Power 100: The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel 2014 (Part 1)
The Power 100
This year, CRN honored 340 Women of the Channel whose expertise and vision are deserving of recognition. The following exceptional 100 executives were chosen by CRN to its annual Power 100 list. We are proud to honor their achievements.
Here's a look at Part 1 of our list. For more, see Part 2 of our Power 100 list. You can also check out the full listing of the 2014 Women of the Channel.
Kirsten Lee, A10 Networks
Vice President of Worldwide Channels
Years in Position: 0.5
Years in Channel: 20
A10 significantly expanded its channel sales and marketing resources last year. Lee has seen substantial growth in revenue with partners as A10 invested in channel programs, training and enablement initiatives for partners.
Lisa Graham, Adobe Systems Inc.
Area Vice President, Americas Channels
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 25
Graham managed Adobe's Americas channel, representing more than $700 million in revenue, and launched programs to help partners sell the new Creative Cloud offering.
Andrea Thomas, ADTRAN, Inc.
Director Channel Development
Years in Position: 7
Years in Channel: 15
Thomas' role evolved to include the creation of a cross-channel state, local and education program, including a resource transformation coupled with traditional channel development responsibilities.
Amy McFarland, Advanced Micro Devices
Worldwide Head of AMD Partner Programs
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 15
McFarland spent time growing her channel teams and talking to partners to understand what they needed to be successful before rolling out the AMD Partner Program.
Shannon Sbar, APC by Schneider Electric
Vice President, Channels, North America
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 17
Sbar lowered thresholds and increased discounts in APC's Opportunity Registration Program to make it easier for partners to register for deals and boost their profits.
Wendy Hoey, Arrow Electronics
Senior Director of Business Development
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 20
With Arrow's acquisition of ComputerLinks, where Hoey worked for 16 years, she became a key member of the integration team in moving systems, customers and suppliers to Arrow.
Julia McConaughy, Aruba Networks
Director, Channel Operations
Years in Position: 7
Years in Channel: 19
McConaughy improved the ease of doing business for partners with a new partner portal, simplified Aruba's deal registration program and provided a new online demo lab.
Barbara Spicek, ASG Software Solutions
Senior Vice President of Global Systems Integrator and Channel Sales
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 19
Spicek joined the ASG Software team to help drive a transformation from 30 years of direct sales to an indirect sales model.
Brooks McCorcle, AT&T
President, Emerging Business Markets
Years in Position: 1.5
Years in Channel: 2
Under McCorcle, more than 130 solution providers have joined the AT&T Partner Exchange and are closing deals. The majority of those deals are new to AT&T.
Kim Renshaw, Autodesk
North America Channel Director, VAR Channel Sales
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 16
Renshaw restructured the North America VAR channel management team and helped Autodesk become better aligned with its VARs and adjust and adapt to their needs as not all partners are the same.
Patti Moran, Avaya
Senior Director WW Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 6
Years in Channel: 16
Moran initiated a global communications cadence, with campaigns demonstrating how each reseller could claim greater profitability by following Avaya's vision for innovation.
Nicole Enright, Avnet Technology Solutions
Vice President, Marketing and Strategy Acceleration
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 16
Enright developed new capabilities to enable Avnet's partners to offer more complete solutions around converged solutions, cloud, mobility, and big data and analytics.
Pam Lyra, Axcient
Vice President of Customer Satisfaction
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 3
Lyra built a service organization that has transformed itself into a best-in-class team of talented and passionate professionals, supporting customers the "Axcient" way.
Jana Whitcomb, Blue Coat Systems
Vice President North America Channel and Service Providers
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 18
Whitcomb took her knowledge of providers and managed services to drive growth in Blue Coat's VAR and systems integrator community and to that end launched two incentive programs.
Pamela Johansen, BMC Software
Senior Director Channel Operations
Years in Position: 10
Years in Channel: 14
Johansen drove incremental revenue through partners -- opportunities partners found that BMC was not aware of -- and saw revenue growth of 250 percent.
Laurie Potratz, Brocade
Senior Director, Global Distribution & Channels
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 22
With responsibility for the Americas in fiscal year 2013, Potratz increased channels and distribution business 35 percent year over year. The number of Elite and Premier partners rose 30 percent as well.
