she led the global channel and alliances organization to record channel contribution growth, developed the partner program, and was an integral part of the partner-first strategy.

Crandall also helped launch the creation of the Gigamon Playbook, built, and executed creative demand generation, training, and enablement programs, as well as the development of GTM solutions to accelerate revenue.

Role Model of the Year

Christina Crowley

SVP of Global Partner Sales

Dell Technologies

Christina Crowley leads the Channel, Alliances & OEM Global Services Sales organization at Dell Technologies. She leads a team focused on sales, operations, and go-to-market strategies for Dell’s services portfolio through the channel. She is focused on driving profitability to Dell’s partners so they can deliver greater value to customers.

In her 11 years at Dell, Christina held strategic leadership roles in the Voice of the Customer office, License Management Services, Education Services, Renewal Sales and Global Business Services. In these positions, she was responsible for driving programs to provide insight into customer sentiment, educating customers on their current and future software licensing needs and driving global transformation. Prior to Dell, Christina led the software compliance team at Oracle Corporation and is a Certified Public Accountant.

She is active in a number of Employee Resource Groups at Dell and is the Executive Sponsor of the New England chapter for True Ability and Global chapter of Veterans and Supporters. Christina is passionate about diversity and inclusion, mentorship, and professional development, sponsoring several leadership development programs.

Outside of Dell, Christina is an Advisory Board member for Aviso and sits on the Board of Boston’s American Heart Association, focused on women’s health initiatives.

Role Model of the Year

Jennifer Harris

CEO

Technology Management Concepts

Jennifer Harris is the founder and CEO of Technology Management Concepts (TMC), a Gold-Certified Microsoft Partner, the premiere Microsoft Dynamics Partner in Southern California, and one of the only, wholly-owned female businesses in the U.S. Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem.

As TMC’s CEO, Jennifer has received numerous awards throughout the years, including Top Women-Owned Business, from the Los Angeles Business Journal, and Leader of One of America’s Fastest Growing Companies, from INC5000.

As CEO of TMC, Jennifer is known as a visionary leader. With her solid foundation of over thirty years in the field, she leads one of the most innovative, women-owned technology companies in the nation. Long before diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) became a focal point in the workplace, TMC made a choice to bring together fresh-out-of-college talent and tenured professionals with 20+ years of experience in their fields.

Based on Jennifer’s longevity in the ever-evolving technology industry, and her presence at its early stage when women were generally not found in leadership positions, she invigorates her company with a forward-thinking approach that encourages new ideas on ways to innovate or improve. Her strength lies in attracting some of the best talent around, who add to TMC’s family culture atmosphere.

Role Model of the Year

Christina Klein

VP of Global Channel Partners

Lansweeper

In her 25+ year tech career, Christina Klein has been guided by a single principal – can I make a difference? After spending 20 years in marketing roles for tech giants like Microsoft, AWS, SAP Concur and others, Klein pivoted to focus on developing channel sales while transforming internal culture.

As CRO at Movere, Klein led the marketing & channel sales organization to its first-ever consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, resulting in an acquisition by Microsoft in 2019.

Klein joined Lansweeper in 2020 to build a channel program for a company driven by a 16-year, high-velocity, transactional, direct sales motion. Leveraging her success at Movere, Klein quickly built a program and team that has delivered an impressive 380% revenue growth in three years and today contributes 46% of new revenue. While driving financial outcomes for the business is satisfying, impacting the internal culture has given Klein a greater purpose.

In 2022, Klein authored and facilitated a Women in Leadership development program - the first of its kind for Lansweeper. The 11-month program manifested positive results for the company: 14 participants, five company-wide award winners, three promotions; and her advocacy has resulted in equitable representation at the Executive Leadership level.

Role Model of the Year

Maryann Pagano

CEO

BlackHawk Data LLC

Maryann is BlackHawk Data’s CEO and co-founder. With more than 20 years of customer support experience and organizational leadership, Maryann has a proven track record of driving business outcomes.

Maryann is proud to be recognized by CRN as Woman of the Channel and is dedicated to supporting women-owned businesses and other female entrepreneurs like herself.

