Power 100: The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel 2011 (Part 1)

Power Play

Culled from the ranks of CRN's annual Women of the Channel, the Power 100 spotlights 100 female executives who stand out as driving forces in their respective companies and in the industry as a whole, providing the insight and influence that lead to channel success.

Here's a look at Part 1. For more, see Part 2 of our list of the 100 Most Powerful Women of the Channel or the full Women of the Channel list.

Tricia Atchison

Senior Director, Channel Marketing Americas, Symantec
Years in position: 6
Years in channel: 17


Highlights: Atchison unveiled Symantec Campaign Creator and the Symantec Partner Support Center for Marketing to enable partners, specifically SMBs with limited time and budget, to improve the speed and efficiency of their marketing campaigns and leverage Symantec's marketing resources to drive more demand. In addition, she focused on enhancing the company's partner community by offering tools such as Content Syndication, Social Media, Marketing Menu and sales and technical enablement activities.

Goals: Atchison will continue to focus on driving more engagement with partners and help them utilize Symantec's partner resources to ensure their success. This includes the development of more tools, programs and incentives to help partners drive more revenue. Other priorities include additional training, as well as taking advantage of Symantec's Partner Community and social media to better engage with partners, and continuing to foster the relationships between Symantec's channel partners and global strategic alliances.

Wendy Bahr

Senior Vice President, Global & Transformational Partnerships, Worldwide Partner Organization, Cisco Systems
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 6


Highlights: The creation of Cisco's Worldwide Partner Organization has allowed for a more strategic and integrated focus on global and transformational partners, says Bahr, which helps Cisco define new business models and routes to market.

Goals: Bahr will continue to help partners get closer to customers to address business solution needs and help them expand their services offerings by mapping them to the following Architectural Plays: Borderless Network, virtualization and collaboration. These position partners as the business process innovators for customers and reinforce their value in helping customers achieve their business goals, according to Bahr.

Heidi Baker

Vice President, Sales, Bell Techlogix
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 13


Highlights: Baker cites 12% overall company growth, 45% services growth and the success of data center monitoring as key accomplishments. Bell Techlogix also added the Cisco Unified Computing System specialization and practice as well as EMC to its product lines and completed several large virtualization projects.

Goals: Baker hopes to achieve 15% company growth and 30% services growth with the formation of a National Business Development team. She also aims to launch a Managed Service Provider offering.

Tracy Balent

Chief of Staff, Vice President, Channel Strategy, Data Management, CA Technologies
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 23


Highlights: Over the past year, Balent notes, CA has accelerated partner and customer confidence through the alignment of sales teams, the adoption of new product releases, the introduction of profitability programs such as "More Deals, More Dollars" and the launch of lead referral programs.

Goals: Balent's key focus will be arming service providers with data management solutions and programs that give them greater services depth across a broader set of customers. Service providers will be able to offer a hybrid cloud model of on-premise and off-premise data management solutions. In addition, CA is zeroing in on profitable channel programs, playbooks, qualified leads and alignment of regional sales/technical teams to partners.

Cindy Bates

Vice President, U.S. SMB & Distribution, Microsoft
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 16


Highlights: Bates brought together six different teams to create Microsoft's new SMB&D organization to deepen the focus on SMB opportunities. Microsoft trained 27,000 channel professionals through more than 500 instructor-led and Web-based training events. Bates helped develop new partner programs (VAR Champions Club and SMB Cloud Champions Club) to create new opportunities and engage with top-performing partners. She also worked with Microsoft's distribution and VAR partners to help them transition to the cloud.

Goals: Bates says it's an incredibly exciting for partners as Microsoft launches Office 365, bringing enterprise solutions to SMBs. She looks to advance its virtualization business, enabling partners to leverage the strength of the company's offerings, including the management capability in System Center. She will continue her involvement with social media, through Twitter, LinkedIn and her own blog, with SMBs about the value of using partners. She aims to maintain a diverse, high-performing organization that is accountable to partners.

Kristie Bell

Vice President, GTS Channels, Alliances, Midmarket, IBM
Years in position: 3
Years in channel: 7


Highlights: Bell introduced a managed cloud services portfolio for IBM partners to resell (tier-one and distributors) and helped partners identify opportunities for complementary services offerings that extend client value and expand margin. She continued to strengthen services channels programs with a new top partner management system and new enablement and business development programs.

