The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel 2022: Power 100
The Power 100 is culled from the ranks of CRN’s Women of the Channel and spotlights the female executives at vendors and distributors whose insight and influence help drive channel success.
This year, CRN is honoring the women whose channel expertise, vision, advocacy and mentorship are helping drive the channel and are deserving of recognition in its annual Women Of The Channel showcase.
Of the impressive group, an elite selection of executives were named by the CRN editorial staff to the Power 100 list. This list highlights the women that are bringing their unique brand of leadership to their vendor and distribution organizations. These high achievers come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and are no stranger to combatting business challenges.
If the last two years has been any indication, the IT landscape is changing rapidly, as are customer buying behaviors thanks to brand-new trends such as hybrid work, cloud and the return to the office. It’s safe to say businesses and channel partners alike are looking for new, innovative solutions from their technology vendors.
Distributors and vendors are feeling the heat, and the women of the Power 100 have been working tirelessly to collaborate with customers and partners to address their needs, all while working hard alongside their teams to beat out the competition.
Here are the 100 women that made the Power 100 list this year.
By Company:
Barb Huelskamp
SVP, Global Partners, Alliances
Alteryx
Huelskamp has re-architected the partner program for Alteryx, giving solution providers earlier access to benefits as they invest with the company. She also developed financial incentives for opportunity registration with the goal of protecting partner-initiated opportunities and the restructuring of internal sales compensation, rewarding Alteryx sellers for selling with and through partners.
Ruba Borno
VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances
AWS
As AWS’ new global channel chief, Borno is pushing the company to double down on working with partners, with a focus on streamlining and making it easier for solution providers to navigate the AWS Partner Network as well as the cloud market leader in general.
Renee Bergeron
SVP, GM, AppSmart
AppDirect
A sales effectiveness program Bergeron spearheaded led to threefold growth in year-over-year bookings. She led the integration of five acquired channel companies and expanded AppSmart internationally with a major acquisition in Canada. She launched a dedicated cloud business and was key to an $80 million expansion of AppDirect Capital’s AppSmart Invest program for non-equity partner funding.
Jeannine Edwards
Sr. Director, North American Channel Marketing
Arcserve
Edwards this past year was instrumental in communicating the merger of her former company, StorageCraft, with Arcserve to the partner community. This included articulating how the combined company’s broad set of solutions in the data resilience category benefits partners and every one of their current or potential customers.
Megan Flanagan
VP, Field, Partner Marketing
Arctic Wolf
Flanagan’s team has driven an initiative (“The Arctic Wolf Roadshow”) that has enabled the company to engage with partners face-to-face in a COVID-safe environment. Over a two-month span, her team sent two branded tour buses to 27 markets across the United States, visiting with more than 1,400 partner reps.
Dawn Ringstaff
VP, Channels
Area 1 Security
The Accelerate Partner Program that Ringstaff launched last year more than doubled Area 1’s partner base while increasing the company’s ramp to revenue, partner achievements and online marketplace presence. Ringstaff also mentored the sales team on how to work with the channel and created a web portal and learning management system for partners.
Donna Grothjan
VP, Worldwide Channels
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
A longtime Aruba channel leader, Grothjan has been busy transforming the company’s partner landscape in favor of the delivery of very much in-demand network-as-a-service offerings. She and her team are overhauling the entire partner operating model, from partner go-to-market strategy to partner enablement and sales capabilities.
Sarita Rao
SVP, AT&T Integrated, Partner Solutions
AT&T
Rao has been in the channel chief seat at AT&T since the end of 2020 and has established a first-of-its-kind advisory council for the carrier’s Partner Exchange channel that is focused on creating ongoing dialogue with key solution providers. The council has since identified new areas of revenue growth for partners.
Carolyn Crandall
Chief Security Advocate, CMO
Attivo Networks
In her worldwide role, Crandall is always looking for opportunities and creative ways to team with channel, integration and industry partners to create joint selling opportunities and enable partner success – and this has included providing supporting resources and tools to encourage selling and collaboration with Attivo’s channel community.
Laura McGregor Falko
Head of Global Partner Strategy, Programs, Marketing
Broadcom Software
McGregor Falko is the brains behind a number of new Broadcom partner programs launched over the year. She architected the global Advantage Partner Program for the company’s six CA and Symantec divisions, designed and launched the Expert Advantage expanded global channel services partner program and launched the Software Cybersecurity Aggregator Program for distribution partners.
