2016 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers
Rising Stars
CRN's annual Women of the Channel 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. For the third year in a row, the project will give special recognition to rising-star female executives.
Here we present the 2016 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers. For more Women of the Channel coverage, check out our Power 100 lists (Part One and Part Two) and our Power 30 Solution Providers. You can also check out the full listing of the 2016 Women of the Channel.
Meredith Caram
AT&T
Executive Director of Strategic Reach, AT&T Partner Exchange
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 5
Caram is reponsible for identifying and developing new relationships with solution providers that would be a great fit in Partner Exchange. To date she and her team have recruited more than 450 solution providers across the country.
Tania Darzi
Axcient
Field and Partner Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 4
Darzi hosted events for Axcient executives and partners to engage and collaborate. She also revamped the partner program in keeping with channel community needs by simplifying the tier system and creating incentives.
Berinda Post
Brocade
Director, Channel Sales
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 5
Post coaches her team to be highly visible within partners and more and more tactical in their sales approach with them. She tasks them to take on the role of bringing new customers and opportunities to partners and to work hand-in-hand to identify new ways to break through and find new business.
Emalee Sugano
CharTec
Business Strategy Manager
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 4
Sugano launched Strategy Sessions for Members, and through analysis and goal-setting derives a 12-month plan that outlines their sales, marketing and business challenges and includes a guide on how to solve them.
Heather Collins
Cisco Systems
Director, Partner Sales
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 5
Collins oversees public sector federal systems integrators, who have a different business model than VARs. She has crafted strategies and initiatives to better align to these federal systems integrators models and improved partner satisfaction.
Jennifer Krystofiak
Citrix Systems
Senior Manager, Worldwide Channel Development
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 10
Over the past year, Krystofiak and her team evolved the roles and responsibilities of the people focused on Citrix's top partners, shifiting their role to help drive partners to source and qualify opportunities in untapped markets.
Lindsay Dick
Collabrance LLC
Director of Sales
Years in Position: 5
Years in Channel: 8
Dick has helped solidify channel and industry leader partnerships and worked on team engagement projects and internal process improvement. She also helped create the company's brand and go-to-market strategy.
Jennifer McAuliffe
Datawatch
Vice President, Strategic Global Alliances
Years in Position: 1.25
Years in Channel: 6
McAuliffe was hired to devise and launch Datawatch's formal channel program, making a 20-year-old legacy business consumable for the channel. She has since established the overall partner business strategy and set sales targets and a go-to-market plan.
Erica Mikulsky
Eaton
Channel Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 10
This year Mikulsky has been part of a team responsible for launching Eaton's IPM Online Certification Training Modules as well as helping to drive the messaging surrounding software-defined power into the channel.
Maureen Gaumer
EMC
Director, US Field and Partner Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 5
Gaumer furthered EMC's channel business through actively engaging partners through the Americas Partner Advisory Board and the Global Partner Summit to hear about their priorities. She also collaborated with teams across the marketing organization.
Melanie Holterhoff
F5 Networks
Sr WW Channel Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 13
In the first six months after being promoted to a global role, Holterhoff launched several marketing resources through F5's Partner Portal, including Campaigns in a Box for demand generation and Webpage in a Box.
Cindy Grogan
Flexera Software
Global VP, Alliances and Channels
Years in Position: 2.5
Years in Channel: 13
Flexera has a strong alliances and channel team and executive support to grow this portion of the business. Grogan is building out a certification program and added dedicated partner enablement managers to help partners with implementations.
Katie Meckel
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Director, WW Partner Sales Engagement
Years in Position: 0
Years in Channel: 6
During the HP separation, Meckel and her team made positive changes for partners, including the migration to the pan-HPE Partner Ready Portal, which boosts productivity.
Wendy Mace
IndependenceIT
Director of Operations
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 3
Mace helped drive a number of initiatives to deliver a better overall partner experience. She took every opportunity to remove technical- and process-driven roadblocks by educating partners so they can leverage the company's software platform successfully.
Regan Ogner
Intel Security
Head of Global Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 0.5
Years in Channel: 16
Ogner and her team focused strategic investments on key partners via marketing development funds. She has created marketing campaign kits for channel partners to customize and incorporate into their marketing efforts.
Jennifer Ambrose
MobileIron
Director, Americas Field and Partner Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 11
Ambrose introduced a formal MDF program to the North American channel team, attaining 100 percent utilization, driving new leads and pipeline for the company, and contributing to revenue growth with top partners.
Shannon Kinnan
Nimble Storage
Manager, Global Distribution
Years in Position: 1.5
Years in Channel: 11
Kinnan has worked to increase the awareness of the value distribution partners bring to Nimble's 100 percent channel model. She has increased the focus on specific initiatives that help partners close sales and worry less about logistics.
Monique Rezaei
Polycom
National Channel Manager
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 6
Managing one of Polycom's largest Platinum partners, Rezaei grew revenue more than 22 percent year over year for the past three years by developing strategic partner programs and enablement initiatives and aligning goals at both Polycom and the partner.
Bridget Winston
ShoreTel
Director: Partner Business Management
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 15
Winston focused her energy on helping VARs expand their offerings to include ShoreTel cloud solutions. The VAR community is now the main source of revenue in its premises business as well as the leading force in its cloud services business.
Justine Lewis
Sophos
Vice President, Worldwide Field and Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 3.5
Years in Channel: 9
Sophos is heavily channel-focused, and Lewis steered the investment of time and marketing budgets with channel partners to help create more business, opportunity and impact. Sophos has expanded partnerships worldwide.
Meredith Bankenstein
ThreatTrack Security
Channel Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 8
Bankenstein and the new director of channels worked to restructure ThreatTrack's channel program, creating a multilayered partner program that helps build more trusted relationships and enable to the company to deliver the right tools and support.
Gena Phelps
Tintri
Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 10
Phelps joined forces with the marketing and partner sales teams to develop new offerings with the goal of transforming Tintri into a channel company, not just one that sells through the channel. The program now offers clear benefits and strong business incentives.
Laura Davis
VMware
Sr. Director, Public Sector Partners
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 4
As the leader of the Public Sector Partner Organization, Davis developed and executed against a partner strategy specific to that market. She worked closely with channel leaders to integrate the company's products and services into their business.