# The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel 2023: 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.


Each year CRN honors 100 women whose expertise, vision and focus on advocacy and mentorship are helping drive the channel. These women —named to the Power 100—hail from vendors and distributors and are standouts with their partners.

The sizable and impressive list of women in the channel grows every year. The Power 100 list highlights an elite selection of executives and is selected by the CRN editorial staff.

It hasn’t been an easy past few years for the tech industry. Vendors and distributors alike have had to think on their feet to reach and meet the rapidly changing needs of their customers. These organizations are relying on the channel arguably now more than ever before. This list showcases those women bringing their unique brand of leadership to their organizations.

The incomparable women of the Power 100 have been working tirelessly to collaborate with customers and partners, all while working hard alongside their teams to beat out the competition.

Here are this year’s Power 100 executives.


**Jennifer Wadland**

**VP, U.S. Commercial Sales**

**Acer**

Wadland focuses each day on helping solution providers grow their business by arming them with the products, programs and incentives they need to succeed. Setting a high bar for vertical market expertise and customer support, her value-oriented service and support programs are helping the channel stay sticky with customers.


**Barb Huelskamp**

**SVP, Global Partners, Alliances**

**Alteryx**

Huelskamp launched a new channel program to grow current partnerships and attract new partners. She incorporated new role-based enablement paths, earlier access to benefits, new opportunity incentives for partners and internal incentives to engage with partners. Partner revenue grew nearly 70 percent year over year, with a sharp increase in partner-initiated opportunities.


**Ruba Borno****VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances**

**Amazon Web Services**

In her first year in the role, Borno met with over 1,000 partners and used the feedback she gathered to build out new partner paths, which aim to simplify the partner experience. She also worked to increase the value the channel gets through the AWS Partner Profitability Framework.


**Julia Chen**

**VP, Partner Core**

**Amazon Web Services**

AWS gave Chen a mission to define its global partner strategy, a wide-reaching mandate that includes scaling to deliver a more simple, predictable and profitable experience for partners. She has advocated for more program automation, more transparency and predictability, and initiatives to help partners sell business outcome services to line-of-business buyers.


**Megan Flanagan**

**VP, Field, Partner Marketing**

**Arctic Wolf**

Flanagan has played a critical role in Arctic Wolf’s efforts to deepen engagement with key partners, building channel revenue growth and pipeline development. Now she is committed to equipping channel partners to drive more demand with the launch of a face-to-face training series as well as new learning opportunities, rewards and field marketing offerings.


**Candace Mehalko**

**VP, Customer Experience, North America**

**Arrow Electronics**

Calling 2022 a “transformative year” for Arrow’s business, Mehalko was laser-focused on providing the tools, skills, resources and engagement level that the distributor’s evolving solution provider customers need. She launched self-service offerings, introduced more automation and added sales operations staff that enabled the business to scale and meet growth objectives.


**Donna Grothjan**

**VP, Worldwide Channels**

**Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company**

Grothjan has been the driving force behind the evolution of Aruba’s partner operating model—from its partner go-to-market strategy to all aspects of its partner enablement and sales capabilities—as it transforms its partner base to enable the delivery of as-a-service offerings and end-to-end customer life-cycle management. She plans to retire this year after more than three decades as a diligent channel advocate.


**Sarita Rao**

**SVP, Integrated, Partner Solutions**

**AT&T**

Described as a champion of “big thinking” who is passionate about mentoring, Rao led AT&T’s effort to double down on its indirect channel strategy by restructuring all indirect sales motions under one executive team. She also has empowered her team to drive a partner-centric culture across AT&T Business.


**Pam Johansen**

**AVP, Solution Sales, Ecosystem Programs**

**BMC Software**

Johansen wins kudos for the results her channel leadership has cultivated, including the delivery of double-digit growth across SaaS , partner-sourced bookings and renewals. She also co-developed and launched the BMC Innovation Preferred Partners program, which brings customers, partners and employees together to deliver a digital future with accelerated solution development.


**Laura McGregor Falko**

**Head of Worldwide Partner Programs, Experience, Marketing**

**Broadcom**

McGregor Falko has been building and evolving Broadcom’s Cybersecurity Aggregator Program and Expert Advantage Program, which aim to improve partner profitability, increase the professional services going through partners and increase partners’ customer satisfaction ratings. She’ll also be redesigning the Advantage Partner Program to create faster ways for partners to rise through its tiers.


**Coletta Vigh**

**Head of Worldwide Channel Strategy**

**Check Point Software Technologies**

Vigh is building momentum around managed security services, working across business units, marketing teams and development groups to streamline Check Point’s offerings for solution providers and customers. She’s also looking at ways to enhance the company’s partner program as a whole to better accommodate multiple partner types across the vendor’s entire ecosystem.


