Black History Month 2024: Stories From The Channel

Troinet CEO Wayne Roye and Verizon executive Wendy Taccetta share stories from careers in IT for Black History Month.

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Wayne Roye, CEO of Staten Island-based MSP Troinet, has a tenacity inherited from his parents, belief in himself and fearlessness around failure that provided the foundation for a 25-plus-year career in IT and the channel.

And for Wendy Taccetta – formerly Verizon’s senior vice president of small business and channel chief and now more than six months into her role as SVP of retail and partner management – the importance of learning and mentorship instilled from her father has not only led to a career in tech but a role in championing employee resources.

This Black History Month, CRN spoke with Black professionals in the channel about how they entered IT, reached milestones in their careers and efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive industry for service providers.

Black History Month 2024

While these professionals told CRN that representation in the channel has improved over the years – with newer, diverse faces more prevalent at conferences and in different roles at partner businesses and vendors – much work remains to increase the number of Black people and other underrepresented voices not only in the channel, but in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

In October, McKinsey reported that efforts to close the Black talent gap in technology are falling short of target, with 8 percent of Black employees in tech jobs and 3 percent of C-level Black technology executives. Black people make up about 12 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Across all industries, jobs in data science, engineering, cybersecurity, software development and other areas of technology are expected to grow 14 percent by 2032, according to McKinsey. At the current rate, Black tech talent in those roles is expected to grow 8 percent over the same period.

Some resources for Black professionals in IT include:

Read on for the stories Taccetta and Roye shared with CRN and efforts that they support around inclusion and diversity in tech and the channel.

From Shoe Repair Shop To Business Owner

Wayne Roye’s lifelong love of technology might not have come from his parents – but what he did learn was a tenacity and drive displayed by immigrants from Jamaica who raised five children and put them through college.

“That's why I could never complain about what I do or ever say that things are too tough,” Roye said. “With nothing, they've already given me a launching pad to go to the next stage. How can I ever turn back and say, ‘Wow, that's hard.’ I'm already an advantage compared to my parents. So I can never look at things that are hard. I just have to work smarter.”

His story of entering the channel might sound familiar to other MSP owners whose passion for technology turned into a career. In his 20s and working for the New York City Transit Authority, Roye decided to start a side business building computers with some friends above a shoe repair shop in the New Dorp area of Staten Island.

“All of a sudden, we realized we actually had a business,” Roye told CRN. “It was that simple. There was no preconceived plan. It was just doing something that you liked to do. And then it just evolved into a company.”

About 25 years later, Roye runs Troinet, a Microsoft partner that provides IT consulting, cybersecurity, backup and disaster recovery and other services to companies in health care, insurance and other verticals.

While Roye credits his business education to “hard knocks” and learning as he went, he said he advises young people who want a career in tech to get business experience.

“Find a place where they can work that truly wants to teach,” he said. “Learn the industry. Learn the business first. And understand the business component of it. Because a lot of people fail because they think it's just tech work. It's sales, marketing, HR. It's a business. And you have to treat it like a business.”

He also advises young people to think about where they want to be, not where they are. Invest in the proper tools, the accounting systems, the employee manuals, don’t take on clients who aren’t a good fit – everything needed to reach their goals. “I have stuff that's, ‘Hey, I plan to be a $100 million company’ that is still in place.”

Roye said he supports efforts around inclusion and diversity in the channel and tech so that underrepresented people in the field feel empowered and have better access to resources.

Roye recently joined Microsoft’s Black Partner Growth Initiative (BPGI). He’s excited to network with fellow Black professionals and access resources to help him navigate the complex world of Microsoft partner programs. “Everybody's trying to collaborate, and it's teaching them how to share – ‘Hey, I have this strength. I have this weakness. Maybe you can work with me on this project. And we can do better with each other.’”

He continued: “It's very important to make everybody know that, hey, they have an opportunity to be involved. A lot of groups feel that, hey, they don't have a place in certain things. Or they don’t have a voice. And it's good to have people saying, ‘Hey, no, that's not the case. Get on in here.’”

Taccetta Carries On Father’s Legacy

Wendy Taccetta traces her enthusiasm for tech to her father. She grew up in The Bronx with parents who met at a Brooklyn house party after immigrating to the U.S. Both originally came from Montserrat, an island in the Caribbean.

“Both of them came here trying to figure out the best paths for the future,” she said. “I am so unbelievably humbled by what this country has bought from my family. But I'm also incredibly proud of what my family has brought to this country. … I approach every day thinking about, how can I live up to that? How can I live up to their courage, to their sacrifice, to their expectations? I am really proud that … my mother, my father and my grandmother have had a chance to see me achieve some success in my career, because I know how much it means to them. And that means a lot to me.”

Her father, Kenneth White, worked as a technician for NYNEX, a former phone company that served New England and New York state until merging with Bell Atlantic. Although she doesn’t remember her father as techie – voicemail in particular always stumped him – his curiosity and regard for mentors proved important tools.

“He always told me, ‘You have to find somebody who knows what they are doing, and watch them,’” she said. “There was nothing that I was going to be asked to do that would be so hard – if someone else can figure it out, you can figure it out. So I think it helped make sure I was never intimidated by technology. I've always thought it's meant for people to use it. So if I just spend a little time with it, hands on, I'll figure it out.”

A summer program working with the company has led to a 20-plus-year career with Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon. And today, Taccetta works to keep the benefits of mentorship for early-stage professionals a standard within the vendor – a member of CRN’s 2024 Channel Chiefs.

Taccetta said she is passionate about programs to support people early in their career, such as Verizon’s Women of the World (WOW) program, which connects women early in their careers with women further along to talk about obstacles and make them more comfortable in their jobs.

Taccetta said that when she started out in her career, sometimes she found mentors through sheer luck. Programs like WOW can make finding a great mentor more intentional. “Your success should not be tied to whom you happen to meet,” she said.

Taccetta is the executive sponsor of a Verizon employee resource group (ERG) created during the COVID-19 pandemic that is focused on parents and caregivers. The group allowed parents and caregivers to talk about finances, the physical and psychological effects of their work and other areas.

Those issues are especially important to Taccetta – she helped care for her father after he became sick and was diagnosed with dementia. He died in 2020, age 73.

She said she is happy Verizon provided a flexible work schedule and that her boss would insist on taking time off for her family. But Taccetta wants to help others in her situation who might need to explore paid leave options, to help women concerned with falling behind in career progression to care for a family member.

“This Verizon virtual community wrapped its arms around me,” she said. “But I also know that that's because I had relationships. I had a strong boss. And I had sponsors who were advocating for me … that should be the experience we give all of our employees. That when life gets complicated, there are resources. … I'm so passionate about the opportunity we have to create a different working generation. And I'm happy to be at a company that is passionate about it with me. I am looking forward to seeing how other companies lead here.”

Her advice to other companies exploring similar resources for employees includes feeling confident going into an uncomfortable space and staying the course amid criticism for addressing a narrow issue and not all issues. She used the example of Verizon’s Innovative Learning program, which leverages the company’s technology prowess to bring mobile hotspots, data plans and other resources to middle and high schools.

As for mentorship programs, forced mentorship does not often work, Taccetta said. Her advice to employees: “Mentorship is part of your job. Learning how to be mentored is important. Learning how to take feedback is important so that you can be a good mentor.”

Programs such as Women of the World and the parents and caregivers ERG help with employee retention and with customer experience when employees feel seen and helped by their workplace.

“We've got to earn our employees' investment in our companies every day,” she said. “It's so important that companies think long and hard about how to invest their power, their strength, their dollars, because I think that's how society is going to get better.”

The IT channel in particular is an opportunity for people at a variety of stages in their careers and an opportunity for making tech more inclusive. Channel workers have to be thinkers and doers, have a strong work ethic and strong accountability, they have to balance challenging the norm while building relationships.

“I look at channel as this incredible opportunity where I get to work in big corporate America, but I get to live and breathe with entrepreneurs every day,” she said. “They are some of the most creative people, risk takers, people who challenge the norm. They push against our ideas of what we can't do. … It's a great place to start. It's a great place to engage. And it's one of my favorite parts of my career journey with Verizon.”