Role Model of the Year

Tracy-Ann Palmer

VP, Global Channel Sales Programs & Compliance

VMware

She is an active contributor in the community including serving on several boards. She founded We Build Character, a non-profit focused on building future leaders through executive mentoring programs. She is a Zimbabwean native residing in Texas with her husband.

Role Model of the Year

Venus Quates

President & CEO

LaunchTech, LLC

Venus Quates is a trailblazing and distinguished Entrepreneur, US Air Force Veteran, boasting an impressive 26-year track record as a seasoned technologist and consultant, both domestically and internationally.

Throughout her extensive career, Venus has proven her mettle by successfully managing large-scale transformation and modernization initiatives. Her invaluable expertise has been sought by major Fortune 500 corporations, global banking giants, and esteemed leaders in the aerospace and defense industries. Venus has consistently demonstrated unparalleled competence and excellence, from overseeing multimillion-dollar projects to steering multibillion-dollar initiatives.

In 2016, Venus laid the foundation of LaunchTech, a company that has earned nationwide recognition for its exceptional growth. As the esteemed President & CEO of LaunchTech, Venus spearheads the award-winning company as they deliver cutting-edge technology modernization, cybersecurity, and systems engineering solutions to esteemed enterprise clients in both the public and private sectors.

Notably, Inc. honored the company as one of the top 50 fastest-growing businesses and among the elite 10 woman-owned firms in the nation. Beyond her professional accomplishments and role as a successful business leader, Venus is actively engaged in serving her community, which is evident in her tenure Girl Scouts of USA and various advisory boards throughout the country.

Role Model of the Year

Kandyce Tripp

Managing Partner, Global Security Services Alliances

IBM Security Services

Kandyce Tripp, Managing Partner, Global Security Services Alliances, is responsible for designing, developing, deploying, and managing the IBM Worldwide Security Services Strategic Alliance Partner Program in alignment with the business unit’s offering development and sales objectives.

Kandyce is responsible for formulating alliance strategies and programs to drive revenues and business objectives within IBM’s cross functional ecosystem. In addition, she manages several strategic relationships at the executive level, including, but not limited to, Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike, just to name a few.

Previously, Kandyce was a Vice President at Palo Alto Networks where she focused on building critical channels and alliances programs which drove revenue growth and partner improvements. During her six-year tenure, she operationalized routes to market and cloud go-to-market programs and business models to accelerate revenue growth. Prior to that, Kandyce held positions at Booz Allen Hamilton, Poly, SunTrust Banks, Inc. and Avaya.

Kandyce was recognized as a Power 100 Women in the Channel by CRN six times between 2012 and 2018. CRN recognized Kandyce as a Woman of the Channel nine times from 2012 through 2022. Kandyce holds a BS in Business Administration from Miami University and an MBA from University of Maryland.

Rising Star of the Year - Solution Provider

Caroline Berith

Head of Growth Marketing and Demand Generation

SHI International, Inc.

As many proficient marketers do, Berith started her marketing career working in sales for professional sports organizations, two early-career roles that she believes permanently shaped her scrappy marketing style. Since that time, she has had the pleasure of leading marketing teams of all sizes, from building marketing practices at promising growth organizations, to leading global teams through digital and economic transformation - and she’s learned something new every time.

Berith is actively serving in my most exciting role yet, defining the growth marketing program at SHI International as the Head of Growth Marketing and Demand Generation. Prior to my joining SHI, she served as the Director of Demand Generation for Canto and the Director of Demand Generation for CCG Analytics, now part of 3Cloud. She attributes her greatest career growth to the three years that she spent with Infor, where she grew from Director of ERP Field Marketing to Vice President of Demand Generation, and had the opportunity to build an economic model for marketing programs.

Berith believes marketers have the opportunity to transform organizations and am passionate about coaching and mentoring marketing peers to embrace change, lead innovation, and celebrate every achievement.

Jump to a category:

Rising Star of the Year - Solution Provider

Kaitlyn Llomas

National Capture Manager

Presidio

Kaitlyn Llomas leads the Presidio National Capture Team for State, Local, and Education. Kaitlyn brings 6 + years of extensive partner led and Public Sector experience at global companies, and an outcome driven approach with a proven track record of leading execution of strategy on a national basis to drive results. Equally important, she takes pride in being a collaborative leader.