Coletta Vigh
Head of Worldwide Channel Strategy
Check Point Software Technologies
Vigh has worked closely with Check Point’s cloud partner development team to ensure that cloud-first solution providers get the support they need to secure cloud environments for their customers, from sales and technical enablement to go-to-market planning and execution, which has had a big impact on growth.
Alexandra Zagury
VP, Partner Managed, As-A-Service, Global Partner Organization
Cisco Systems
With a history of exceeding goals and growth targets, Zagury currently leads Cisco’s $10 billion-plus partner-managed and as-a-service business and go-to-market strategy. Zagury and her team are developing new business models, offers and programs that support the tech giant’s critical route-to-market.
Julia Chen
VP, Global Partner Transformation
Cisco Systems
Chen provides inspiration, opportunities and enablement to Cisco’s channel partners. She and her team help partners capture and capitalize on market opportunities through new routes to market and by developing new capabilities with a focus on business outcomes for enterprises.
Jos é van Dijk
VP, Partner Performance, Operations, Global Partner Sales, Sales and Marketing
Cisco Systems
A Cisco veteran of more than two decades, van Dijk is responsible for managing and improving experiences and the daily business of Cisco partners. She and her team manage partner performance and is busy digitizing processes and tools for solution providers in Cisco’s Global Partner organization, while aligning with Cisco’s field organization.
Tricia Atchison
VP, Worldwide Partner Engagement, Experience
Citrix Systems
Listening to a variety of partners to gain insights from constructive feedback has been at the top of Atchison’s priorities at Citrix. Partner advisory boards, executive one-on-ones and surveys of all partner types have led to actionable plans for where Citrix can improve and invest to increase value for partners.
Dalyn Wertz
Executive Director, Indirect Program, Marketing
Comcast Business
A recognized leader in building high-performing channel programs, Wertz manages Comcast’s indirect channel program, full of thousands of partners selling Comcast’s full portfolio of business services. She’s responsible for partner communications, enablement, events and partner recruitment, and she also dedicates her time to mentoring young professionals new to the telecom industry and channel.
Karen Pugliese
Partner Leader, Americas
CommScope
A CommScope veteran of more than a decade, Pugliese is responsible for leading CommScope’s partner program and its ecosystem. She oversees the indirect partner channel and national partner management for the company. Under her leadership, CommScope’s growth objectives have been re-energized, and the company has substantially expanded its business.
Amanda Adams
VP, America Alliances
CrowdStrike
Adams helped grow the CrowdStrike European Alliances organization over 30 percent and supported the onboarding and development of individuals who executed triple-digit growth with alliance partners in fiscal 2022. She focused on maturing key routes to markets, including distribution, services partners and cloud to capture market penetration through their expanded reach.
Lori Cornmesser
VP, Worldwide Channel Sales
CyCognito
Cornmesser’s No. 1 goal is to drive and deliver growth for the company. Since joining CyCognito in 2021, she has been largely focused on building a solid foundation and refreshing the CyCognito Partner Program to include new enablement and tools and resources for our forward-thinking, security-focused channel partners.
Tina Fisher
VP, Vendor Management
D&H Distributing
Fisher and her team were integral to D&H’s efforts to build out strategic go-to-market plans, new vendor partner integrations and additional personnel teams to help support the company’s many solution-oriented initiatives. This includes areas such as e-sports, ProA and collaboration, which will contribute to D&H‘s “BFG”—Built for Growth—initiative.
Brooke Cunningham
CMO
Datto
Cunningham is relatively new to Datto, starting at the company in January after a nearly six-year run as a channel executive at Splunk. But her start at Datto has been a busy one as she initially focused on delivering an integrated marketing program to support Datto partners to position security solutions for their SMB clients.
Cheryl Cook
SVP, Global Partner Marketing
Dell Technologies
Cook has been front and center in Dell Technologies’ channel charge for a decade, from speaking on stage during partner events to driving more MDF for partners. She helps partners develop their marketing strategy, grows partner mindshare and drives channel thought leadership and strategic priorities for key emerging markets such as as-a-service and edge computing.
Rola Dagher
Global Channel Chief
Dell Technologies
Dagher is Dell Technologies’ fearless worldwide channel chief, who has increased Dell’s global channel sales over the past two years to $59 billion in order revenue. Over the past year she focused on empowering her team to break down process barriers and enhance partner experience while fostering a culture prioritizing actions that lead to positive social impact.