**Rachel Barger**

**SVP, Americas Sales Leader**

**Cisco Systems**

With a team that spans 17 countries and six theaters, Barger led the charge in driving improved alignment on service delivery and profitability with Cisco’s strategic partners. She also created pathways for newer partners in growth areas such as managed services, security and collaboration and drove the evolution of the vendor’s Service Provider as a Channel partnerships.


**Rhonda Henley**

**VP, Americas Partner Organization**

**Cisco Systems**

As the leader of Cisco’s global systems integrator team, Henley built new routes to market through strategic alliances, partner-led managed services offerings and deeper field penetration with account teams. She stepped into her current role in January, where she is leveraging that experience to expand routes to market across the U.S., Canada and Latin America.


**José Van Dijk**

**VP, Partner Performance; Operations; Global Partner Sales; Sales, Marketing**

**Cisco Systems**

Van Dijk led a massive overhaul that saw 50 percent of Cisco’s tools and processes eliminated, consolidated or enhanced into its Partner Experience Platform (PXP). That includes the integration of over 60 different metrics into a simple scorecard that offers benchmarking so partners can see how they stack up against their peers.


**Alexandra Zagury**

**VP, Partner Managed, As-a-Service Sales**

**Cisco Systems**

Recent research shows 45 percent of Cisco’s total addressable market will be sold as managed services by 2025. Toward that end, Zagury launched sales accelerators, programmatic incentives and deal registration. She also invested in 400-plus people focused on accelerating the Partner Managed Services business.


**Dawn Ringstaff**

**Head of Cloudflare One Channel Development**

**Cloudflare**

The 20-year channel veteran helped design the new Cloudflare One Partner Program and has brought on new partners that she has established strong relationships with over the years. Ringstaff said she is looking forward to continuing to expand the Cloudflare program for partners that specialize in zero trust cloud security services.


**Dalyn Wertz**

**Executive Director, Indirect Program, Marketing**

**Comcast Business and Masergy**

Wertz continues to lead the charge on the combined Comcast Business/Masergy programs with a focus on getting more partners to sell advanced solutions. She executed a 21-city road show to promote a new brand and has championed an increase in co-marketing and MDF to help drive partner demand generation.


**Karen Pugliese**

**Global VP, Partners**

**CommScope**

Pugliese led the charge on a series of unique promotions that combined with a new segmentation approach delivered double-digit sales growth. She continues to develop programs to address specific market trends and has focused on simplifying on-boarding and engagement with partners. She also hosted the company’s first Americas partner conference since 2019.


**Amy Lucia**

**CMO, Head of IT Nation**

**ConnectWise**

A driving force behind ConnectWise’s push to invest more in partner’s business growth, Lucia launched a virtual peer community for MSPs, a WISE awards program, and even helps partners with brand development in her spare time. She is working to ensure MSPs are “service providers and futurists,” leading with a much more consultative approach.


**Lisa Majdi**

**Assistant VP**

**Cox Business**

Majdi is a leader in driving sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion at Cox Business. She has said that driving positive environmental change inside the company and within the communities it serves is one of the most important things the company does—making an “important contribution to progress toward leaving the earth better than we found it.”


**Amanda Adams**

**VP, Americas Alliances**

**CrowdStrike**

Adams is a fierce advocate for partners that drove big investments in the channel, paying off in double-digit growth of revenue sourced by partners in the Americas. A big focus for her in 2023 is increasing strategic investments for partners around demand generation, enablement and partner development including funded positions and technical support.


**Carolyn Crandall**

**Chief Security Advocate, CMO**

**Cymulate**

A 30-year plus channel veteran, Crandall has received high marks for advocating for the development of feature enhancements to drive new managed services and licensing opportunities for partners. She has been a big supporter of joint selling initiatives to jump-start partner growth.


**Tina Fisher**

**VP, Vendor Management**

**D&H Distributing**

Fisher has played a critical role in building and maintaining programs to drive partner sales growth in areas like ProAV, collaboration, gaming, esports, print, cloud, professional services attach and hybrid infrastructures for organizations across a range of verticals. She always goes the extra mile to help partners.


**Lori Cornmesser**

**SVP, Channel, Alliance Sales**

**Deepwatch**

Cornmesser is a tireless channel advocate who led the charge to increase partner margins and deal registrations, which led to a new record for customer wins. She gets credit for driving a “partner-first” channel strategy that has led to a 100 percent year-over-year increase in annual recurring revenue bookings.