Goals: Bell aims to drive services partnership growth and market expansion with focused enablement and prioritized partner offerings. The goal is to integrate partners into the fabric of IBM's services business.

Angela Beltz-Norrie

Vice President, Product Marketing, Cisco Solutions Group, Tech Data
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 11


Highlights: Beltz-Norrie helped launch Tech Data's dedicated Integrated Supply Chain Services division and managed the account of its No. 1 customer, for which Tech Data was named Distributor of the Year. The successful alignment with Cisco supported growth of 22% year over year and share gains in key segments and solution categories. Tech Data launched a Cisco Virtual Community site, Services Opportunity Portal and held a successful partner event.

Goals: Beltz-Norrie's focus for the next year is enabling partners to define, grow and expand their Cisco practice through innovative tools, targeted consultation, expansive training, marketing collateral and demand generation. As the solution offering around the Data Center expands and evolves, she says, Tech Data's value in the solutions distribution model will enable partners to capture the market opportunity.

Renee Bergeron

Vice President, Managed Services, Cloud Computing, Ingram Micro
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 1


Highlights: In 2010, Ingram Micro expanded its services portfolio and made significant investments in partner training/education. The distributor also hosted the Cloud Summit and Seismic Partner Summit and launched the Ingram Micro Cloud. As a result of these efforts, Bergeron says, partners have moved up the value chain in the eyes of their clients and now sell resolutions and service vs. hardware. The emphasis of the sales is on the business value and resolution, she adds.

Goals: Bergeron's goals are to double the size of Ingram Micro's services business; introduce automation to offer greater efficiency to resellers and MSPs; and build a comprehensive portfolio of cloud services so that partners know they can come to Ingram Micro when they need to solve any business problems their customers may have.

Madeleine Biskintaoui

Manager, North American Channels, Alliances, Talend
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 10


Highlights: Talend enhanced and extended its channels programs, increasing indirect revenue by 200% from last year, according to Biskintaoui. The company also doubled the number of channels account managers to enhance services for its existing partner community and to handle the increased amount of new channel prospects. In addition, it established a flexible OEM and ISV program and expanded its partner base by at least 40%.

Goals: Biskintaoui aims to expand Talend's Preferred Partner base to respond to the increased demand for its software and services; strengthen partner training programs; and keep working on the channels program.

Debra Bowers

President, CEO, Barrister Global Services Network
Years in position: 4
Years in channel: 3


Highlights: Barrister fulfilled its commitment to the state of Louisiana by delivering 100 new jobs in less than 18 months as outlined in its $1 million Community Block Development Grant for infrastructure improvements, says Bowers. The company saw top-line revenue growth of approximately 30% during the past fiscal year, the highest in almost 10 years. The company also completed a proprietary, automated invoicing platform to reduce costs and provide efficiency.

Goals: Bowers aims to continue Barrister's pursuit of large OEM contracts and federally positioned contracts and grow top-line revenue by a minimum of 20%. She also aims to increase help desk capabilities to grow that division and implement in-house hardware-driven efficiencies to lower overall costs to the company and customers. She will focus on continued automation of processes to drive consistent results.

Linda Brotherton

CTO, ConnectWise
Years in position: 13
Years in channel: 13


Highlights: ConnectWise reached the 50,000-user mark, Brotherton says, and created additional APIs for ConnectWise's vendor community so that it can continue to provide solutions to partners in the channel.

Goals: ConnectWise aims to roll out more features to help partners grow their business and continue the expansion of integration options to build vendor relationships. It also plans to provide more mobile options including tablet formats.

Colleen Browne

Director, North American Channel, Enterprise Sales, ViewSonic
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 10


Highlights: Browne introduced a CRM initiative to better serve ViewSonic's growing and diverse channel partners. ViewSonic launched the industry's first dual-boot tablet and interactive projectors for collaborative, mobile classroom solutions. In addition, the company redesigned www.ViewSonic.com for easier navigation.