Prior to Presidio, Kaitlyn led high impact projects and relationships for clients seeking solutions in areas like finances and forecasting, human capital, cyber and network security, diversity and inclusion, and education improvement. Kaitlyn has a passion for community involvement and helping national and locally focused organizations have long term success. Previously, she supported the partner community in various business development and strategy roles during her time in distribution at Tech Data Corporation.

Kaitlyn has a passion for learning and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Business Management and Organizational leadership from St. Petersburg College, a Black Belt Six Sigma certification, and is a proud Objectives and Key Results Coach (OKR).

Rising Star of the Year - Solution Provider

Chelsea Nguyen

Senior Marketing Specialist

Calian IT & Cyber Solutions

Chelsea Nguyen is the Senior Marketing Specialist for Calian IT & Cyber Solutions and an accomplished marketing and communications professional with a deep passion for her craft. With expertise in partner relations, digital marketing, and content creation, Chelsea consistently brings a unique blend of creativity and strategic thinking to the table.

She excels in developing and executing integrated marketing campaigns, managing strategic partnerships, overseeing seamless event logistics, coordinating cross-functional teams, and optimizing campaign performance for exceptional results. Chelsea’s unwavering commitment to excellence is evident in her proven track record of delivering successful marketing initiatives, amplifying brand awareness, and driving lead generation.

What sets Chelsea apart is her unwavering attention to detail, coupled with her innovative mindset, allowing her to thrive in dynamic and fast-paced environments. Her true dedication lies in leveraging her skills to achieve impactful outcomes and forge strong, meaningful connections with clients, employees, and partners alike.

Chelsea’s commitment to excellence and her ability to navigate complex marketing landscapes have positioned her as an invaluable asset, consistently delivering remarkable outcomes and setting new benchmarks of success in the field of marketing and communications.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Lynsy Calvario

Field & Channel Marketing Manager

Infinidat

Lynsy Calvario is the Field & Channel Marketing Manager for the Americas at Infinidat. Prior to joining Infinidat, Calvario led events for both Netcracker and Connectwise, formally Continuum Managed Services.

Born and raised in Hopkinton, MA with a Bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire, Calvario’s leadership skills, drive and versatility has helped her achieve continued success in her career. As a dynamic and visionary marketing professional with an exceptional track record in driving business growth, she continuously raises the bar.

And with an unwavering dedication to achieving results, she has carved her path as a trailblazer in the marketing industry with her tight cooperation with Infinidat’s channel partners and Infinidat’s sales team.

Jump to a category:

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Samantha Goldberg

Director, Global Partnerships

Fastly

Although new to the channel organization, Goldberg has a track record of success in other roles. With a strong focus on developing and enhancing programs, leading global customer-facing teams, and driving sales growth, her expertise lies at the intersection of business development, management, and customer relations.

Goldberg has spent the eighteen months spearheading the creation and successful launch of a new partner program. Her team has worked to revamp almost all aspects in order to better serve their partners and she couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come. Her achievements within the new program are CRN’s 5 Star review, implementing a new (to Fastly) tiered model to encourage growth with partners, a new PRM, enhanced onboarding and partner-focused enablement.

In addition to her professional achievements, Goldberg volunteers as a Wish Granter for Make-A-Wish, by helping children identify their most heartfelt wish – and bring the experience to life in a way that exceeds every expectation. She has an MBA from the University of Maryland - College Park, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a Minor in Leadership Studies from the same university. She’s committed to always making a positive impact professionally and personally.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Sheon Harvey

Regional Sales Manager

AVer

Harvey was born and raised in Japan but moved to the United States at the age of 8. Growing up in the Bay Area, she pursued a degree in Psychology at SJSU and graduated with Latin Honors, ranking in the top 10% of my class.

Her career journey took an unexpected turn into sales when she joined her company’s new Video Conferencing department as an order processor. With dedication and hard work, her startup team achieved remarkable results, increasing revenue from $2 million to $20 million within a span of 3 years. Furthermore, her division expanded significantly, growing from 3 team members to a team of 11.