**Cheryl Cook**

**SVP, Global Partner Marketing**

**Dell Technologies**

The Dell partner marketing veteran, who has been a leader on social impact initiatives, expanded digital tool capabilities for partners to generate and manage leads and grow their buyer base through Find A Partner. Cook has also been a driving force behind marketing automation enhancements and personalized online experiences.


**Christina Crowley**

**SVP, Global Partner Services Sales**

**Dell Technologies**

Crowley is the driving force leading the charge for greater collaboration between partners and the Dell channel services organization. She has advocated for changes and played a critical role in ensuring Dell services offerings are simple, predictable and profitable. She is prioritizing simplifying the partner experience in 2023, focusing on tools and automation enhancements.


**Rola Dagher**

**Global Channel Chief**

**Dell Technologies**

Dagher has built stronger ties between partners and Dell with a simplified program structure that allows partners to drive the best route to market without compromising on rebates or earnings. She also has sharpened the focus on increasing share by bringing on board new partners as well as expanding lines of business with existing partners.


**Denise Millard**

**SVP, Global Alliances**

**Dell Technologies**

A vocal partner champion who is passionate about the value the partner ecosystem brings to deliver purpose-built solutions for customers, Millard has played a critical role in expanding the Dell partner ecosystem with a focus on public cloud and data center providers. She also has facilitated multi-partner collaboration and helped drive sustainability initiatives.


**Kimberly Walkey**

**Director, U.S. Channel Sales, Distribution**

**Eaton**

Walkey led the charge to bring together the Eaton and Tripp Lite brands and realigned the team to accelerate strategic growth initiatives. That realignment has led to deeper engagement with partners and fostered greater sales collaboration. She also has been a fierce advocate to bring partners into new markets.


**Tricia Atchison**

**VP, Global Partner, Americas Marketing**

**Equinix**

A 30-year-plus channel marketing veteran, Atchison has delivered time and time again for partners by championing robust and consistent channel enablement programs. She always reaches out to partners for feedback and then delivers big improvements to drive sales growth and sees partners as the driving force behind digital transformation for customers.


**Jules Johnston**

**SVP, Global Channels**

**Equinix**

Johnston has been instrumental in helping Equinix achieve six consecutive quarters of record bookings through the channel, accounting for 35 percent of bookings and 60 percent of new logos. But she’s especially proud of growing the company’s partner community and working with these partners to enhance Equinix’s sustainability efforts this year.


**Hope McCluskey**

**ESET**

**Director, Partner Marketing, Events**

McCluskey has been hard at work managing the launch of ESET’s new global partner portal. She, alongside her team, on-boarded 1,500 partners and recruited over 350 new channel companies in 2022. Once a smaller part of the North American sales organization, McClusky advocated with leadership to ensure the channel was a business priority for 2022 and beyond.


**Kilynn Sommer**

**VP, Global Partner Programs, Channel Marketing**

**Extreme Networks**

Sommer has been laser-focused on evolving Extreme’s channel marketing investments and programs. In 2022, she developed a bootcamp enablement program with distributors to engage, recruit and train partners on Extreme’s latest offerings. She’s also helping to lead efforts to host joint sessions with partners to foster engagement and drive pipeline and growth in new markets.


**Lisa Citron**

**VP, Worldwide Channel Sales**

**F5**

Citron has been busy transforming F5’s partner approach beyond the transaction. The result? The launch of the company’s Global Partner Ecosystem organization, which unites channel partnerships, public cloud and managed services as the company establishes itself as a leader in multi-cloud application security and delivery services.


**Lindsey Westbrook**

**Sr. Director, Channel Programs, Enablement**

**Fortinet**

Westbrook’s dual focus this past year centered on building an achievable plan for hypergrowth within Fortinet’s distribution-led business segment and streamlining and refining the company’s channel enablement programs. This optimizes efficiency, effectiveness and reach across the U.S. via a repeatable and scalable strategy.


**Bernadette Wightman**

**SVP, Worldwide Partner, Alliances**

**Genesys**

Wightman possesses a strong leadership and focus on enabling partner success. She has led her team in developing new programs to expand the value of Genesys partnerships, including a new global referral program that welcomes different partners into the Genesys ecosystem. Wightman also has a passion for talent development and diversity, equity and inclusion.


**Bronwyn Hastings**

**VP, Global ISV Partnerships, Channels**

**Google Cloud**

Google Cloud in 2022 committed to more than double its spend in support of partners. Hastings leveraged this commitment to introduce key resources, programs and tools to help partners build their services capacity and successful customer delivery. Hastings and her team last year grew partner incentives by more than 50 percent.


**Kimberly Lasseter**

**Global Director, Partner Advantage Program**

**Google Cloud**

Lasseter over more than three years at Google has worked collaboratively across organizations to accelerate and grow the channel and ecosystem business. Her top priorities include hiring and nurturing top talent and focusing on innovative and customer-centric ways to evolve the Partner Advantage program.


