2023 CHANNEL CHIEFS

Brian Laufer VP

Laufer worked closely with integration partners, strengthening and adding more functionality to make quoting easier, especially with distribution changes and availability. On the community front, he worked to add more virtual training and events.

Chris Gray VP, North America Partner Ecosystem

Under Gray’s direction, Red Hat brought five North America channel and alliance functions into one ecosystem-focused organization. In doing so, he launched a team focused on co-creating, go-to-market and business-centered partner solutions.

Gary Benveniste

Sr. Director, Strategic Alliances

Within six months Benveniste leveraged his channel experience to quickly engage with partners and executives. This allowed him to fast-track joint selling and develop go-tomarket strategies aligned with business objectives.

Meg Brennan VP, Global Channel Programs, Operations Brennan replaced the partner portal, creating a new partner experience. She also launched a new rebate structure for distributors and a new specialization track that rewards partners who become specialized in SaaS solution areas.

Alex Page

Global VP, Channel, Alliances

Page secured agreement from Rapid7 leadership to move to a 100 percent channel business, starting with its land new business motion. He has tripled the size of the global channel organization over the past four quarters.

Jennifer Heard

SVP, Global Commercial Sales Heard organized a globally aligned, 100 percent partner-driven commercial business and established a new role—partner sales executive—to drive a partner-first sales strategy, resulting in higher growth margins and an increased number of partner wins.

Claudia Slane Sr. Director, Alliances, Channel, Global Revelstoke launched in January 2022 and by October Slane had launched a partner program. The company is incentivizing partners with high margins to maximize the expansion of its next-level SOAR platforms in Security Operations Centers.

Alex Thurber SVP, Global Partners, Alliances

Upon joining Riverbed, Thurber’s immediate focus was on a census of the current partner ecosystem. He has been developing and implementing global systems integrator and MSP programs to bring Riverbed’s Aternity DEM offering to new markets.

Bob Buchanan EVP, Sales

Buchanan expanded the sales team, establishing new national partner manager roles to further evolve the partner program and support partners in maximizing their revenue. He also has supported cross-sell/upsell initiatives within the customer base.

Rob McMahon

Sr. Director, Global Software Partners McMahon enhanced the co-sell approach for global consistency, introducing new KPIs and globally consistent practices to enhance Red Hat’s co-sell program and foster cross-collaboration between partners in delivering holistic customer solutions.

David Hogan VP, Sales, Growth Segments Hogan has rebuilt Ribbon’s channel and enterprise strategy globally, executing this as it completed the acquisition of ECI. The company has moved from a primarily voice infrastructure provider to a UC, IP and optical infrastructure provider.

Brian Breton

VP, Channel Sales, Americas

As part of RSA’s new identityfocused strategy, Breton is executing a cloud migration campaign through partners to customers. A cross-functional effort involving the partner ecosystem has far exceeded customer outreach goals.

Brad Herring VP,

Business Development

Herring completed a comprehensive assessment of partners’ performance over the past five years, identifying those who created the most value. It was a look beyond numbers and into who these companies are and where they are headed.

Matt Scully

Channel Chief

Redstor has become a key backup and recovery company in Europe and South Africa under Scully’s leadership. It has also now become a sought-after name in North America for MSPs that wish to provide customers with a safer backup and recovery experience.

Zane Long

SVP, Global Partner Sales

Long has focused on RingCentral’s partnership with Mitel, as it makes RingCentral the exclusive UCaaS provider for Mitel customers. With more than 35 million on-premises seats potentially upgrading to the cloud, he is now on-boarding Mitel partners.

John McCabe

VP, Worldwide Channel Sales McCabe rolled out a 100 percent channel sales strategy that produced a 200 percent increase in deal registration over six months. He also built an MSSP program that generated over $1 million in net-new services opportunities for partners.