Power 100: The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel 2014 (Part 2)

The Power 100

This year, CRN honored 340 Women of the Channel whose expertise and vision are deserving of recognition. The following exceptional 100 executives were chosen by CRN to its annual Power 100 list. We are proud to honor their achievements.

Here's a look at Part 2 of our list. For more, see Part 1 of our Power 100 list. You can also check out the full listing of the 2014 Women of the Channel.

Florence Sullivan, Juniper Networks

WW Partner Marketing

Years in Position: 3

Year In Channel: 18

Juniper Networks Sullivan deployed new technologies and initiatives to broaden partners’ mobile marketing and social media impact, including a redesign of the partner marketing platform.

Leslie Bois, Kaspersky Lab

Director, Channel Sales, NA

Years in Position: 2

Year In Channel: 11

Bois' recruitment of top new talent and the addition of toptier partners helped lead Kaspersky Lab to double-digit growth. Her motto: If you focus on the partner, you can’t go wrong.

Naomi Harker, KBZ

Vice President, Marketing

Years in Position: 3

Year In Channel: 15

Harker helped partners grow their technology practices, launching an enablement program and an ’automated’ loyalty program in which KBZ does the the back-end work and lets resellers focus on selling.

Shannon Kohn Mayer, LogMeIn

Channel Engagement Manager

Years in Position: 1

Year In Channel: 4

Kohn Mayer came to LogMeIn to establish a channel-friendly process and relationships for the company, which traditionally has sold direct to end users and MSPs.

Lisa Matherly, McAfee, part of Intel Security

Vice President Worldwide Partner Programs, Marketing and Operations

Years in Position: 2

Year In Channel: 13

Matherly launched an enablement framework for partners, optimized the continuing education program, and retooled McAfee’s profitability programs.

Cindy Bates, Microsoft

Vice President of SMB and Distribution

Years in Position: 3

Year In Channel: 14

Through close distribution partnerships, augmented by programs Bates and her team developed— such as Cloud 1-2-3 Academy—10,000 partners have advanced into building profitable cloud practices.

Jenni Flinders, Microsoft

Vice President of U.S. Partner Group

Years in Position: 13

Year In Channel: 24

As Microsoft continued its transition to a devices and services company, Flinders’ mission was to encourage partners to integrate the trends of mobility, cloud, social enterprise and big data solutions into their business models.

Carolyn Cox, MobileIron

Sr. Director, Customer Acquisition & Partner Marketing

Years in Position: 0.5 Year In Channel: 20 Cox looks forward to using her channel experience to make an impact on MobileIron, a company entirely focused on a partner/ channel go-to-market model.

JuliaAnn Larimer, Motorola Solutions VP, Americas Marketing Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 15 Motorola Solutions Larimer brought a wide range of new and programs and tools to partners to support efforts not only with their existing customer base, but to help them identify new customers.

Karen Olson, Motorola Solutions

Global PartnerEmpower Program Manager

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 10

Olson worked with regional teams to streamline and simplify the PartnerEmpower program so partners could more easily understand it and grow along with the company.

Renita Grewal-Kang, N-able by SolarWinds

Senior Manager, Global Marketing

Years in Position: 4 Year In Channel: 9 Grewal-Kang's top priority throughout 2013: a smooth transition after the acquisition by SolarWinds for employees as well as the company’s MSPs.

Ashley Flaska, NEC Display Solutions

Vice President of Marketing

Years in Position: 5 Year In Channel: 12 Flaska was key to the introduction of innovative products and the growing of NEC Display's channel partner base. As a driver in developing NEC Display's marketing and channel programs, Flaska focused on managing all marketing initiatives of digital signage, projectors and displays for the company.

Regina Kunkle, NetApp

Vice President, Americas Channel

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 16 Kunkle enhanced NetApp’s partner program with an initiative to reward sales efforts in the largest enterprise accounts and the offer of an instant rebate on the sale of specific products.

Debra Sperling, NetApp

Director, National Partners

Years in Position: 8

Year In Channel: 20

Sperling managed a team of business development specialists focused on selling FlexPod in the Americas. NetApp and Cisco partners built profitable businesses around the offering.

Kristin Carnes, Nimble Storage

Director of Worldwide Channel Sales

Years in Position: 3 Year In Channel: 14 Carnes expanded the distribution strategy with a two-tier model in North America and transitioned all resellers. She also launched Nimble Sales Professional, a free, self-paced online course for partners.

Asa Black, Nimbo

Director of Marketing

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 9 Magin worked with key U.S. channel partners to develop special programming and started a new K-12 education channel for Black Box products. She also customized messaging and content to match partner priorities.

Penny Philpot, Oracle Group VP, WW Alliances, Channels Years in Position: 5 Year In Channel: 26 Philpot helped grow Oracle’s base of partners while retaining and developing the existing base. She also helped increase the number of specialized partners by 64 percent.

Donna St. John, Palo Alto Networks

Head, Worldwide Channel Marketing and Programs

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 19 St. John launched a number of tools for partners, including a program compliance Tracker that brings visibility into how they are achieving their program requirements.

Kimberly King, Progress

Vice President, Global Partners and Channels

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 20 Progress built upon the success of its Partner+ program and saw above average partner growth rates as King moved to encompass all aspects of partnering and take into account partners’ business needs.

Michelle Graff, Pure Storage

Director of WW Channel Programs and Marketing

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 16 Graff helped restructure the company’s global partner program, P3, and has added multiple initiatives, including a Platinum program tier and new partner accreditation programs.

Rachel Cassidy, Red Hat, Inc.

Vice President, Global Partner Strategy and Enablement

Years in Position: 2.2 Year In Channel: 15 The top highlight for Cassidy was the formal rollout of Red Hat’s Online Partner Enablement Network, which is also the core baseline to the updated partner programs that were rolled out globally.

Michele Hayes, Riverbed Technology

Vice President, Global Partner Programs and Operations

Years in Position: 1.5 Year In Channel: 20 Hayes transformed channel programs by moving partners to a competency-based model, driving engagement, product knowledge and cross-product sales.

Lynn Tinney, Riverbed Technology

Vice President of Channels

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 25 Tinney brought her channel experience to Riverbed’s strong portfolio of location-independent computing solutions and is helping strengthen its channel program to move with market needs.

Christine Bufalini, RSA

Senior Manager, Global Channel Enablement and Operations

Years in Position: 5 Year In Channel: 7 Bufalini helped launch the RSA Technical Modules Program, changing the way RSA delivers training to partners.

Kelly Liu, Ruckus Wireless

Senior Manager, Channel Marketing & Lead Generation

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 10 Liu acted as an evangelist for channel enablement and lead generation initiatives, collaborating with internal teams to create value-add programs to support the channel.

Donna Armstrong, Sage

Vice President

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 28 Armstrong optimized the go-to-market strategy for Sage ERP X3, resulting in Sage North America and its partners contributing to 54 percent of global growth. The Sage channel grew 40 percent.

Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, Salesforce.com

SVP, Partner Programs

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 5 With the launch of the Salesforce1 mobile platform, Taychakhoonavudh helped empower partners to collaborate with each other and with Salesforce.

Darci Niszczak, Samsung Electronics

America Senior Manager, Channel Marketing

Years in Position: 3 Year In Channel: 11 Niszczak spearheaded a complete review of Samsung's partner satisfaction, partner programs, contracts and system requirements to improve ease of doing business for partners.

Lauren Robinette, Samung Sr. Manager, Channels, Samsung Knox Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 30 Robinette established an indirect channel for Samsung Enterprise grade software licenses and signed more than 100 partners to focus on building practices around Samsung Knox.

Carrie Maslen, SAP Global VP, Small, Midsize Enterprises Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 25 SAP has a strong foundation in SME, and Maslen built a team committed to creating and delivering new products and programs specifically designed, priced and packaged for partners to sell.

Meaghan Sullivan, SAP VP, Global Indirect Channels Marketing Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 14 New programs for the global SAP channel under Sullivan led to more than $250 million in marketing lead pipeline and helped indirect routes to market contribute to 37 percent of total sales.

Christy Thompson, ScanSource

VP, WW Marketing

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 9 Thompson rolled out innovative tools to help solution providers worldwide and a management structure to capitalize on new opportunities.

Alison Ryan, SGI VP, Global Channel Sales Years in Position: 9 Year In Channel: 9 Ryan added a storage-specific tier to the SGI Channel Network program, with a team of SGI resources to support it. A new portal gave partners access to co-branded materials.