Due to her rapid progress and exceptional performance, Harvey advanced to my current position as Regional Sales Manager. Her journey with the company spans almost 7 years, reflecting her commitment to their growth and success.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Julia Matthews

Business Development Manager

Xerox

Experienced sales professional with a proven track record in tech, fine art, and luxury hotels. Skilled in building partnerships, driving digital transformation, and optimizing revenue. Excels in communication, talent development, and employee engagement. Graduate of prestigious Vista program. Currently a Business Development Manager at Xerox, facilitating programs to drive revenue growth. Strong background as a Channel Business Manager, generating profitable sales and managing relationships. Previously led sales and marketing efforts at Studio 21 Fine Art, expanding market reach and brand recognition. Marketing Associate at Fogo Island Inn, achieving occupancy goals and securing awards. Committed to excellence and delivering results. Valuable asset for driving business growth and success in Xerox’s North America Channels organization.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Madison McDaniel

Manager, Global Partner Programs and Operations

Wasabi Technologies

Joining Wasabi Technologies in 2018, Madison McDaniel is the Manager of Global Partner Programs and Operations, responsible for creating, automating, and innovating on all of Wasabi’s resale partner programs across North America, EMEA, and APAC regions.

Madison is focused on managing, expanding, and activating Wasabi’s partners, which today boasts over 16,000 members. Throughout her time at Wasabi, she has also managed Wasabi’s event and webinar strategy and focused on supporting all marketing activities in Wasabi’s emerging international markets.

Prior to Wasabi, Madison was an Event Production Assistant at MKG, an experiential marketing agency, and Notifications and Customer Retention Co-op at Wayfair. Outside of the office, Madison is a voracious reader and traveler. Madison holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The D’Amore McKim School of Business at Northeastern University and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Megan McHugh

Channel Marketing Manager

Sophos

Megan McHugh is a highly accomplished and results-driven Channel Marketing Manager at Sophos.

She has an impressive track record in her nearly two years at Sophos. As a dynamic marketing professional, she brings a wealth of experience and expertise in crafting strategic channel messaging that drives business growth and enhances partner engagement.

With a passion for technology and a keen understanding of the cybersecurity landscape, Megan has been an integral part of the success of Sophos’ channel business, where she plays a pivotal role in building and nurturing strong partnerships with key channel stakeholders.

She approaches every conversation with empathy - and her dog - Tucker, dutifully by her side on Zoom. Megan holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a Master of Arts degree in integrated marketing communications.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Diane Mitchell

Director of Marketing, Global Enterprise Computing Solutions Business

Arrow Electronics

Diane Mitchell serves as the director of global marketing for Arrow Electronics’ enterprise computing solutions business. She is responsible for growing awareness of the brand and value proposition and leads all aspects of the marketing of the enterprise computing solutions business, including brand, communications, product and solutions marketing, business intelligence and insights, voice of the customer, reputation and media management, and industry analyst relations.

Previously, Diane served as vice president of marketing and communications for Bluum, a leading education technology solutions provider. There, she oversaw marketing, branding, ecommerce and event strategies that helped the company grow 160 percent in 18 months.

Diane is globally accredited in international business communications (ABC), a PROSCI-certified change management practitioner, and a DDI leadership training facilitator. She has worked for both public and privately held organizations, holding progressive senior leadership roles, several in Fortune 100-ranked companies.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Alli Oneal

Senior Global Partner Programs & Partner Experience Manager

Barracuda Networks

As Senior Global Partner Programs & Partner Experience Manager, Oneal is responsible for ensuring that partners adopt and utilize the channel program resources and infrastructure and working with Barracuda’s local country teams to adapt and leverage partner program initiatives to build local channel business.

Before moving to this new role earlier this year, she was Senior Channel Field Marketing Manager, and supported Barracuda’s West VAR partners on all things marketing, including overall marketing strategy, management of marketing budgets, execution, and support on marketing campaigns, programs, events, and enablement. She also took on additional responsibilities supporting Barracuda’s Americas Channel Marketing Programs, including ownership of the MDF program, Campaign-in-a-Box program, and other projects and team support.