Jennifer Walzer, BUMI
CEO and Founder
Years in Position: 12
Years in Channel: 12
With BUMI's offices in Manhattan, surviving Hurricane Sandy and being able to mobilize and support customers without disruption was critical. BUMI has doubled revenue over the past three years.
Erin Malone, CA Technologies
Vice President, North America Sales, Data Management
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 16
Malone further aligned sales teams to provide support for CA's storage VAR partners, added field channel managers and an inside partner care team -- resulting in 85 percent new business growth.
Wendy Petty, CA Technologies
Vice President of Distribution and Member Partners
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 25
Petty helped redefine distribution for CA and bring innovative software to the channel. With a focus on the data center, CA's software will enable partners to create solutions that will boost their margins.
Kari Oldach, Carbonite
Director of Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 14
Coming to Carbonite in February after working at Dell, Oldach soon focused on driving Carbonite's marketing and program efforts as the company embarks on its channel-first journey.
Wendy Bahr, Cisco Systems
Senior Vice President, Americas Partner Organization (APO)
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 8
Bahr invested in Cisco's Cloud Services Partner Program to accelerate partners' ability to capture new revenue. Cisco achieved 468 percent growth in partner cloud bookings in the past 12 months.
Tammy Richards, Citrix
Managing Director, WW Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 5
Years in Channel: 5
Richards rolled out a new sales enablement program for partners that taps the power of sales process, social collaboration, mobility and analytics.
Gemma Noakes, CommVault
Senior Director of Worldwide Channel & OEM Marketing
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 15
Noakes made significant investments in CommVault's channel program, including tools to increase partner effectiveness and a globally consistent tiering structure.
Linda Brotherton, ConnectWise
Chief Technology Officer
Years in Position: 16
Years in Channel: 16
Brotherton created a new release schedule, delivering updates to partners quickly, efficiently and more frequently -- partners receive a new version of ConnectWise monthly.
Jeannine Edwards, ConnectWise
Director, ConnectWise Platform
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 18
After creating and building the ConnectWise Community initiative, Edwards went to work on a new initiative: building ConnectWise as a Platform.
Mary Campbell, D&H Distributing
Vice President of Marketing
Years in Position: 6
Years in Channel: 16
Campbell highlighted the Business Assurance program, which has offered more than $110 million in additional credit to resellers since 2009, and the Partner Service program, which provides free marketing resources for resellers.
Susan Konzen, Dassault Systemes
Channel Marketing Director - Americas
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 16
Konzen developed an in-depth marketing certification program and on-boarding process to accelerate partner capabilities and growth. She also launched a global marketing council to educate partners.
Mary Catherine Wilson, Dell
Director of Channel Marketing & Programs
Years in Position: 6
Years in Channel: 6
Wilson boosted PartnerDirect with financial incentives for direct sales to work with the channel in seven solution areas and aligned sales and marketing teams.
Cheryl Cook, Dell Inc
Vice President, Global Channels & Alliances
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 16
Cook expanded the PartnerDirect program to grow partners' businesses faster than the market and win new customers with Dell. The company's direct sales reps also were incented to work with the channel.
Leslie Conway, Digium
Vice President of Worldwide Marketing
Years in Position: 6
Years in Channel: 23
Last year's gamechanger: the acquisition of VocalCloud, a provider of cloud-based VoIP solutions, creating Digium Cloud Services and providing Switchvox Cloud as the hosted business phone system offering.
Sommer Goodknecht, Eaton
Channel Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 2
Goodknecht and her team improved service to partners and bolstered communication efforts around Eaton's integration with leading virtualization platforms and reward programs.
Julie Christiansen, EMC
Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 22
Christiansen doubled investments in demand generation funds, programs and resources to develop highly qualified opportunities for EMC partners and accelerate revenue growth.
Anna Dorcey, EMC
Senior Director, Americas Partner Marketing
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 22
Dorcey created a new marketing enablement team to support partners, streamlining processes along the way. A "Lead with Speed" campaign was key to supporting a midrange product launch.
Theresa Caragol, Extreme Networks
Vice President, Global Channels
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 20
Caragol rolled out a network analytics solution called Purview, the first major product launch to both the Extreme and Enterasys partner bases. Also new was software-defined-networking architecture software.
Lorri Bondi, F5 Networks
Worldwide Partner Programs Manager
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 17
Bondi's highlights included Web Fraud Protection Partner Program development for select security partners and the creation of an MSP/Cloud Program to address emerging goto-market requirements.
Kristi Houssiere, FireEye
Senior Director Global Partner Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 22
Houssiere directed the efforts around Fuel, the new global partner program, as FireEye counted 700 partners in the program worldwide and drove 90 percent of sales through partners.
Francine Geller, Google
Head of Global Channel Programs
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 14
Geller developed the infrastructure to build a global channel enablement program supporting hundreds of Google channel partners worldwide who are focused on small and medium businesses.
Sue Barsamian, Hewlett-Packard
Senior Vice President, Indirect Sales
Years in Position: 0.75
Years in Channel: 3
Barsamian improved HP's partner programs, creating an intuitive membership structure, more predictable compensation, new specializations in big data, cloud and networking, and tools to boost SMB business.
Mary Fambrini, Hewlett-Packard
HP Storage Division Alliances Lead -- Americas
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 18
Fambrini drove programs creating demand, revenue and channel value to the partner community and gave partners a platform to communicate value and elevate their profile.
Donna Grothjan, Hewlett-Packard
Vice President Worldwide Channel Distribution, Enterprise Group
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 25
Grothjan focused on creating a single HP One global operating model for distribution to ensure that HP can continue to scale the business but that it still has to ability to act local.
Lynn Anderson, Hewlett-Packard
Senior Vice President, Demand Generation & Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 0.25
Years in Channel: 4
Anderson built a new marketing model and delivered 100,000-plus opportunities and ready-made campaigns to partners to help boost their growth.
Susan Ferguson, Hewlett-Packard Autonomy
Vice President Worldwide Alliances & Channels
Years in Position: 0.5
Years in Channel: 10
Ferguson launched the first partner program for the HP Autonomy suite of products, leveraging HP PartnerOne, and bringing the portfolio to the HP ecosystem along with sales and technical enablement assets.
Annie Flaig, HGST, a Western Digital company
Vice President, Americas Sales & Channel Marketing, HGST
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 22
Highlights for Flaig were the acquisitions of sTec, Virident and Velobit, which support the strategy of delivering intelligent storage solutions that maximize application performance.
Tonia Gonsalves, Hitachi Data Systems
Vice President, Global Partner Enablement
Years in Position: 8
Years in Channel: 24
Gonsalves evolved the TrueNorth Partner Program to align with new routes to market and launched targeted competency-based incentive programs with related financial benefits for partners.
Tami Duncan, IBM Corporation
Vice President, North America Global Business Partners
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 15
Duncan deployed a customer-centric coverage model and optimized channel resources to support those partners selling the entire IBM stack.
Renee Bergeron, Ingram Micro Inc.
Vice President, Cloud Computing
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 4
Bergeron boosted the Cloud Division to better serve partners, including a global expansion to 170 countries. The acquisition of SoftCom and a new automated platform were growth catalysts.
Jennifer Anaya, Ingram Micro, Inc.
Vice President, Marketing, Ingram Micro North America
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 17
Anaya launched the Agency Ingram Micro (AIM) to the consumer electronics and IT channel. She also sparked awareness of MDF among channel vendor partners and solution providers.
Laura Crone, Intel Corporation
Vice President PC Client Group & General Manager of Intel's Channel Products Business
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 14
Under Crone, Intel showed strength in desktop integration, expanded revenue and design win opportunities in mobile, and ramped-up McAfee solutions.
Michelle Johnston-Holthaus, Intel Corporation
Vice president of the Sales and Marketing Group and director of Global Accounts
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 15
Johnston-Holthaus offered the channel opportunities to innovate, drive new business models and participate in new categories.
Lori Cornmesser, Ixia Communications
Vice President WW Channel & Alliance Sales
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 18
Cornmesser grew Ixia's entire partner base -- including reseller and global alliance partnerships -- and put in place a dedicated team focused on the company's partner community.