Erica Lambert
SVP, Global Channel, Alliances, OEM Services
Dell Technologies
Lambert is proud to have built an organization focused on delivering value in a collaborative approach with Dell’s partner community. Recognizing that services are critical to accelerating the time-to-value of technology, she is focused on complementing partners’ deep capabilities with services offerings that grow their profitability.
Denise Millard
SVP, Global Alliances
Dell Technologies
Millard introduced new partner advisory boards to help bring channel insight to Dell’s product roadmap and ensure it maintains a constant pulse on the market. She also invested in the Industries team to deliver solutions in retail and edge, as well as introduced a Mental Health Charter to encourage team members to prioritize wellness.
Kimberly Walkey
Director, U.S. Channel Sales, Distribution
Eaton
With over two decades of experience in the channel, Walkey has successfully developed key strategic partnerships and implemented winning strategies that have fostered continuous growth with Eaton’s IT distribution partners. She currently oversees the company’s entire distribution channel business within the company’s Distributed IT organization.
Jules Johnston
SVP, Global Channels
Equinix
In the inaugural year of Equinix’s Global Channel Organization, Johnston brought hundreds of people together from 19 different country, regional and functional teams while also attracting leaders to fill newly created executive partner sales roles in each region. The company also rolled out a newly enhanced partner portal and improved certification program, among other developments.
Natalia Vianden
Director, Global Channel Programs
Extreme Networks
With a laser focus on the best outcomes for Extreme channel partners, Vianden notably launched the Global Channel Partner Program, which she is now spearheading. She has more than 20 years of experience in the networking industry and a proven track record of devising and implementing strategic channel programs within the networking sector.
Lisa Citron
VP, Worldwide Channels
F5
Channel leader Citron, who has more than two decades of channel and tech experience, is responsible for building and leading a channel-centric go-to-market strategy to drive global revenue growth of F5 solutions. She and her team have doubled down on establishing the company as a leader in multi-cloud application security and delivery services.
Maria Jacobson
Sr. Director, Partner Marketing, Enablement
Fortinet
Jacobson launched programs and incentives to align with partners and the different markets they sell in. She helped develop new content focused on enablement, campaigns and sales tools for partners to quickly come up to speed on core Fortinet offerings, which resulted in record deal registrations.
Nina Harding
Global Chief, Partner Advantage Program, Strategy
Google Cloud
Over the last year, Harding released new incentives for partners focused on customer acquisition and implementation. She expanded distribution as a route to market for Google Workspace and Google Cloud Platform and improved the sharing of partner and customer success stories.
Leslie Maher
VP, Channels, Ecosystem
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Maher has been key to growing the partner-led consumption business with HPE GreenLake, increasing the overall business and number of partners transacting this year. She worked on the launch of a partner pricing program to provide competitive pricing with low or no touch from HPE.
Joy Shanks
Worldwide Head Of Sales And Strategy, HPE Financial Services
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Taking on her role at the beginning of 2021, Shanks has worked with her team to establish key performance indicators and create a culture of consistency and rigor. She implemented an analytics-based go-to-market strategy and created a channel blueprint to help propel the business forward. She has helped amplify proactive demand generation activities, leverage asset management capabilities and advance partners’ digital evolution.
Cheri Wesinger
Director, Channel Marketing
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
This past year, Wesinger increased her partner executive network to better understand channel-related marketing needs to drive meaningful change. Her external research and a new series of “as-a-service” partner marketing workshops has helped partners improve their marketing efforts and stand out from the competition.
Kimberly King
SVP, Strategic Partners, Alliances
Hitachi Vantara
King last year consolidated Hitachi Vantara’s global channels organization, resulting in greater geographical empowerment and closer collaboration with the company’s direct sales team. She also expanded new partner relationships and drove internal accountability around offering initiatives that drive ease of doing business, flexibility and profitable growth for partners.
Mary Beth Walker
Head of Global Channel Strategy
HP Inc.
Walker has been instrumental in the development and expansion of HP Amplify programs for commercial and retail partners, as well as the launch of HP’s industry-first Amplify Impact sustainability initiative and HP Amplify Data Insights, which is designed to support partners and push the IT industry into the future.