Before joining Barracuda, Oneal worked in various marketing roles outside the channel. She thinks the range of roles and responsibilities she’s held have provided her with a well-rounded background in many different facets of marketing. These experiences and the opportunity to learn many different roles in a marketing organization helped prepare her for success in her role. She is energetic, organized, and communication driven. She’s also results-oriented, which drives her to help channel partners succeed.

She has been twice named to CRN’s Women of the Channel List and has been honored with multiple industry awards, including an EMMY®, multiple Tellys, ADDYs and other awards for her work in branding, storytelling, advertising and video production.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Kristie Panepinto

Director, GSI & CSP Programs

Palo Alto Networks

Kristie Panepinto is the Director of Strategic Programs for Global System Integrators and Cloud Service Providers while simultaneously supporting the SVP of Ecosystems, translating high-level visions into actionable strategies across his Sr. Leadership team. Kristie joined Palo Alto Networks over five years ago, focusing initially on partner led professional services and support engagements. This quickly evolved as the curiosity continued to grow and lead her into partnership management. Prior to her tenure at Palo Alto Networks, she worked for Gigya (now SAP Customer Data Cloud) and held several roles through the customer’s software implementation journey, including introducing partners for the first time and launching their first formal professional services partner program.

A proud Texas A&M University alumna (Whoop!), Kristie earned her BA in Communications. Although she spent her childhood moving around the east coast, she has firmly rooted herself in Texas, where she currently resides in Prosper with her loving husband, daughter, Vera (1), and cherished fur-baby, Piper. When she’s not driving strategic initiatives, you’ll likely find her enjoying quality time with her family or exploring her creative side through various hobbies.

Rising Star of the Year - Vendor/Distributor

Ellen Smith Rose

Client Leader, Ingram Micro

IBM

Ellen Smith is based in New York City, and she manages the US distributor relationship between IBM and Ingram Micro. She has held this position since September 2021, and she has focused on driving growth across Software, Power and Storage brands.

Ellen began her IBM career in 2012 in consulting where she quickly rose through the ranks. While finishing business school in 2019, Ellen made a career switch to the channel when she became the Chief of Staff to General Manager of the IBM Partner Ecosystem.

Since then, Ellen has held several roles in the channel, including global volume hardware sales, cross-brand business development, and new business partner recruitment. She is passionate about making a positive impact on her teams, her distributor, and her partners, and she is relentlessly focused on teamwork, collaboration, and follow-through.

Throughout her time in the channel, Ellen has become known for her programmatic and organized approach as well as her innovative ideas that drive meaningful transformation. Ellen holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA (in Religion and Economics) from Wofford College in South Carolina.

Ally Of The Year

Faisal Bhutto

SVP, Cloud and Cybersecurity

Calian IT & Cyber Solutions

Faisal Bhutto is the SVP of Cloud and Cybersecurity at Calian IT & Cyber Solutions and is responsible for the evolution and expansion of the global cloud and cybersecurity business. Faisal has an in-depth understanding of customer needs with an extensive technical background, industry certifications such as CCIE, and membership on OEM advisory councils including the Cisco Global Technology Advisory Board. Under his leadership, Computex (now Calian IT & Cyber Solutions) was recognized as the top cybersecurity firm in Houston two years in a row. Faisal is a CRN award winner, receiving the 2021 Next-Gen Solution Provider Leaders award, and he is regularly featured as a cybersecurity thought leader in media outlets including Forbes, The Fast Mode, Authority Magazine, and industry podcasts.

Jump to a category:

Ally Of The Year

John Dathan

Senior Vice President and General Manager Insight Canada

Insight Enterprises

John Dathan joined Insight in 2018 as the senior vice president and general manager of Insight Canada. He’s tasked with delivering Insight’s solutions to the Canadian market.

He started his career in technology as a PC salesman while studying marketing and finance at Concordia University in Montreal. From 1999 to 2005, he held sales leadership roles at Nortel Networks. Then, from 2005 to 2014, Dathan worked at Juniper Networks as the Canadian enterprise general manager. His roles continued to broaden, and he joined Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2014, working his way up to vice president and general manager in Canada.