**Cheri Wesinger**

**Director, North America Marketing**

**Hewlett Packard Enterprise**

Wesinger has become a stronger partner-first advocate by increasing partner executive relationships and learning more about partner business models and marketing practices. In the last year, she’s helped advance HPE’s channel business by accelerating business outcomes with partner-led events and increasing learnings in areas such as AI.


**Joy Shanks**

**Head of Worldwide Sales, Strategy, HPE Financial Services**

**Hewlett Packard Enterprise**

Shanks is focused on creating a high-performing partner development team as she helps set the stage to evolve the company into an Asset Management company that also offers financial services. Last year, she brought various HPE teams together across segments and geographies to spur out-of-the-box thinking on ways to improve and grow HPE’s channel business.


**Kimberly King**

**SVP, Strategic Partners, Alliances**

**Hitachi Vantara**

A partner advocate, King is focused on ensuring that Hitachi Vantara drives partner profitability and revenue through and with its partners. This year, King secured critical incremental investments and executive leadership engagement that resulted in higher partner engagement and double-digit growth of the company’s global partner business.


**Laura Evans**

**SVP, Strategic Partners, Alliances**

**HP Inc.**

Evans is transforming how HP goes to market with the channel. Last year, she was busy with her team launching new platforms for MDF and Global Promotions and created a rebate platform to improve visibility and documentation for partners and distributors to track and manage their quarterly results.


**Mary Beth Walker**

**Head of Global Channel Strategy**

**HP Inc.**

Walker has been instrumental in the global expansion of HP’s Amplify programs, including HP’s industry-first Amplify Impact sustainability initiative and HP Amplify Data Insights, designed to support partners and push the IT industry into the future. She also led the launch of HP Curiocity, HP’s new sales and community hub.


**Mary Coucher**

**VP, Global Ecosystem Sales**

**IBM**

2022 was a very successful year for IBM’s partner ecosystem thanks in part to the work Coucher did in leading the new partner recruitment efforts across all of IBM’s geographies. Through this newly organized sales mission, the company’s sales efforts have expanded the partner base and revenue. which has directly contributed to the growth of the company.


**Kate Woolley**

**GM, IBM Ecosystem**

**IBM**

Woolley in January spearheaded the biggest change to IBM’s partner program in over a decade: IBM Partner Plus, a new program that reimagines how IBM engages with partners by providing enhanced access, support and benefits. Since last year, she and her team have integrated partners into more than 7,000 deals valued at more than $500 million.


**Salena Butler**

**SVP, GM**

**Infor**

For over a decade, Butler has always strived to make the relationships with Infor partners more successful and profitable. The 13-year Infor leader created and leads the company’s Partner Council for North America and continually prioritizes channel areas that need improvement. Her focus is on growth and strengthening partnerships to best serve Infor customers.


**Jennifer Anaya**

**SVP, Global Marketing**

**Ingram Micro**

Marketing guru Anaya recently helped build a team to support content development for partners along with digital, social and experience marketing resources. Ingram Micro’s longtime marketing executive established one of the channel industry’s first dedicated full-service marketing agency in 2006 and oversees the company’s successful global partner community: Trust X Alliance.


**Therese Ferullo**

**VP, U.S. Sales**

**Ingram Micro**

Sales all-star Ferullo was critical to leading Ingram Micro’s sales transformation over the past year with a focus on upskilling and cross-skilling its sales organization to provide deeper value to partners. She is focused on bringing vendors, partners and people together to prepare for what the future of Ingram Micro will look like as a platform company.


**Sabine Howest**

**SVP, Global Digital Operations**

**Ingram Micro**

Ingram Micro selected Howest to lead the company’s new global DigiOps team to bring the Ingram Micro Xvantage program to life for partners. To lead this effort, she spent time in front of Ingram Micro and partner teams to evangelize a growth mindset and what the positive impact of Ingram Micro’s transition to a platform company will have on their business.


**Kim Carlton**

**Director, Americas Partner Programs**

**Intel**

Carlton spearheaded efforts in 2022 to integrate Intel’s America, Canada and South America partner program teams to form Intel’s new America’s Partner Program Team. The 23-year Intel veteran has helped recruit countless new partners and aided in evolving the company’s Intel Partner Alliance program by launching IPA version 2.0.


**Irina Shamkova**

**EVP, Product Management**

**Intermedia Cloud Communications**

Shamkova is a champion of actively seeking partner feedback to ensure Intermedia is developing proprietary solutions that address their needs and customer demand. To better serve partners, she recently started a program that connects top partners with Intermedia’s internal product leaders so that partner business needs are understood with the feedback impacting Intermedia’s product road map.


