Michael Valentine , Fortinet

Channel Chief Name	Michael Valentine
Channel Chief Title	VP, Americas Channel Sales
Company and Division	Fortinet
Markets Served:	Security
Company's overall 2007 revenue:	n/a
Percentage of revenue from solution providers:	100%
Number of years with the company:	< 1
Number of years involved with indirect sales:	22
Number of employees in channel organization:	120+
To whom do you report in your organization?	Karl Soderlund, VP of Americas Sales and Global Alliances
Does that individual report to your CEO/president?	Yes
Describe your channel organization's major accomplishments over the past year:	During the short time that Michael Valentine has been with Fortinet, he has been instrumental in leading great growth for Fortinet's channel organization, driving the company to: • Expand its network of North America technology distributors by signing with Ingram Micro and Tech Data • Sign more than 700 new partners in the Americas • Grow the internal Fortinet channel team by 82 percent, also creating a specialized inside channel account team • Further update its award-winning FortiPartner program with new terms, a new direct marketing reseller (DMR) program, and added enhancements to deal registration
List up to 10 of your top products sold through the channel:	As Fortinet is a 100-percent indirect sales company all of its products are sold through the channel. Most prominently sold is the company's flagship FortiGate family of unified threat management systems, all homegrown and integrate multiple levels of security protection -- firewall, antivirus, IPS, VPN, anti-spyware and anti-spam. The FortiGate product line scales to meet the needs of SMBs all the way to large enterprises, managed security service providers (MSSPs) and teleco carriers. Fortinet's channel also sells FortiMail secure messaging appliances, FortiManager centralized management appliances, FortiAnalyzer logging, reporting and analysis appliances, and FortiClient endpoint security software.
Describe how your partner community has grown over the past year:	Fortinet currently has more than 2,500 partners worldwide, more than 1,800 of which exist in the Americas region. In 2007, Fortinet signed more than 700 new partners in the U.S. and Canada. Of the Americas partners, more than 20 percent are considered platinum-level partners.
Name the one individual who has had the most profound impact on your life:	Michael Valentine's father has been the greatest influence in both his personal and his professional life. His father, a second-generation American with a strong Italian work ethic and family values, instilled in Michael that his first and foremost priority should be his family. And in providing for his family, he should do so with integrity. 'Whatever you choose to do, do it at 100 percent,' he would say. 'The harder you work at something the more you will get out of it and the benefits will extend far beyond your work life.' Michael's father lived what he taught, spending more than 40 years with American Airlines, a dedicated employee who provided for his family. In the tech industry, where career dedication is less common among this generation of workers, Michael has followed in his father's footsteps by passionately dedicating more than 20 years thus far to the channel.
Please name the single most innovative initiative for which you were responsible for the past year?	While Fortinet has historically been a 100-percent channel sales company with multiple types of partners, there was previously little classification of these different types of partners. While simultaneously growing the program, Michael and his team classified partners into different segments -- distribution, value-added resellers, direct marketing resellers (new in 2007) and managed security service providers. Segmenting the program for these types of partnerships allowed the internal Fortinet channel team to better create customized tools and programs to support each type of partner's selling needs.
What were the key channel partner investments you made in the past year?	The top three investments Fortinet's channel team made during 2007 include: • The expansion of its North American distribution program with Ingram Micro and Tech Data • Improved and ongoing development to the partner program and creating additional and more tailored resources for all partner levels and segments • Creating a specialized inside channel account team
How are you attracting the next generation of solution providers?	Fortinet is attracting world-class partners in many different ways. At the base level, the company is attracting partners by offering competitive margins on products and recurring revenue opportunities. Plus, the channel wants to team with a market leader, and Fortinet is the worldwide UTM market leader (according to IDC). Specific to UTM, the benefit to VARs partnering with Fortinet is twofold. On one hand, a VAR's ability to offer an integrated security solution that is suited to meet enterprise demand will create tremendous selling opportunities. On the other hand, security-focused VARs will also benefit from the possible revenue opportunities associated with providing managed services, which is only attainable by partnering with a vendor that can provide a complete package of hardware, software, services and support. This will allow security VARs to grow their businesses to the model of Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) -- a growing trend in today's channel, and this is part of what is attracting world-class partners to Fortinet.
What is the greatest challenge you overcame in the past year?	Streamlining and expanding Fortinet's channel sales distribution model and bringing on large distributors, as well as creating the new classification of partner segments as mentioned above.

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