Dathan leverages more than 35 years of sales and business management experience in the IT industry to foster deep partner relationships and create meaningful connections with clients, helping them manage their current IT needs and transform ahead of future challenges. He guides Insight Canada’s overall strategy to meet customer needs through unique processes, tools and services provided via Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™.

Dathan’s competitive spirit and high energy carry him through each day as Insight Canada’s leader. He believes in driving the success of everyone around him — and communication plays a critical role.

Ally Of The Year

Matt Kalmenson

VP, Sales and GTM, Global Service Providers

Veeam

Matt Kalmenson has more than 20 years of experience building and leading high-performance technology sales and marketing organizations that consistently exceed targets as a result of providing exceptional value to clients and partners alike. Matt has a proven track record accelerating sales, profits and revenue streams within the technology field by driving excellence in organizational strategy, development, staffing, execution and process excellence.

Prior to his work at Veeam, he worked as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Fidelus Technologies, LLC. At Fidelus, Matt was responsible for Worldwide Sales and Marketing where he led the organization in building a world-class sales organization, bringing new software products to market that were sold by over 150 resellers while also exponentially growing professional and managed services revenue. Additionally, Matt spent 16 years at CA Technologies where he held leadership roles in inside, direct and channel sales across multiple geographies. In 2015, Matt began his career at Veeam as Vice President of Cloud and Service Providers, Americas.

Ally Of The Year

James Overbeck

Senior Vice President, Marketing

Fortinet

Jim Overbeck has spent his entire career working to help solve customer challenges in the IT industry. Joining Fortinet in 2004 after several years building industry expertise, he has spent the majority of his tenure serving as a consultative voice delivering advanced solutions to organizations of all sizes and industries. In 2020, he was tapped by Fortinet leadership to shift roles and lead the US marketing efforts, transforming the organization into a strategic and cohesive team that connects the Fortinet story to our customers. As senior vice president of marketing, and a member of the executive suite, he brings his passion for team development, thoughtful process creation, and ultimately Fortinet to continue the company on its growth trajectory. Jim resides in Cincinnati with his wife Julie and three boys, Ryan, Michael, and Jason.

Ally Of The Year

Tony Safoian

President & CEO

SADA

As President & CEO of SADA, Tony Safoian firmly believes that technology can empower people to transform their worlds. He places sound engineering excellence at the core of the business model, coupled with exceptional customer experience at every stage of customer journey.
Under Tony’s guidance, SADA has differentiated itself by proactively addressing a rapidly evolving cloud market across commercial, public, and education sectors, while anticipating the needs of its customers–oftentimes even before they do. Tony has grown the small, family-owned business to one of the world’s top cloud consultancy and professional services providers, maintaining top-level partnership with Google Cloud, and winning the Partner of the Year award for the past five years. SADA is almost 900 strong across 4 continents serving Fortune 1000 global customers.
Tony has led SADA to 15-time Inc 5000 Honoree for the fastest-growing private companies, and Inc. Magazine’s list of Best Workplaces three years in a row. Additional accolades include being named to Comparably’s list of 2022 CEOs for Diversity, Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Top 40 under 40” list, CRN’s Next Generation 30 in Their Thirties, and 2014 CEO of the Year – Gold by CEO World Awards as a Visionary.

Gender Parity Award

AVer

Founded in 2008, AVer is an award-winning provider of education technology and video collaboration camera solutions that improve productivity and enrich learning. From accelerating learning in the classroom to increasing competitive advantage for businesses, AVer solutions leverage the power of technology to help people connect with one another to achieve great things. AVer’s product portfolio includes professional-grade artificial intelligence-enabled auto-tracking cameras, Zoom and Microsoft Teams Certified enterprise-grade USB cameras, document cameras, and mobile device charging solutions. AVer strives to provide industry-leading service and support that exceeds customer expectations. AVer is deeply committed to the community and the environment, and it employs stringent green processes.

Jump to a category:

Gender Parity Award

Caylent

As an all-in AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, Caylent is obsessed with accelerating time-to-value and our track record is backed by years of experience working with customers to solve even the most complex challenges. Being a partner means engaging together in a focused effort to drive our customers’ vision and achieve technical and business results. Caylent’s core practice areas include Migration, Application Modernization, Data Analytics & Machine Learning, DevOps, Security & Compliance, and Cloud Native Application Development.