Goals: Browne touts upcoming products for education, medical, finance and enterprise and her goal is to communicate these products effectively to partners in the manner that best serves them--be it social media, Webinars, on-site trainings, advertising, Web site, etc. ViewSonic's partner portal, Finchclub.com, also will be updated, making it easier to access and navigate.

Lori Budin

Vice President, Channels, Gluster
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 20


Highlights: Budin helped build and launch channel strategies from the ground up: strategy, program and execution. She defined the right partner types, routes to market, contribution mix, partner profiles and readiness tools, go-to-market planning process and partner program framework. Gluster launched its channel program and signed up 50-plus partners

Goals: Budin aims to help scale the program internationally and domestically and continue to develop offerings that differentiate partners.

Megan Burton

CEO, SeeGee Technologies
Years in position: 8
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Burton reveals her highlight in one word: growth. Growth in an economy full of uncertainties has been a true accomplishment, she says, adding that she feels fortunate SeeGee Technologies was prepared for the downturn.

Goals: Burton says the focus is on quality rather than quantity, but she does have expansion plans that include expanding outside the local area. But, she points out, she wants to work and play really well at home before taking the business on the road. Atlanta is where SeeGee started and will be its headquarters as it expands nationally, she says.

Jane Cage

COO, Heartland Technology Solutions
Years in position: 8
Years in channel: 25


Highlights: Before a tornado swept through the town of Joplin, Mo., in late May, Cage had noted Heartland's acquisition of another office in St. Joseph, Mo., being named co-president of the Ingram Micro VTN Ambassadors and starting a VTN Mastermind Peer Group as top accomplishments for the year. Since the tornado hit, Cage has been a visible presence in the channel community and in the community of Joplin in leading the change in fund-raising efforts and helping fellow VARs hit hard by the disaster.

Goals: Cage aims to begin to provide business intelligence to the sales and marketing group to improve sales through more targeted marketing to the company's own clients. She also aims to help the members of her VTN Mastermind group achieve their company goals.

Maria Cannon

Vice President, Worldwide Partner Organization, Business Management & Operations, Cisco Systems
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Cisco's investments in change management came together to deliver results to partners, Cannon says. In addition to getting partners "on board" faster, the company rolled out My Cisco, simplifying business processes for partners by creating a personalized experience. Last year Cisco launched new products, architectural specializations and new promotions and rebates. The company also began streamlining systems and tools and established processes so that as business grows, complexity doesn't, says Cannon.

Goals: Cannon says teams across Cisco are working together to simplify the business, adding her top priority is to do whatever it takes to put the business on a cleaner, simpler plane so partners can reduce their opex when they choose Cisco as their partner.

Theresa Caragol

Vice President, Global Alliances & Partners, Ciena
Years in position: 4
Years in channel: 18


Highlights: BizConnect, Ciena's global partner program, realized double-digit growth over last year and Ciena successfully stabilized and rationalized the Nortel MEN and Ciena partner base. Caragol helped build business plans and placed a strong focus on a core set of partners in the ecosystem, including priority managed service, solution provider and alliances. This strategy has been effective thus far and she says she expects growth in 2011 to continue.

Goals: Caragol says Ciena plans to move from rationalizing and stabilizing the partner base to a very aggressive optimization and execution strategy with a focus set on global partners. Ciena upped the level of channel talent on the team and clearly defined roles for the global partner office. Caragol believes 2012 will yield positive results as Ciena gains leverage from partners, solutions training, Ciena Champions program improvements, and a new sales advocate initiative for partners.

Deandra Cassidy

Director, Global GTM Channel, Polycom
Years in position: 4
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Cassidy gathered valuable feedback from channel partners on the strengths and challenge of doing business with Polycom thoughout the year, she says. Based on this feedback, on the one-year anniversary of the Polycom Choice Partner Program Cassidy launched the enhanced Choice Program for 2011 worldwide. The new program provides a simpler, more predictable and more profitable approach to programmatic benefits, she says, and aligns closely with Polycom's technology and UC- everywhere strategy. In addition, this year Cassidy refined Polycom's specialization programs to enable partners to increase their sales success and introduced a new online deal registration system and a partner satisfaction and engagement process.

Goals: Next year Cassidy hopes to develop even closer relationships with partners and continue to refine the Choice Partner Program on a global basis. Her goals are to strengthen Polycom's training programs to drive the partner base in technology and market specializations, increase leads to partners and develop new tools to increase business intelligence and visibility for them.

Toni Clayton Hine

Vice President, Global Channel Marketing, CA Technologies
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 16


Highlights: Two things jump out, Clayton Hine says: First, CA just completed its first global channel partner summit in five years with 130 partners from 98 different companies. Partners of all business models and technology areas came together to hear about CA's strategy and offer feedback. Second, CA continued to invest in creating new offerings and new programs for service providers, MSPs and solution providers that want to drive recurring services revenue and take advantage of the benefits of the cloud.

Goals: Clayton Hine aims to create a more connected partner ecosystem that rewards partners based on their business models and their strategic growth goals. CA will focus on targeted recruitment, enablement and engagement with strategic partners in all geographies and routes to market.

Linda Connly

Vice President, General Manager, Inside Sales & SMB Division, EMC
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 10


Highlights: EMC kicked off 2011 by unveiling the VNXe series unified storage systems, which enable partners to address the demand for SAN and NAS solutions in the SMB market with one easy solution, according to Connly. Along with VNXe, EMC launched an Authorized Reseller category that enables partners of any size to easily add the VNXe series into their product portfolio.

Goals: EMC has already said it believes the VNXe/VNX line will help it become No. 1 in the SMB market, says Connly. In the next year, she will focus on exceeding EMC's global channel partner recruitment goal, which will help the company be successful in its SMB endeavors.

Leslie Conway

Vice President, Global Marketing, Digium
Years in position: 3
Years in channel: 20


Highlights: Digium launched on-demand sales and technical training and certification programs, and 80% of Digium's partners have completed these requirements in less than a year. The company also has seen rapid adoption of its certification program. In 2010, Digium had four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth for Switchvox in its North American channel. It also exceeded recruitment goals and now has approximately 1,300 partners in its partner program.

Goals: Digium plans to continue introducing new lead-generation programs to provide top-level partners with leads, according to Conway. The company is also adding online technical training for the Switchvox product line and remote online labs. Digium is introducing a content syndication program as well, which will enable partners to display updated content and images on their Web sites and will offer the ability to obtain co-branded PDFs of all materials. Digium also will roll out quarterly promotions and lead capture forms to help partners capture more leads.

Christina Corley

President, COO, Zones
Years in position: 5
Years in channel: 22


Highlights: Corley says the highlight of the year was watching the Zones team members deliver continued growth and an unparalleled level of commitment to clients and business partners--and watching the further development of Zones as a full service technology solutions provider.

Goals: Corley says her goals for next year are to support the development of a great team and deliver superior customer service and solutions to clients and business partners.

Kristy Cornell

Channel Marketing Manager, U.S. IT Channel, Eaton
Years in position: 3
Years in channel: 10


Highlights: Cornell was instrumental in recruiting 500-plus new Eaton partners and growing overall revenue from solution providers. She also launched an automated MDF program for Eaton partners and helped Eaton achieve a CRN Channel Champion award for Financial Factors in

Goals: Cornell will continue her efforts to recruit partners, enable existing ones and design new program elements to help solution providers grow their business overall.

Carolyn Crandall

Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Riverbed Technology
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 25


Highlights: Crandall says partners gave her a to-do list when she joined Riverbed, and she delivered on them. First, she helped grow Riverbed's market share to 43% and maintained a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader position. Second was to offer a compelling partner program--95%-plus revenue was sold through the channel in 2010, Riverbed received a CRN 5-Star Partner Program Award and a value-based distribution program as rolled out in the Americas. Third was to provide partners with cloud solutions--Riverbed introduced Cloud Steelhead & Whitewater for WAN & cloud storage acceleration.

Goals: Building on successes in 2010, Crandall says Riverbed will re-launch the brand and evolve its partner program, enabling partners to sell the full suite of Riverbed and partner solutions, offer more cloud-enabling technologies and complete the value-added distribution global rollout. She also plans to conduct a channel review to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and scale of the current channel strategy. Finally, she plans to boost channel enablement tools and planning and training programs, and launch a new partner portal.

Marguerite Davidson

Owner, President, Central Data Systems
Years in position: 12
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Davidson drove growth in a beleaguered economy in Michigan and Ohio that exceeded growth rates since 2000. Central Data Systems acquired a collegial practice to expand reach into 10 added states and garner 20% more customer base. Davidson was elected to the Infor Council and the company was named Distributor Partner of the Year.

Goals: Davidson's goals are to sustain the company's momentum and meet the pent-up demand in Michigan and Ohio while continuing to drive highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Jeannine Edwards

Director, ConnectWise Community, ConnectWise
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 14


Highlights: In 2010 ConnectWise passed a new milestone--a community of 50,000 users strong. Edwards says the Community charter is to continue to bring conduits for partners to connect, collaborate and grow and em

Goals: Edwards hopes to accomplish continued consistency. While ConnectWise Community is certainly excited about the successes, Edwards says that the real success comes from nurturing, caring and feeding of that Community, on a committed, consistent basis.

Nicole Enright

Vice President, Strategy Development & Execution, Avnet Technology Solutions
Years in position: 5
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Enright led a team in the due diligence and integration process for Avnet's acquisition of Bell Micro and Tallard, which expanded Avnet's presence in Latin America. The company onboarded 600-plus new employees and now has a $1 billion business in 30-plus countries in Latin America. Enright and her team managed Avnet's executive councils for top suppliers to shape both Avnet and suppliers' programs, and Enright helped to develop a strategic consultative program to enable VARs to successfully sell data center solutions.

Goals: Enright's first goal is to continue to improve Avnet's approach in training and enable the organization to efficiently work with business. Second is to enhance Avnet's executive advisory councils to create more synergies and opportunities among VARs, suppliers and Avnet to drive tangible financial results. Third is to establish a formal mentoring/coaching program for high-potential future female leaders.

Paige Erickson

Vice President, Partners & Alliances, North America, CA Technologies
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 7


Highlights: Over the past year, Erickson's role expanded considerably when she took over the sales and technical teams supporting the managed services and solution providers as well as alliances. In this role, Erickson created and launched the Managed Service Provider Program where she developed new pricing, contracts and go-to-market sales methodologies to capitalize on a new route to market in North America and Western Europe.

Goals: Erickson wants to ensure she creates and executes programs that maximize impact on business models. She will enhance the sales pipeline by utilizing alliances in transformational projects with leading system integrators, enhancing relationships with cloud service providers, and continuing to grow the CA business with solution providers through domain expertise.

Annie Flaig

Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales, Advanced Micro Devices
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 19


Highlights: This year marks the one-year anniversary of AMD extending the AMD Fusion Partner Program to its commercial partners, and it has already increased its Elite commercial channel partners by more than 60%. Another highlight for Flaig was seeing the AMD Opteron 6100 Series processor-

Goals: Later this year, AMD will launch its 16-core Interlagos processor, and Flaig says the company is extremely excited about what this product will bring to channel partners and customers. With that in mind, she aims to expand AMD's channel program among Select level commercial partners to help build awareness and generate demand, sales and technology support, and provide them with a source for expanding product portfolios with high-performance AMD solutions.

Jenni Flinders

Vice President, U.S. Partner Group, Microsoft
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 21


Highlights: This year, Microsoft relaunched the Microsoft Partner Network, equipping partners with training, resources and support. With partner feedback, Microsoft designed the program to help customers quickly and easily identify partners with specific skill sets to meet their needs. Flinders also integrated ways partners can thrive using cloud services to build and maintain the trust and loyalty of customers.

Goals: Flinders' goal is to lead Microsoft's existing U.S partner ecosystem, regardless of partner type, to embrace Microsoft online offerings and lead with cloud. Flinders says the company strives to provide customers with greater

Stephanie Fohn

CEO, WhiteHat Security
Years in position: 7
Years in channel: 6


Highlights: 2010 saw Fohn build upon WhiteHat Security's transition from direct to channel sales with the inclusion of stronger channel partners. When Fohn chose to establish relationships with the best security VARs, the company saw 184% growth in channel bookings in 2010. Her success with new channel partnerships has led to adoption from companies like FICO, which want to have security advantages over competitors. The strength of the new model has positioned the company to expand in 2011, she says.

Goals: Fohn is growing WhiteHat Security into a complete Web security company that will offer customers end-to-end security solutions. She's leading the company through a series of growth activities that will allow it to significantly increase product offerings and geometrically increase revenue.

Linda Ford

Vice President, Marketing, DynTek Services
Years in position: 8
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Ford's accomplishments includes growth in EBITDA and net income; being awarded McAfee GHE Partner of the Year, Citrix Learning Center of the Year and being named to to the CRN Tech Elite 250 List.

Goals: In the channel, every year is about working harder on partnerships, Ford says, to see continued growth in terms of revenue as well as in joint marketing programs. The coming year will see a much heavier focus on marketing automation and tools as a way to help manage the lead-to-sales conversion, and Ford is looking at new, innovative marketing programs to shake up the norm. Ford says she has been fortunate to work closely with partner marketing organizations from Dell, McAfee, Microsoft, Citrix and more to generate almost 100 marketing events and campaigns.

Sitima Fowler

CEO, Capstone Information Technologies
Years in position: 7
Years in channel: 7


Highlights: Even though Rochester, N.Y., is not a growing economy, Fowler says, Capstone managed to increase profits and managed services revenue by more than 50%. She added a record number of new managed services clients in 2010 and continues to aggressively market the company, saying she refuses to let the economy dictate her company goals. Fowler has reinvented her service offerings and added more value and invested in customer service as well.

Goals: Fowler aims to increase monthly recurring revenue by 100%. The goal is so that the monthly recurring revenue pays all the company expenses so that anything extra is profit every month, she says.

Patricia Gallup

Co-founder, Chairman, CEO, PC Connection
Years in position: 29
Years in channel: 29


Highlights: PC Connection's strategy to generate top-line growth while improving bottom-line profitability resulted in a 35% increase in sales productivity and a record 26% increase in sales year over year. This enabled the company to take market share and strengthen its position as an industry leader, according to Gallup. In response to the growing importance of data analytics, Gallup invested in its Master Data Management system, enabling PC Connections to more completely predict and satisfy the technology needs of customers.

Goals: Gallup aims to achieve long-term goals by planning and executing strategies that promote sustainable growth and ensure top customer service. To more closely integrate with its customers, the company acquired ValCom Technology, a leading provider of infrastructure management solutions and on-site managed services. Gallup is expanding services offerings through this acquisition and will leverage the resources of the organization.

Catherine Giordano

President, CEO, Knowledge Information Solutions
Years in position: 10
Years in channel: 10


Highlights: Knowledge Information Solutions delivered custom technology consulting turnkey solutions, enabling customer organizations to focus on their core business operations, says Giordano. KIS Secure Data Center provided hosting and NOC support services to government and commercial customers. The company also expanded business development workflow process, implemented new technology including enhancements in software that enabled customized service and customer support.

Goals: Giordano's goals include driving innovation for IT process modeling and delivery for management applications. She aims to leverage virtualization, offering solutions designed to provide control, assurance and secure solutions that optimize hybrid/private/virtual infrastructure and will expand best-of-breed technologies.

Kim Girards

President, CEO, The Ergonomic Group
Years in position: 27
Years in channel: 27


Highlights: Over the course of the past year, many events occurred within the industry causing The Ergonomic Group to further invest with major server, networking and software vendors, Girards says. She watched as many vendors created cloud computing strategies and helped to further educate customers around the different server architecture, networking and software infrastructures.

Goals: The Ergonomic Group will continue to assist customers' focus on innovation rather than technology. Girards' goal is to help customers devote more of their IT budget to innovation for core business needs and spend less on operations and maintenance. Cloud computing promises to be a fundamental transition for customers, she says. The Ergonomic Group would like to grow its corporate footprint in the channel path going forward.

Tonia Gonsalves

Vice President, Global Partner Enablement, Hitachi Data Systems
Years in position: 7
Years in channel: 23


Highlights: Gonsalves helped deliver the enhanced Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Program; provided partners with more business building advantages through more advance training offerings; and orchestrated the launch of the Virtual Storage Platform in late fall 2010.

Goals: Gonsalves' focus this year will be leadership over initiatives including a global marketing bureau with turnkey campaigns and content syndication for partners; the Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Program; expanding the outreach and enablement of other strategic business model partners and their efforts to support all addressable market segments.

Donna Grothjan

Vice President, Global Channel Strategy, Operations, Juniper
Years in position: 7
Years in channel: 23


Highlights: Grothjan's team recently launched a worldwide partner network, enabling global customer support through a network of partners. The team also supported the integration of five company/product acquisitions into Juniper programs and processes, resulting in the development of a channel integration playbook. In addition, Grothjan enhanced systems and tools to drive ease of business and launched a config-to-order capability through distribution.

Goals: Grothjan says Juniper has always considered distribution to be a critical component of channel success. Looking ahead, she will refine strategy and program development to further leverage distribution partners and drive even greater results for channel partners.

Julie Haley

CEO, Edge Solutions
Years in position: 3
Years in channel: 3


Highlights: Haley increased company sales 600% year over year from 2009 to 2010, implemented new human resources department and policies and earned the "Fastest Growing Private Company in Atlanta" award.

Goals: Haley aims to continue sales growth, double technical consultant staff and implement a formal employee satisfaction and recognition program.

Allison Harabis

Americas Channel Program Manager, McAfee
Years in position: 2
Years in channel: 8


Highlights: Over the past year, Harabis has been able to be a part of what she calls an "overhaul" to the McAfee channel program--implementing technical enablement programs, focusing on ease of doing business and enhancing partner communication.

Goals: This year Harabis aims to engage more with the channel community and work with them to develop programs and processes that work for them.

Kelly Harman

Vice President, Marketing, Carousel Industries
Years in position: 1
Years in channel: 16


Highlights: In the past year, Harman led the Carousel marketing team to complete the rebranding of Carousel Industries, launched a corporate Web site, a company blog, and a social media identity and campaign. As a result of these efforts, Carousel increased its corporate Web site visitors by 130% over the previous year. In addition, along with her marketing team, Harman implemented a highly successful lead nurturing and marketing automation system for the company.

Goals: Harman plans to launch several vertical marketing initiatives for Carousel. Another important initiative is to grow business within Carousel's existing client base through an ongoing campaign to educate customers on its full suite of services. Finally, Harman will lead her marketing team to remain focused on the continued rebranding of Carousel from a reseller of voice solutions to a full-service systems integrator and managed services company.

Nancy Hedrick

President, CEO, Computer Software Innovations
Years in position: 21
Years in channel: 22


Highlights: Hedrick began Computer Software Innovations' cloud services initiative while continuing to grow the technology solutions and financial management applications segments of the business. The company remained profitable during the ongoing economic downturn, she notes.

Goals: Hedrick plans to continue to grow all three segments of the business. Her primary goal is to work with the management team to define the corporate vision and put the processes in place to achieve goals.

Julie Hens

Vice President, U.S./Canada Channels Distribution, Worldwide Partner Organization, Cisco Systems
Years in position: 3
Years in channel: 12


Highlights: Hens launched multiple Distributor Solution Centers based on Cisco Architectures; accelerated growth in key commercial and small-business segments; and built a strong foundation for future data center growth.

Goals: Hens aims to continue to grow the business by executing on Cisco's data center architectural vision and continue to focus on leadership and mentoring initiatives.

Elise Hernandez

President, Ideal System Solutions
Years in position: 14
Years in channel: 14


Highlights: Hernandez expanded the organization with the acquisition of another technology organization called CVT Technologies Inc., Plymouth, Minn. She also expanded the corporate headquarters to larger offices in Minnetonka, Minn., and purchased a building with expanded offices in northern Minnesota. Ideal System Solutions received several national and local awards including: HUBZone Small Business of the Year Award by the Department of Energy and, CRN's 2011 VAR500 list and 2010's

Goals: Hernandez will continue to enhance Ideal System Solutions' managed and professional services offerings and grow its unified communications and technology areas. She also will continue to search for small and disadvantaged technology partners.