Mary Coucher
VP, Worldwide Ecosystem Sales
IBM
Coucher started an effort in all IBM’s markets to recruit new partners across all the resell, build and service sales motions. The effort exceeded all internal goals by more than 50 percent, helping the tech giant with its plans to significantly grow its overall ecosystem business.
Natalia de Greiff
VP, IBM Americas, Ecosystem
IBM
Assuming her role at the start of 2021, de Grieff has helped advance IBM’s channel business through getting to know the network and learning how partners are deploying and growing IBM’s technology, all while generating customer success stories. She has supported multiple growth initiatives that are developed with partners.
May Mitchell
SVP, Global Marketing
iBoss
Mitchell has provided her company with best practices and uses her partner contacts and relationships to drive a partner-friendly program. Effective business planning and associated enablement materials for joint demand generation have also been part of the key components for strengthening iBoss’ program this year. Mitchell has supported tools, training, MDF and other channel investments from iBoss.
Jennifer Anaya
SVP, Marketing, Global Technology Solutions
Ingram Micro Inc.
Anaya has enhanced Ingram Micro’s global Modern Marketing program, providing data-focused, digital, social and content marketing services to channel partners across six continents. She also expanded the Ingram Micro ONE program allowing partners to learn, connect and create via a digital platform and run their businesses better and grow their technology practices faster.
Sabine Howest
SVP, Global Vendor Engagement, Digital Operations
Ingram Micro Inc.
In 2021, Sabine Howest and her team continued to build out Ingram Micro’s Advanced Solutions globally and deployed its Hyper Automation practice with UiPath as a cornerstone vendor. Her team also used the company’s Centers of Excellence to attract, retain and manage talent that’s highly technical in skills and expanded on its growth in cybersecurity.
Susan O’Sullivan
VP, U.S. Sales
Ingram Micro Inc.
Over the last year, Susan O’Sullivan and her team focused a lot of energy on the experience of the company’s associates and partners. Her team invested in sales organizational upskilling with specialized training, both in process and content, to deliver a better experience across the board.
Michelle Johnston Holthaus
EVP, GM, Client Computing Group
Intel
Johnston Holthaus recently transitioned from leading the sales, marketing and communications group at Intel into her current role, where she’s responsible for all aspects of Intel’s client computing business, including strategy, financial performance and product development for itsentire portfolio of products and platforms.
Irina Shamkova
EVP, Product Management
Intermedia Cloud Communications
With a tenure of more than 20 years at Intermedia, Shamkova is currently responsible for designing and driving Intermedia’s product strategy. Under her leadership, Intermedia’s proprietary product portfolio has expanded to cover a tightly integrated suite of cloud applications. Shamkova was also integral to Intermedia’s significant UCaaS and CCaaS market expansion over the last four years.
Kelly Nagel
North America President, GM
Jabra
For Nagel, 2021 was about maintaining bilateral communications with Jabra’s channel partners. The company executed more webinars than in previous years, participated in notable panel discussions and furthered the company’s ecosystem knowledge of hybrid working models. She also plays an integral role in collecting channel partners’ feedback and pushing for changes where needed.
Tina O’Dell
Director, Global Channel Marketing
Juniper Networks
With more than 20 years of experience in the tech and health care industries, O’Dell has built sustainable transformational improvements across organizations. Right now, she’s responsible for developing the strategies, objectives and new opportunities for Juniper’s direct and partner sales teams based on the needs of customers, as well as marketing and demand generation strategy.
Sara Valtin
VP, Channel Sales, North America
KnowBe4
The past year was a year of optimization for KnowBe4’s channel business. Valtin led a significant internal restructuring of the channel team to put focus where it needs to be and worked hard to develop personnel and promote from within. The result was the launch of key channel tools and programs that helped partners be successful.
Laura Blackmer
SVP, Dealer Sales
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.
Blackmer focused heavily on keeping Konica Minolta’s dealers abreast of COVID-19’s impacts and educating them on how to navigate the pandemic and related government support programs. She also followed up with supply chain information and direction on government mandates such as vaccines to help them focus on building their businesses.
Wendy Welch
Executive Director, Value Added Reseller Channel
Lenovo
Welch helped develop a framework to navigate continued uncertainty due to supply conditions while driving new conversations with partners looking to enhance their business model with managed services, cloud services and expansions into additional areas of the Lenovo portfolio. She also enabled mentorship and professional development opportunities within the company.