**Kelly Nagel**

**President, GM, North America**

**Jabra**

With over 25 years of channel experience, Nagel’s channel-first strategy drove sales and customer expansion in North America last year, resulting in double-digit year-over-year growth for Jabra. She is constantly interacting with partners via calls, business reviews and feedback sessions to ensure channel partners continue their success.


**Julianne Zuber**

**Americas Channel Chief**

**Juniper Networks**

Zuber was critical to Juniper Networks growing its partner base by nearly 40 percent in 2022, with partner revenue reaching $1.8 billion. Juniper’s energetic leader helped provide strategic field input into program structure and investments that resulted in better ROI for its marketing development funds, while also conducting a vendor maturity index survey and action plan for partners.


**Lisa Kilpatrick**

**Head of B2B Sales, North America**

**Kaspersky**

Kilpatrick’s passion for motivating and remaining close to partners is what keeps the Kaspersky channel moving in the right direction. She has been instrumental in leading both the SMB and enterprise business segments at Kaspersky. Kilpatrick takes it upon herself to make sure the channel is always engaged, focused and up to date on all products.


**Laura Blackmer**

**President, Dealer Sales**

**Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.**

Blackmer helped launch Konica’s new Rev’d Up Performance Program that rewards partners for diversification with increasing incentives as they progress. In 2022, she helped manage Konica through a challenging supply chain year by delivering transparent information to partners that helped them prioritize and expedite emergency situations, while also aiding them in finding alternative ways to manage customer needs.


**Wendy Welch**

**Executive Director, U.S. Public Sector**

**Lenovo**

Welch interlocks closely with Lenovo marketing, operations and channel teams to aggressively execute on the company’s customer retention and acquisition strategy. She recently launched a new quarterly partner webinar, communicating insight directly from Lenovo’s U.S. Public Sector Leadership team to its channel partners to drive better synergies.


**Jennifer Whaley**

**North America Director, Partner Experience Organization**

**Lenovo**

Last year, Whaley took on the task of developing a new channel organization to provide partners with an enhanced experience. She spearheaded the development of a new on-boarding experience for partners and created a smarter and easier way for them to earn more. Whaley also designed new go-to-market playbooks to enable channel account managers to better train partners on how to sell Lenovo offerings.


**Nicole Dezen**

**Chief Partner Officer**

**Microsoft**

Dezen led the successful launch of the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program in 2022 as well as six new Solutions Partner designations. With Dezen’s help, more than 3,500 partners attained Solutions Partner designations on day one. Microsoft’s channel all-star believes in empowering people to drive growth and works with countless partners to unlock the power of Microsoft cloud for customers.


**Nina Harding**

**Corporate VP, Global Partner Solutions, U.S.**

**Microsoft**

Harding unleashed a renewed focus on customer co-innovation, ecosystem growth, customer-centric selling and ecosystem predictability when she joined Microsoft in October. With Harding’s arrival, the tone of engagement and collaboration has shifted to the art of the possible and driving solutions together with Microsoft partners into the market.


**Heather Somerville Gonzalez**

**Global Channel Sales Director**

**Morpheus Data**

Gonzalez was critical to Morpheus Data’s move last year to expand its global routes to market to support partners by creating new distribution relationships worldwide, while also increasing the company’s cloud marketplace presence and strengthening global alliances. Solidifying these partnerships in key global regions brought rapid channel growth and boosted Morpheus’ position with its partner community.


**Jenni Flinders**

**SVP, Worldwide Partner Organization**

**NetApp**

Flinders is in charge of NetApp’s worldwide partner organization, where she drives a partner-first culture and delivers success while expanding the company’s market presence. Flinders is leading innovations such as NetApp’s new partner academies introduced this year to train resellers in solution areas as well as marketing activities.


**Melissa Nacerino**

**VP, Global Channels, Alliances Marketing**

**Netskope**

Nacerino has juggled a lot this year, from the launch of Netskope’s Evolve Partner Program to the kickoff of the company’s Global Partner of the Year Awards. She has also improved strategic relationships with ecosystem partners with the launch of programs like AWS Immersion Day.


**Cathryn Valladares**

**VP, Enterprise Solutions**

**Nextiva**

The reseller motion at Nextiva is in good hands under Valladares’ leadership. The executive not only launched the company’s reseller program, but also worked as executive sponsor for Five9. After executing Five9’s reseller arrangement, Valladares says the Nextiva/Five9 solution is a well-known competitor in the unified communications and contact center space.


**Jennifer Latsis**

**Global Channel Programs Director**

**Nutanix**

Latsis’ work over the past year has helped to refine the company’s partner program and enable Nutanix’ internal teams with a greater focus on reseller partners and distribution. She continues to focus on building tools and programs that allow the company’s partners to drive more Nutanix business independently.


**Robin Wolf**

**Sr. Director, Global Enterprise Partner Marketing**

**Nvidia**

Wolf is looking out for partners and over the past year realigned Nvidia’s partner marketing organization to support the growth of its cloud business by increasing the focus on cloud channel partners. She also developed a new cloud partner marketing team to support Nvidia’s expansion into cloud markets.


**May Mitchell**

**CMO**

**Ontinue, the MDR division of Open Systems**

Open Systems’ new partner program is structured for partner success thanks to Mitchell’s efforts, including making the program performance-based and offering deal protection as well as giving partners enablement and high margins. A full 50 percent of the program’s budget is just for generating pipeline among its alliance and channel partners.


**Sarah Morgan**

**Director, Cybersecurity Channel Sales**

**OpenText Cybersecurity**

Morgan has shepherded Open Text Cybersecurity’s channel sales organization through a year of change. The executive has led her department through three acquisitions, a realignment of the sales organization and a restructuring of the company’s partner agreements, all while maximizing partner experience and increasing retention.


**Jas Sood**

**SVP, Enterprise Sales**

**Palo Alto Networks**

In her role, Sood looks to create an environment for the company’s field teams that establishes a common focus and then aligns those goals to generate growth amid the collaboration. Her approach has driven more than 30 percent growth among the company’s largest partners while fostering new relationships and strengthening existing ones.


**Jennifer Bodell**

**CVP, Channel**

**Pax8**

Bodell has streamlined Pax8’s partner sign-up process, which now adds a massive 500 partners per month, and keeps them engaged with virtual and in-person events. She is known for having a pulse on Pax8’s partners through her work developing the community and peer groups to understand their challenges.


**Caroline Goles**

**CMO**

**Pax8**

Goles expanded Pax8’s partner value framework to deliver targeted sales opportunities and supporting sales kits to partners based on internal data and capabilities, while simultaneously helping to build data and analytics capabilities to help partners target growth.


**Chari Rhoades**

**VP, Americas Channel Sales**

**Proofpoint**

Rhoades upped the game of Proofpoint’s channel business by working alongside the team and its leadership to drive double-digit growth in pipeline and partner-led revenue. In addition, Rhoades champions the partner community inside the organization to drive home the value it provides.


**Wendy Stusrud**

**VP, Global Partner Sales**

**Pure Storage**

Stusrud led the building of Pure Storage’s go-to-market program last year for MSPs relying on partners’ perspectives to shape the internal development process. In addition to crafting the messaging and marketing, the program lets partners hit the ground running with the full portfolio.


**Stefanie Chiras**

**SVP, Partner Ecosystem Success**

**Red Hat**

Through Red Hat’s Partner Ecosystem Success, Chiras introduced flexible methods of procuring and deploying Red Hat solutions in the public cloud. This includes native offerings with public cloud providers, channel enablement programs and co-created solutions. Under Chiras, Red Hat’s training and certification and self-paced learning courses are also more readily available to partners.


**Jennifer Heard**

**SVP, Global Commercial Sales**

**Red Hat**

With Heard leading the way, Red Hat launched several initiatives that drove increased partner sales last year including creating a new business model that includes partner-led sales opportunities that give resellers a chance to handle sales from start to finish autonomously and have greater life-cycle management.


**Meg Brennan**

**VP, Global Channels**

**Riverbed**

Led by Brennan, Riverbed replaced its partner portal as part of a year of change and built on accomplishments among its resellers. Brennan also developed a new rebate structure for distribution, simplified the company’s overall partner program, and launched a partner rewards track for specialists in Riverbed SaaS products.


**Ghazal Asif**

**VP, Global Partners, Alliances**

**Rubrik**

Asif has changed how the company works with partners via new tailored investment plans for strategic partners and aligning internal resources to help Rubrik drive deeper engagement with and between partners and customers. This included a new strategy aligning partner sales and technical resource teams to a named partner model to ensure Rubrik supports its most strategic partners.


**Sara Grofcsik**

**Sr. Director, U.S. Sales**

**Samsung Electronics America**

Grofcsik went deep with Samsung’s day-to-day tactical market approach, including hosting multiple roundtables bringing partners and customers together to create better solutions and processes. She did this as the company moved to establish and prove ROI for digital transformation within multiple verticals, working closely with partners to enter emerging verticals including transportation, production studios, redefining the enterprise and more.


**Cathy Daum**

**SVP, Go-To-Market, Scale Partnerships**

**SAP**

Daum was responsible for rolling out SAP’s new indirect models and programs and drove 65-plus-percent growth in indirect cloud revenue. She drove programs for partners to autonomously sell in industry verticals with SAP co-investment, recruited 400-plus new partners, funded demand generation campaigns, helped increase partners’ cloud and post-sales incentives, and subsidized partners’ cloud talent recruitment, training and certification.


**Marlena Fernandez**

**VP, Marketing**

**Scale Computing**

Fernandez helped Scale Computing expand its partner base by 50 percent while increasing revenue from existing and net-new business and improving the company’s MSP program. She also helped expand key partnerships including with Intel’s NUC Enterprise Edge Compute platform, and helped launch the cloud-hosted SC//Fleet Manager monitoring and management tool for hyperconverged edge computing infrastructure at scale.


**Shannon Sbar**

**VP, Channels, North America**

**Schneider Electric**

Sbar in 2022 focused on improving Schneider Electric’s efficiency with IT and alliance partners to accelerate growth, including investing in sales resources and programs to support partners with software and digital services, allocating more channel support behind key growth segments, and amplifying its eCommerce and sustainability focuses. She also moved to allocate more channel resources to key growth segments such as K-12.


**Leslie Vitrano Hubright**

**Director, Global IT Channel Strategy, Innovation**

**Schneider Electric**

Vitrano Hubright in 2022 leveraged partner input to spearhead a global move to launch a new Schneider Electric program to drive its partner ecosystem, differentiate business models, and empower growth and collaboration. As the architect of the new mySchneider IT Partner Program, she drove a global transformation to highlight the company’s channel partners and channel ecosystem.


**Jennifer Binet**

**SVP, Enterprise Sales**

**Sectigo**

Binet in the past year helped Sectigo cultivate new strategic partnerships by identifying key organizations and regions, developing relationships, obtaining contracts and educating sales teams, all while promoting Sectigo as an emerging technology partner in the enterprise. This resulted in channel growth of over 98 percent in 2022 as customers consolidated their Certificate Lifecycle Management to one vendor.


**Michelle Patterson**

**Director, Americas Field, Channel Marketing**

**SentinelOne**

Patterson has updated and launched channel programs and tools, including Campaigns in a Box, portal revamps and Partner University. She’s a big part of the planning of SentinelOne’s hosted partner conferences and advisory boards, and launched its Global Paladin solution engineer thought leadership organization program. Patterson also leads SentinelOne’s field marketing managers to work with growth partners in their regions.


**Betsy Larson**

**SVP, Sales**

**Sharp NEC Display Solutions Of America**

Larson, who helped blend two sales teams after Sharp and NEC signed their joint venture, educates the organization’s partners on its product line breadth and its global reach, service and support. She focuses on enabling channel partners to deliver visual solutions locally and globally, and continually refines global strategies while aligning sales organizations regionally, nationally and globally.


**Kendra Krause**

**SVP, Global Channel Sales, Operations**

**Sophos**

Krause was key in launching Sophos’ Managed Detection and Response (MDR) with new third-party security compatibilities, increasing partners’ breadth of security offerings and improving their security outcomes. She also increased the utilization of Partner Advisory Councils, events and surveys, and recently led an initiative to ensure Sophos’ partners can manage the increasing complexity of cyberthreats while profitably growing.


**Caralyn Stern**

**VP, Global Channel, Americas Marketing**

**Sophos**

Stern spearheads Sophos’ global and Americas channel partner strategy, including the new Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service for partners, where she drove awareness initiatives and incentive programs, increasing Sophos MDR channel adoption in 2023 by 55 percent. Her team launched an MDR Hub on the Sophos Partner Portal and oversaw new MDR sales certification course requirements.


**Michelle Kadlacek**

**VP, Enterprise Partner Program**

**Spectrum Enterprise**

Kadlacek implemented several managed services training sessions for channel teams to assist partners in solution selling, and launched various client promotions while enhancing the Spectrum Enterprise Fiber Internet Access product to support national opportunities for bulk deals. She also advanced Spectrum Enterprise’s channel business with enhanced partner support and automation while driving double-digit growth with technology distributors.


**Gretchen O’Hara**

**VP, Worldwide Channels And Alliances**

**Splunk**

O’Hara oversaw the building of Splunk’s partner culture through simplifying tools and processes to sell and service joint customers while enhancing partner agility. O’Hara also launched Partnerverse, a modernized partner program to support different partner business models with access to the Splunk Cloud Sandbox, an online solutions catalog, new training funds, and a new strategic collaboration partnership with AWS.


**Willa Flemate**

**SVP, Sales**

**TD Synnex**

Flemate’s team designed and prevalidated an aggregated market-ready solution bundle, providing a turnkey offering with engineering, supply chain, demand generation and playbook to help partners solve real-world problems. The team also continues to develop end-to-end solutions for TD Synnex’s ISV partners, including an AI solution for applications requiring video analytics, such as object recognition and detection.