Gender Parity Award

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point is a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to corporate enterprises and governments globally. With over 3,500 security experts, a world-acclaimed research and intelligence unit, and the broadest business and technology partners ecosystem, Check Point protects over 100,000 organizations of all sizes and industry verticals in 88 countries.

Gender Parity Award

Cradlepoint

Cradlepoint is the world’s foremost expert in wireless edge solutions that unlock the power of LTE and 5G cellular networks for organizations’ people, places, and things.

Gender Parity Award

ESET North America

For more than 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure and consumers worldwide from increasingly sophisticated digital threats. From endpoint and mobile security to endpoint detection and response, as well as encryption and multifactor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use solutions unobtrusively protect and monitor 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company that enables the safe use of technology. This is backed by ESET’s R&D centers worldwide, working in support of our shared future.

Gender Parity Award

Microserve

At Microserve, our vision is to be the #1 IT service and solutions provider in Western Canada, recognized for our client-focused service and positive impact on our communities. We exist to provide IT solutions that empower people to be successful and achieve their goals. Microserve is a market leader in the delivery of end-to-end information technology and audio-visual solutions and services to mid-sized and enterprise organizations based in Western Canada. Founded in 1987, Microserve is one of the largest IT service providers in our market with more than 550 full time team members and annual revenues over $220 million. At Microserve we are passionate about the responsibility and opportunity we have to contribute to our communities through job creation, providing professional and career development opportunities, philanthropy, community involvement and volunteerism, and through delivering service excellence to our clients who rely on our IT services to accomplish their own missions and objectives.

Gender Parity Award

SHI International

Over 17,000 organizations worldwide rely on SHI’s concierge approach to help them solve what’s next with scalable and cost-effective infrastructure, end-user computing, and cybersecurity solutions.

Diversity Employer of the Year

Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks, Inc. is a leader in cloud networking focused on delivering services that connect devices, applications, and people in new ways. We push the boundaries of technology leveraging the powers of machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics, and automation. 50,000 customers globally trust our end-to-end, cloud-driven networking solutions and rely on our top-rated services and support to accelerate their digital transformation efforts and deliver progress like never before.

Jump to a category:

Diversity Employer of the Year

Pythian

Pythian is a global data and analytics services company that helps organizations like yours transform by leveraging data, analytics, and the cloud. Pythian designs, implements, and supports customized solutions for the toughest data challenges. Delivering thousands of projects to the cloud, because we believe it is the very best place to be.

Diversity Employer of the Year

SADA

SADA is a leading business and technology consultancy, and award-winning Google Cloud partner.

Diversity Employer of the Year

Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric is an energy management and automation company that develops related technologies and solutions for electricity distribution.

Diversity Employer of the Year

Xerox Corporation

For more than 100 years, Xerox has continually redefined the workplace experience. Harnessing our leadership position in office and production print technology, we’ve expanded into software and services to sustainably power the hybrid workplace of today and tomorrow. Today, Xerox is continuing its legacy of innovation to deliver client-centric and digitally-driven technology solutions and meet the needs of today’s global, distributed workforce. From the office to industrial environments, our differentiated business and technology offerings and financial services are essential workplace technology solutions that drive success for our clients. At Xerox, we make work, work.

Community Impact Award

Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies creates technologies that drive human progress. Our story began with a belief and a passion: that everybody should have easy access to the best technology anywhere in the world. That was in 1984 in Michael Dell’s University of Texas dorm room. Today, Dell Technologies is instrumental in changing the digital landscape the world over. We are among the world’s leading technology companies helping to transform people’s lives with extraordinary capabilities. From hybrid cloud solutions to high-performance computing to ambitious social impact and sustainability initiatives, what we do impacts everyone, everywhere. We are driven by the world we want to live in. Leading is nothing new for us. That’s why advancing sustainability, cultivating inclusion, transforming lives and upholding trust are embedded in everything we do. Powered by a workforce that values and celebrates diverse backgrounds, we create solutions that harness and amplify technology to drive positive outcomes for business, people and the planet. From healthcare to education to a digital economy, we believe in the power of technology to help solve complex societal challenges.

Jump to a category: