2014 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers
Rising Stars
The annual Women of the Channel list highlights the accomplishments of female executives within vendor, distribution, and solution provider organizations, and the impact they are having on the advancement of the IT channel.
The inaugural Channel Up-And-Comers is culled from the ranks of CRN's Women of the Channel and gives special recognition to rising-star female executives.
For more Women of the Channel coverage, check out our Power 100 lists (Part One and Part Two) and our Power 50 Solution Providers. You can also check out the full listing of the 2014 Women of the Channel.
Michelle Hodges, Apptio
Vice President - Channels & Alliances
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 18
Stepping in to the channel chief role at Apptio, Hodges leveraged her 18 years of experience leading international alliance, channel and partner organizations at a number of software companies.
Lisa Quinby, Arbor Networks
Director, Global Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 3.5
Years in Channel: 4
Quinby launched a tiered structure to the Arbor Advantage Partner Program and introduced an Authorized Reseller level to recognize new partners and help get them up to speed.
Sonal Puri, Aryaka Networks
Vice President Sales, Marketing & Alliances
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 14
Aryaka saw recurring revenue growth of 158 percent in the second half of 2013. Puri boosted the number of customers in verticals such as manufacturing, technology and services.
Melody Brown, DataCore Software
Vice President Sales, Americas
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 11
Brown ensured zero conflict as sales and channel teams were synonymous, with 100 percent of sales through DataCore channel partners. The Americas market saw triple-digit year-over-year growth via partners.
Patty Nghiem, Dataguise Inc.
Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
Years in Position: 0.6
Years in Channel: 7
New to the big data company, Nghiem has since created and launched the Big Data Protection Partner Program and is overseeing the channel and marketing strategy.
Karen Roller, Evolve IP
Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 7
Roller helped Evolve IP's agent partners take advantage of the opportunities offered by the cloud, specifically running programs to educate, train and drive leads to them. A new partner playbook "cloud bible" has been key.
Dana Prestigiacomo, ExaGrid Systems, Inc.
Senior Vice President of Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 9
Although new to the company, Prestigiacomo touted a 2013 that saw strong growth in the disk-based backup market as ExaGrid turned cash-positive and grew its circle of partners.
Sandra Glaser Cheek, Extreme Networks
Senior Director, Global Partner Strategy, Programs and Enablement
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 18
Post-Enterasys acquisition, Glaser Cheek led the integration of two channel-focused companies, partner bases, programs, enablement and training.
Victoria Grey, Gridstore
Chief Marketing Officer
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 30
Grey was instrumental to the launch of the Gridstore Accelerate Partner Program, which meant ramped-up recruitment and engagement with storage VARs.
Meredith Scheraldi, Imperva
Director of Pathways Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 20
Scheraldi launched global programs to support Imperva's channel-first strategy and focused on recruiting and arming partners to grow their business.
Jasmine Lombardi, Intronis, Inc.
Vice President of Partner Success
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 1
Intronis recruited Lombardi to reinvent its partner support and roll out a new Partner Success organization. She soon provided new tools and services aimed at making partners more successful.
Laurel Burton, Peak
Vice President of Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 3
Burton led efforts to educate the market on Peak's white-label cloud program and ultimately help channel partners leverage cloud computing to create lucrative practices of their own.
Brooke Cunningham, Qlik
Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing & Events
Years in Position: 2.5
Years in Channel: 16
As Qlik reached a milestone of 500 partner users, Cunningham expanded the reach of its automated marketing programs.
Bonnie Lam, RingCentral
Regional VP - North America Channel Sales
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 15
Lam has been key as RingCentral's channel partners became the highest-growing sales channel at the company; channel revenue increased more than 50 percent year over year.
Megan Jones, Spikes Security
Vice President of Channel Alliance
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 6
It was a busy year for startup Spikes Security, and Jones helped take the company from no channel and selling direct to an international channel with plans to expand the company's distribution network globally.
Michelle Accardi-Petersen, Star2Star Communications
Chief Marketing Officer
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 10
With a new role at the cloud UC player, Acardi-Petersen quickly rolled out tools for partners: a mobile website with deep analytics to serve leads and a full-service marketing concierge.