Jodi Honore

Vice President, Vendor Management, Ingram Micro
Years in position: 11
Years in channel: 30


Highlights: In 2010, Honore served as the global Microsoft liaison for Ingram Micro and played a substantial role in the development and execution of its data center strategy. Honore's team helped onboard many of Ingram Micro's vendors into its new Advanced Computing Division and supported its strategic SaaS/cloud initiative by assisting the team with vendor introductions and identifying solution opportunities and supporting cloud models that are natural extensions of the licensing model.

Goals: As the global Microsoft liaison, Honore would like to build the worldwide Microsoft business by leveraging and developing global best practices. Her team is also accelerating its efforts around pro-AV/digital signage and document imaging to encourage greater VAR adoption and attract additional vendors that partners want to do business with. Honore will also continue to support Ingram Micro's strategic SaaS/Cloud initiative and help grow this business.

Pat Hume

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, GFI Software
Years in position: 6 months
Years in channel: 17


Highlights: While GFI Software continues to strengthen its SMB solution portfolio, it is laying the groundwork to expand its partner base throughout the U.S. and Canada, according to Hume. GFI's business is 100 percent channel in EMEA, and working with partners is deeply rooted in its go-to-market philosophy. GFI is poised to introduce itself to the broader North American channel, letting partners know about the company's value proposition in the SMB market, says Hume.

Goals: Hume says this next year will be all about the channel and her teams. GFI knows that partners are critical to growth, and it wants to recruit more of them. GFI has solid partner programs in place, she says, and will work to harmonize those across all business units to ensure doing business with the company is easy and profitable. GFI will invest in partners through training, marketing and end-to-end lead generation and will remain committed to their long-term success, Hume says.

Pam Johansen

Director, Worldwide Channel Operations, BMC Software
Years in position: 6
Years in channel: 9


Highlights: Johansen gained a seat at the BMC leadership table last year. BMC rolled out SaaS solutions and a certification program and added Salesforce.com as a strategic resell Partner, selling the Remedy on Force solution. In addition, BMC expanded its go-to-market strategy by signing on a distributor in the U.S. focusing on select BMC products and brought back its Elite Partner Summit, delivered every six months.

Goals: In support of its overall sales alignment, BMC will be passing BMC Remedy on Force leads via Salesforce PRM to certified partners, Johansen says. Rules of engagement and a governance process will be rolled out. Elite ESM Partners will be assigned a corporate account manager focusing on SMB accounts for both Americas and EMEA. A focus for 2011 is to collaborate with an outside vendor to restructure and rebrand the partner program.

Jennifer Johnson

Director, Global Programs, Technical Services, Arrow Electronics
Years in position: 5
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Johnson implemented CopyExact across Brazil, China, Israel and Guadalajara while also maintaining relationships with tier-one clients.

Goals: Johnson aims to get Arrow's CopyExact facilities up to 100% production and sign up five or more tier-one companies.

Michele Johnston Holthaus

General Manager, Channel Platforms & Strategy Division, Intel
Years in position: 5
Years in channel: 14


Highlights: The launch of Intel's second-generation Core CPU in desktop and mobile markets was key, Johntson Holthaus says. Intel also introduced the Intel Desktop Core K SKU products developed specifically for the channel's integration and overclocking marketing and launched the Think Mini ITX and Mini ITX industry

Goals: Johnston Holthaus says she would like to see the continued growth of the overall channel and increased channel competitiveness in specific niche markets where players can differentiate and grow their margins. She plans to help accelerate growth for Intel SSDs, tablets and wireless products as All-In-One and Ultrabook drive new usage models in desktop and mobile.

Colleen Kapase

Senior Director, Global Partner Strategy, VMware
Years in position: 4
Years in channel: 15


Highlights: Kapase worked closely with VMware's solution provider and service provider partners to better understand how to help them build trusted successful business relationships to move joint customers to a hybrid cloud solution.

Goals: Kapase aims to launch a partner-to-partner program where it's easy for partners to connect and build relationships to get customers to the cloud, including ISVs who have built their SaaS-based offering on VMware, to OEMs with cloud offerings, to channel partners of tier-one apps such as SAP who want to partner with a VMware virtualization expert.

For more, see Part 2 of our list of the 100 Most Powerful Women of the Channel.