Jennifer Whaley
North America Director, Channel Partner Support Organization
Lenovo
Over the last year, Whaley has led the Data Center Programs organization to deliver programs and promotions for Lenovo’s partner Community. With these programs and promotions, Whaley has seen partners grow their Lenovo business and the adoption of these benefits.
Dee Dee Acquista
VP, Americas Channel Sales
Mandiant
Among Acquista’s channel-related successes over the last year were identifying and activating key channel partners with like-minded, go-to-market strategies, developing channel programs that motivate channel partners to find new business opportunities for the organization and assembling a strong channel team to ensure solid coverage for growth and scale.
Nicole Dezen 2017
Nicole Dezen
Corporate VP, Device Partner Sales
Microsoft
Dezen leads a team of sales, marketing, business development and technical professionals who collaborate with partners to build, market and sell intelligent edge devices that consume Microsoft Cloud services. She drives business growth and innovation across the device ecosystem while helping partners and customers unlock the power of the Microsoft Cloud.
Leslie Pickerin g
GM, Partner Technology Strategy
Microsoft
Microsoft’s investment in industry-specific cloud packages has led to Pickering’s role as the go-to for related channel training. She launched new first-party services to market at launch and created solution launch pads to accelerate partner development with Windows Virtual Desktop, Teams, Viva and other offerings. Year to date, she’s helped partners with 170 advanced specialization enrollments and 3,500 technical certifications.
Heather Somerville Gonzalez
Global Channel Sales Director
Morpheus Data
Since joining Morpheus, Somerville Gonzalez, a former solution provider executive, has launched the company’s go-to-market strategy for MSPs, boosted its global reach through distribution relationships, enriched its cloud marketplace offerings and enhanced it routes to market in Latain America.
Jenni Flinders
SVP, Worldwide Partner Organization
NetApp
Flinders, who joined NetApp in July after two-plus years as VMware’s global channel chief, made several channel-related changes in the past year, including helping accelerate NetApp’s cloud focus with its solutions portfolio, engaging partners with deep cloud capabilities and specialization and enhancing partner go-to-market strategy across the solutions portfolio.
Lou Anne Reynolds
Director, Worldwide Partner Programs and Experience
NetApp
Reynolds and her team have evolved the NetApp Unified Partner Program to be more flexible while recognizing the contribution from all partner motions, and has added a rewards program that includes predictable benefits within the program tiers.
Cathryn Valladares
Vice President, Enterprise Solutions
Nextiva
Valladares, a nine-year Nextiva veteran, held roles in sales engineering and solution engineering before moving to her current role. The past year saw her and her team bring a partnership with contact center vendor Five9 to the channel, which resulted in Nextiva being named rookie of the year for Five9 and exceeding expectations with its sales and pipeline generation
Claudia Lee
VP, Partner Marketing
Nutanix
Lee focused on aligning Nutanix’s strategy to its partner experience and messaging. She steered the channel technology stack that enables partners’ digital experience and also delivers greater speed, automation and insights for the business. She provided key growth avenues for several alliances by making the concept of “meet in the channel” actionable and delivering results.
Robin Wolf
Sr. Director, Enterprise Partner Marketing
Nvidia
Nvidia’s Elite and Preferred channel partners greatly increased their sales revenue due in large part to a strategic realignment of Wolf’s team to better support joint go-to-market motions. She also found success pairing partner sales leaders with partner marketing leaders to build an integrated business and marketing strategy.
Emma Carpenter
VP, Global SP/MSSP
Palo Alto Networks
With a focus on service providers and MSSPs, Carpenter has been busy over the past year driving Palo Alto’s global SASE business. She also defined a 3-year strategy for her business, building the global solution creation practice and developing an incubation 5G team.
Jas Sood
SVP, Enterprise Sales
Palo Alto Networks
Having recently joined Palo Alto Networks, Sood, who successfully built a strong channel program at her previous company, is now bringing her channel ideas and concepts to her new role, and along with it expected growth through partners and stronger working relationships with her sales team and the channel.
Jennifer Bodell
SVP, Global Channel
Pax8
In 2021, Bodell led Pax8’s strategic participation in more than 180 channel events and expanded its partner empowerment program internationally, resulting in increased partner sign-ups and activations and more than 50 industry awards. She also developed Pax8’s new partner program, launching in 2022, which will drive buying behaviors and strengthen its partner focus.
Carola Cazenave
Head of Global Partner Ecosystem, Channels Chief
Pegasystems
Cazenave, a 26-year IBM channel alumni before joining Pegasystems in 2020, designed Pegasystems’ client-first, partner-centric ecosystem strategy, including accelerating sales effectiveness efforts and improving delivery capabilities. The Pega Partners program focuses on partners’ specific capabilities and provides partners a one-stop shop for clients if that is their preference.
Komal Shah
Sr. Director, Global Partner Operations
Poly
Shah said this past year was tremendous as it allowed her to iterate and launch multiple improvements on Poly’s partner portal and processes. She also spent a significant amount of time working on partners’ communication processes to aid them in using Poly’s new quoting tools.
Chari Rhoades
Sr. Director, Global Partner Programs, Enablement
Proofpoint
Some of Rhoades’recent accomplishments include launching two partner specializations globally to enable partners to deliver unique value and expertise in key growth areas. She also led the redesign of the Proofpoint’s deal registration program to reward partners for bringing qualified opportunities and bringing value to existing opportunities.
Leslie Lorenco
Global Channel Sales Director
Puppet
Lorenco, who in her past life was herself a solution provider, this past year created and implemented a new competency-based partner program, rebuilt Puppet’ EMEA/APAC channel teams, created and implemented the company’s first sales promotions, vetted and selected a new PRM system and created and implemented Puppet’s company-wide channel rules of engagement.
Wendy Stusrud
VP, Global Partner Sales
Pure Storage
Stusrud has spent the last seven years in sales leadership roles in Pure Storage’s Americas Partner Sales teams, and late last year was promoted to her current role leading global partner sales. Her biggest accomplishment has been enabling Pure Storage’s sales teams to drive profitable engagements to identify and build its customer base.
Stefanie Chiras, Ph.D.
SVP, Partner Ecosystem Success
Red Hat
Having started her role in the fall, Chiras has already spearheaded efforts to expand Red Hat’s ecosystem engagement, including a new hypervisor certification and joint engineering roadmap with Nutanix. She also led a new partnership with Exida and extended customer value with Microsoft, SAP and other long-standing partnerships through expanded portfolio offerings and go-to-market strategies.
Jennifer Heard
Global VP, Commercial Sales
Red Hat
Heard developed a commercial segment with a 100 percent partner-led sales strategy. She shifted the sales coverage model to align to 15,000 commercial customers worldwide to provide consistent partner engagement while accelerating growth, market share and partner-led services. The commercial segment comes with partner co-selling and aims to reach customers through a digital, partner-led marketplace.
Meg Brennan
VP, Global Channel Strategy, Operations
Riverbed | Aternity
Brennan leads the Global Channel Team at Riverbed | Aternity, where her team’s mission is to create the programs and partner experience that drive joint success for Riverbed and all its partners. With a passion for showing ROI on investments in the channel, Brennan’s responsibilities include partner program management, partner enablement, channel operations and partner support.
Nancy Teixeira
SVP, Partner Strategy, Sales
Sage Software
Nancy Teixeira led the channel integration between Sage North America and Sage Intacct, including a streamlined engagement for partners who sell multiple Sage products. She also launched rewards for partners assisting Sage customers in moving from legacy solutions to Sage Intacct and focused on recruiting the best Sage North America partners to Sage Intacct.
Sara Grofcsik
Sr. Director, U.S. Sales
Samsung Electronics America
In 2021, Samsung saw businesses rebound from the pandemic and found great importance in ensuring the company’s channel partners were aligned with customer expectations. All parties involved had to believe in the overall strategy. As a result, partners continued to innovate and develop innovative solutions while answering end-users’ demands.
Cathy Daum
SVP, Go-To-Market, Scale Partners
SAP
Daum’s efforts this year have helped SAP increase its cloud channel mix in the midmarket by 9 percentage points year over year. She led the design and roll out of the Cloud Choice Flex commission model to help partners with the transition to cloud services. And she helped launch the Rise with SAP partner managed cloud and resell offering.
Marlena Fernandez
VP, Marketing
Scale Computing
Fernandez helped the Scale Computing Partner Community expand its partner base by 50 percent and increase the number of customers in 2021. She played a role in improving the company’s MSP program while increasing revenue per partner and average selling price per partner.
Leslie Vitrano Hubright
Director, Global IT Channel Programs, Digital Experience
Schneider Electric
Vitrano Hubright helped develop a complete partner program offering and led the global launch in the first half of 2021. Partners received four times the rebate investment thanks to an incentives adjustment to include the complete software and services lifecycle, giving them the opportunity to offset expenses and develop managed power services practices for off-site IT.
Shannon Sbar
VP, Channels, North America
Schneider Electric
Working with IT distribution, Sbar and the team at Schneider introduced uninterruptible power supply as a service for partners. She also worked to develop an enhanced e-commerce program for improved customer digital experiences. Part of the changes include an increased headcount, an internal e-commerce certification, a digital insights tool and a team of MSP architects and regional business development managers.
Jennifer Binet
SVP, Enterprise Sales
Sectigo
Binet over the past year was able to help her team cultivate new strategic partnerships by identifying key organizations and regions, developing relationships, obtaining contracts, educating sales teams and building traction, all while promoting Sectigo as an emerging technology partner in the enterprise space.
Michelle Pas
Director, Global Channel Partner Marketing
Skyhigh Security
In the past year, Pas and her team have added more “modern touches” to their partner communications by providing content to their partners via an on-demand platform, which they believe will be extremely useful moving forward this year. They are also in the early stages of modifying their global partner program to make it more attractive and effective.
Colleen Kapase
Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partnerships And Alliances
Snowflake
Kapase was key to the launch of the Powered By Snowflake program and the development of the company’s data-driven partner ecosystem. She and her team have driven Snowflake’s global systems integrator community growth and strengthened relationships with cloud providers in a go-to-market strategy and a stronger co-selling motion.
Caralyn Stern
VP, Global Channel, Americas Marketing
Sophos
Stern joined Sophos eight years ago as head of Americas marketing to help Sophos reach more partners and protect customers against today’‘s evolving cyberattacks. She has educated partners on how to support customers who may be in the middle of a breach by engaging the Sophos Managed Threat and Rapid Response teams to quickly find and neutralize active attacks.
Kendra Krause
SVP, Global Channels, Sales Operations
Sophos
In 2021, Krause continued with the restructuring of Sophos’s partner program, an effort that started in 2020 and included streamlining processes and rules of engagement, consolidating 17 different programs into a single foundational global partner program and adding new visibility for partners to track their status within partner compliance programs.
Erin Malone
SVP, Americas Sales
Sophos
Described as a performance-driven senior executive with 23 years of channel experience, Malone this past year directed more resources into Sophos’ channel business, including the hiring of dozens of new account managers and sales engineers, many of them assigned to teams that service Sophos’ SMB channel and MSP partners, and Sophos’ Managed Threat Response service offering.
Michelle Kadlacek
VP, Enterprise Partner Program
Spectrum Enterprise
Spectrum’s channel chief for more than four years, Kadlacek leads the enterprise Cchannel and is responsible for driving the growth of fiber-based solutions, as well as the strategic development and recruitment of Technology Service Distributors. A leader and a mentor to women in the channel, she has more than 22 years of experience in the telecom industry.
Bethann Pepoli
Group VP, Partner Go-To-Market, Americas
Splunk
Pepoli built an organizational structure to support Splunk’s cloud-first initiative, separating transaction support from partner development and shifting resources to align with cloud service providers. Her work with one solution provider to build a security service with Splunk Cloud led to a formalized process to facilitate cloud access for testing and development purposes.
Willa Flemate
SVP, Sales
TD SYNNEX
Flemate understands the importance of sales enablement and making sure partners have the specialized skills, breadth and depth of product and services needed to differentiate themselves in each specialized market. Playbook enhancements, training and development was made a priority to her to cover new growth markets.
Stacy Nethercoat
SVP, Advanced Solutions
TD SYNNEX
Nethercoat was promoted to lead the organization that takes to market cloud, data center, data lifecycle, networking & communications, and security under one umbrella. Under her leadership, her team is operationalizing the mission to enable the channel ecosystem to deliver transformational outcomes.
Reyna Thompson
SVP, Product Management
TD SYNNEX
In 2021, Thompson led the newly merged TD SYNNEX team that had many accomplishments, including signing 37 emerging vendors, launching multiple partner enablement and sales development programs, and expanding the company’s services offerings with WFH Readiness Assessments, MSP Practice Builder, Social Selling Training.
