10 People You Should Know

By Heather Clancy, ChannelWeb

3:00 PM EST Fri. Feb. 24, 2006
From the February 27, 2006 issue of CRN
Page 1 of 6

\| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \|		• Carrying The Channel Torch Part firefighter, part diplomat. Our annual special report on the industry's top Channel Chiefs illuminates why the best vendor channel execs work for every penny they earn • The List: 50 Channel Chiefs From Acer to Xerox, we have the stats on 50 top Channel Chiefs who are influencing your day-to-day existence. If you're thinking about teaming with one of these vendors, here's where to start. • Global Touch It's a small world, and these 10 Worldwide Agenda-Setters are aiming to make it smaller with worldwide programs that impact the U.S. market -- and beyond. • New To The Scene Strategy from freshman execs at Cisco, Intel, Lexmark, Samsung, SonicWall and Toshiba. • Service Allies Wondering whether that vendor services division is friend or foe? These managers from Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft aim to solve that debate for good. • 10 People You Should Know They may not be on the "Big List," but we're watching these channel executives closely in 2006..
Just to be up front, this list is completely subjective. As I considered the candidates, these screening “qualifications” jumped to mind. First, the channel chiefs mentioned in this sidebar all come from companies that have placed a substantial bet that the channel will be their primary sales conduit. Second, despite the size of their companies, these executives refuse to be invisible. That is, they have found ways to make their presence known to partners and to the general public. Finally, each person finds himself or herself at some sort of inflection point related to their company’s channel plans. But before I get into this year’s selections, here’s a brief follow-up on last year’s picks. SAP America’s Michael Sotnick, Intel’s William Siu, Lenovo’s Mark Enzweiler and IBM’s Towney Kennard grew with their positions and are featured in other parts of the project this year. On the other hand, Dorothy Farris left ViewSonic after a very short tenure. 3Com’s Nick Tidd undertook an ambitious overhaul of the company’s channel last fall. Net Integration’s Dan Wensley has since popped up at managed services technology company LPI Level Platforms, while Hewlett-Packard’s Louise Bishop, formerly head of Americas marketing for ProCurve, moved into a role within the company’s broader channel marketing organization. Level 3 continued its strategy of working with wholesalers to reach the channel, we’ve heard little related to the value channel out of Netgear, and Corel has likewise been fairly quiet, although I believe that’s about to change. Finally, McData introduced a three-tier channel program in mid-2005. At the time, it reported that roughly 25 percent of its revenue was flowing through the channel. And now, onto this year’s picks—in no particular order.

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