Laura Blackmer, Sharp Electronics SVP, Sales Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 26 After joining Sharp in May 2013, Blackmer has continued the transition begun by President Doug Albregts of transforming the company from a sell-in-focused organization to a sell-through one.

Heather Tenuto, ShoreTel VP, WW Channel Programs, Sales Enablement Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 14 Tenuto aimed to keep the ShoreTel community competitive by overhauling legacy program elements, including adding cloud tiers to the Champion partner program.

Kendra Krause, Sophos

VP, Channel Sales

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 16 In her first year at Sophos, Krause built a foundation of "Channel Excellence." She and her team launched a new partner program, deal registration program, distribution strategy and structured a sales team to best support partners.

Laura Shafer, StorageCraft Technology

Director, Product Marketing

Years in Position: 4 Year In Channel: 11 Shafer geared up for new product releases and looked closely at the resources provided to the company's partners and how to better tailor content and collateral to meet their needs.

Tricia Atchison, Symantec Sr. Director, RTM, Channel Marketing Years in Position: 9 Year In Channel: 20 Atchison focused on Symantec's new global channel strategy, which provides a baseline of how it will go to market and engage with partners. She also streamlined marketing planning.

May Mitchell, Symantec

VP, NA Marketing

Years in Position: 0.5 Year In Channel: 20 In her new role, Mitchell worked to help champion Symantec's transformation toward a partner-centric model and focused on new road maps and developing partner enablement tools for six key priorities.

Mary Ellen Grom, Synnex

VP, U.S. Marketing

Years in Position: 3 Year In Channel: 20 Grom designed and launched MarketView 360, a marketing planning tool for manufacturer partners and product management teams, rolled out a Varnex community portal and enhanced PromoCentral for mobile devices.

Denna Mensch, Synnex VP, Technology Solutions Marketing Years in Position: 3 Year In Channel: 20 Mensch established ’Collaboration Circles’ to formalize the way the Varnex community works together. She also launched a new Varnex website allowing members to stay connected.

Heather Murray, Tech Data

VP, Mobile Solutions

Years in Position: 16 Year In Channel: 4 Year over year, Tech Data saw growth of 50-plus percent in its Mobile Solutions division. Murray supported VARs' needs from the device to the data center while simplifying the B2B mobile market for the channel.

Leslee Mesick, VCE

Director, Global Channels

Years in Position: 2

Year In Channel: 18 Mesick helped transform the VCE Partner Program, with new opportunities for development, growth and revenue generation; new solution provider tiers and specializations; and enhanced benefits.

Janet Schijns, Verizon Enterprise Solutions

VP, Corporate, Medium, Indirect Marketing

Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 14 Schijns was key as Verizon consolidated several channel programs to form one umbrella of services known as the Verizon Partner Program.

Colleen Browne, ViewSonic Director, NA Sales, Reseller, Enterprise Years in Position: 5 Year In Channel: 14 In 2013 Browne expanded the channel sales team by deploying more reps to engage with resellers and continued to keep them informed on technology trends.

Colleen Kapase, VMware Sr. Director, Partner GTM Readiness Years in Position: 2 Year In Channel: 16 Under Kapase, improvements made to the VMware Partner Network resulted in an increase in the number of VMware Sales Professionals and pre-sales certifications.

Donna Wittman, VMware

Executive Director, Channels and Alliances, VMware Canada

Years in Position: 1 Year In Channel: 12 As the industry moves toward the mobile-cloud era, Wittman engaged with partner executives on a daily basis to collaborate and help build win-win solutions for customers.

Lynn S. Murphy, Westcon Group

EVP NA

Years in Position: 4 Year In Channel: 27 Murphy helped streamline the company's brand, building out core solution practices across security, UC and collaboration, data center, cloud, services and global deployment solutions, and signed a number of key vendors.

Toni Clayton-Hine, Xerox

ViP, Marketing & Value Proposition

Years in Position: 1

Year In Channel: 19 Clayton-Hine defined Xerox’s indirect go-to-market strategy and worked with product groups to develop channel-friendly offerings around managed print services and more.

Mariah West, Zerto

Director, Global Partner Marketing

Years in Position: 2

Year In Channel: 5 Last year Zerto added 141 partners to the Zerto Alliance Partner Program, which now stands at 300 worldwide. West developed two new training and certification programs.