Kristi Houssiere
Sr. Director, Global Channel Strategy, Operations
Trellix
Houssiere has driven Trellix partner engagement and increased year-over-year new business bookings growth averaging over 25 percent within the company’s national channel. She also leads a team of six partner managers to be empowered and knowledgeable so that they can be invaluable to the national solution provider partners they serve.
Louise McEvoy
VP, U.S.Channels
Trend Micro
A 20-year veteran of the IT world primarily working on the channel side of the business, McEvoy and her colleagues have been busy transforming Trend Micro’s channel business, forming a cloud-first channel team that focuses on recruiting partners who lead with a cloud solution.
Dangvy Keller
VP, Americas Alliance & Distribution Sales
Veeam
Keller, who came to Veeam after a career in distribution, proved in 2021 that having a strong strategy and foundation is a winning combination. During the year, she and her team implemented the appropriate alliance and distribution strategy and plan to accelerate Veeam’s overall business as well as that of its channel partners.
Wendy Taccetta
SVP, Nationwide Small Business,Channel Chief
Verizon Business Group
Verizon veteran and channel champion Taccetta leads the Small Business and Channel organization for Verizon Business. Under her leadership, Verizon undertook a historic revamping of its channel program,
and the carrier is now committed to accelerating small business growth and driving transformation across the Verizon Business ecosystem. Taccetta is a passionate employee advocate and mentor.
Sandy Hogan
SVP, Worldwide Partner, Commercial Organization
VMware
Throughout the pandemic, VMware’s internal teams and channel partners have continued to excel thanks to the leadership of industry veteran Hogan. The former Cisco executive is responsible for driving VMware’s worldwide commercial strategic plan and revenue attainment, as well as leading its go-to-market strategy with partners and distributors.
Jeanne Runyon Newberry
VP, Worldwide Commercial Sales, Partner GTM
VMware
Industry veteran Newberry brings over two decades of sales and channel expertise to boost VMware’s business performance and a scalable partner-first model to grow at a premium to the market. She also leads VMware’s go-to-market transformation, which includes unleashing partner capabilities to deliver value across all stages of the customer lifecycle.
Tracy-Ann Palmer
VP, Partner Experience, Programs, Distribution
VMware
Palmer has played a key role in evolving VMware’s partner ecosystem strategy with a goal to drive more revenue through partners by building, enablingand scaling a cloud-smart ecosystem. She helped form VMware’s new Customer Lifecycle Incentives partner program to help accelerate cloud adoption, increase partner value and build customers for life.
Laurie Mitchell
VP, Partner, International Marketing
Wasabi Technologies
Mitchell in the past year lead a significant growth of Wasabi’s channel, helping it increase from approximately 3,900 partners to over 10,000 in 2021, with over 90 percent of them actively selling storage. Mitchell and her team successfully designed and implemented the marketing plans to recruit and activate those channel partners.
Michelle Welch
SVP, Marketing, Channel
WatchGuard Technologies
Welch has recently overseen the expansion and modernization of WatchGuard’s approach to cooperative and vendor-led demand generation activities, including the integration and roll-out of buying intent technology for WatchGuard and its partners. She also has created a team for outbounding new business opportunities to partners within the firm’s new Partner Lead Dispatch Program.
Sarah Morgan
Webroot + Carbonite, An OpenText Company
Director, Cyber Resilience Sales
Morgan, a nine-year Webroot veteran, led the company’s MSP team to a significant growth in its partner base. She also led the creation of an MSP-focused strategic partnership for a managed detection and response offering, which brings the MSP community vital security tools and helps them to further grow their managed service offerings.
Charlene Fischer
Xerox
VP, U.S. Channel Sales
Fischer, who has been with Xerox close to 20 years, last year led a team that delivered double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in a market that has an overall decline. She also led the company’s federal team to the largest hardware win in its channel division in the last 15 years.
Laura Padilla
Head of Global Partner, Platform Sales, Business Development
Zoom Video Communications
Padilla has been busy building up and building out Zoom’s channel focus for the last four years. She oversees the team responsible for channel sales, business development/alliances, and partner program and strategy. Under her leadership, Zoom launched an enhanced Global partner Program and a pilot program for Zoom Phone BYOC resellers.
Laura Davis
VP, Public Sector Channels, Alliance
Zscaler
A 30-year veteran of the tech world, Davis has only recently joined Zscaler and she’s already building a public sector channel team that includes regional alliance managers, a service provider leader, a strategic program group leader and a program growth leader, with the goal of providing strong partner and system integrator alignment.