**Stacy Nethercoat**

**EVP, Advanced Solutions**

**TD Synnex**

Nethercoat’s team accelerated development of TD Synnex’s annuity products and services. She also led her team to help TD Synnex’s Advanced Solutions business grow exponentially by focusing on digitally transforming the channel and mining data to create new value. She also launched a new team to drive the distributor’s Insight-As-A-Service strategy and optimize operations to deliver data-driven decision-making.


**Kristi Houssiere**

**Sr. Director, Global Channel Strategy, Operations**

**Trellix**

Tapping into her more than two decades of experience in channel sales, marketing and enablement, Houssiere is working to accelerate Trellix’s channel business by maintaining a strong focus on staying relevant with partners. This has included a major emphasis on enhancing partner incentives and driving partner engagement, resulting in growth of new business bookings by an average of 25 percent.


**Louise McEvoy**

**VP, U.S. Channel**

**Trend Micro**

With responsibility for Trend Micro’s U.S. channel sales and development of its channel cloud strategy, McEvoy has brought a focus on transforming the company’s go-to-market approach to accommodate the growing importance of cloud, SaaS, marketplace, services and ecosystems. Her approach has emphasized the need for working with a mix of partners including resellers, service providers, integrators and other influencers.


**Larissa Crandall**

**VP, Global Channel, Alliances**

**Veeam Software**

A longtime channel sales executive with a dedication to taking a partner-first approach, Crandall has brought her more than 25 years of experience in building partner programs to Veeam, which she joined at the end of 2022. Key focus areas at the company have included evolving its enablement programs, developing new demand generation programs and enhancing the company’s partner portal and overall partner experience.


**Wendy Taccetta**

**SVP, SMB Solutions, Channel Chief**

**Verizon**

As the head of Verizon Business’s small and medium business and channel organization, Taccetta is at the forefront of the company’s effort to deliver optimal engagements with partners. She has sponsored numerous channel program enhancements while expanding support and enablement, including by opening up Fixed Wireless Access sales for more than 150 partners and by introducing new agreements that have dramatically reduced on-boarding timelines.


**Tara Fine**

**VP, Americas Partner Organization**

**VMware**

In September 2022, Fine was appointed to the critical role of serving as VMware’s Americas channel chief. A veteran of both VMware and Dell Technologies, where she worked for nearly two decades, Fine has brought to the role a reputation for successfully developing partner-focused go-to-market strategies and leading large, complex organizations. Her early efforts as Americas channel chief at VMware have included evolving her organization to improve engagement and inclusion internally, championing the voice of partners, and prioritizing partner engagement as a way to deepen relationships between partners and VMware’s sales team.


**Tracy-Ann Palmer**

**VP, Partner Experience, Programs, Investments**

**VMware**

Palmer has been focused on driving the company’s transformation into a SaaS company by fiscal 2025 in concert with its partners. With a focus on recruiting and rewarding the right partners, providing partner enablement and delivering the right incentives, the strategic investments Palmer has spearheaded have resulted in double-digit growth in SaaS bookings from the channel.


**Laurie Mitchell**

**SVP, Global Marketing**

**Wasabi Technologies**

Mitchell has helped expand Wasabi’s channel program to engage with more than 14,000 partners globally. Key initiatives have included expanding relationships with top resellers and MSPs, launching a new OEM program and driving joint programs with technology alliance partners.


**Michelle Welch**

**CMO, SVP, Business Strategy**

**WatchGuard Technologies**

Welch has spearheaded key growth and transformation initiatives, such as overseeing the modernization of WatchGuard’s demand generation activities. Key focus areas for Welch have included investments in channel marketing and support, channel account managers and in both pre- and post-sales support engineers.


**Charlene Fischer**

**VP, U.S. Channel Sales**

**Xerox**

Recent key initiatives for Fischer have included overseeing the transition of Xerox’s channel sales team back to face-to-face interactions, which has helped to drive double-digit revenue growth with partners year over year. A main focus for Fischer is around engaging with new channel partners and helping them to capture the opportunities that are available in expanding their offerings beyond hardware.


**Shannon Bodnar**

**VP, Global Partner Marketing**

**Zscaler**

Bodnar has overseen the expansion of Zscaler’s global partner marketing organization, including through doubling the size of its team. Other priorities have included setting goals around new demand generation initiatives and around technology alliance partner efforts. In 2022, Bodnar and her team also launched several new programs, including the Partner Agency Connect tool that provides partners with access to top marketing agencies for executing partner-led co-marketing activities with Zscaler.