The Top Midmarket IT Vendor Executives For 2015 (Part 2)

Midmarket Leaders

Each year, The Channel Company's Midsize Enterprise Summit highlights the IT industry's most influential vendor executives who focus on the midmarket. That market segment is one of the IT industry's fastest-growing, and their channel executives are faced with challenges daily. The best meet those challenges head on, while meeting the demands of senior IT leaders of midsize organizations.

These executives on the Top Midmarket IT Vendor Executives list were nominated by peers, colleagues, customers and partners because of the strong relationships they have built with midmarket customers, and for the leadership, strategic thinking and solution excellence they demonstrate. Their organizations have made a long-term commitment to and investment in the midmarket -- customers with 100 to 1,000 employees and/or $100 million to $1 billion in annual revenue.

Many of the executives included on this list will be attending the Midsize Enterprise Summit West conference in Los Angeles this week, where they will be recognized for their achievements. If you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1.

Clayton Reed

Senior Vice President, Lifesize

Clayton Reed recently returned to the video collaboration industry after a 20-year hiatus, after a successful career in enterprise sales. Reed’s managed enterprise sales, channel management, marketing and customer service teams for Software-as-a-Service organizations, including startups such as Aspect Software and Voxeo, and Fortune 500 companies like Cisco and VTEL. His experience includes sales management and customer advocacy, while boasting large YoY growth in many global markets. Reed's approach to leading organizations is twofold: He first tries to understand the customer’s business needs, and then develops a unique solution for each customer.

Guillermo Gonzalez King

CEO, MexicoIT

As of February 2014, Guillermo Gonzalez King became CEO for MexicoIT, an industry program operated by Mexico's National Chamber of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technologies, in a coordinated effort with the country's Federal Ministry of Economy. Before joining MexicoIT, Gonzalez King held several positions in ProMexico, Mexico's Investment Promotion Agency and the Ministry of Economy. He has more than 15 years’ experience in project management for private firms. Gonzalez King is an international business graduate and has pursued postgraduate studies in international trade, project management and agribusiness.

Tara Seppa

Azure Solutions Director, U.S. Midmarket, Microsoft

Tara Seppa is responsible for setting and executing the Azure sales strategy for the midmarket customer segment. On top of carrying revenue and quota responsibility, Seppa works directly with customers and partners, advising them with regard to their plans to adopt and sell cloud solutions. She also spends time researching, writing and tweeting about cloud-based technologies, and delivering presentations at seminars and industry conferences. Before this role, Seppa spent five years living and working in Central and Eastern Europe where she most recently held the role of Azure business development manager for the emerging and highly dynamic market of more than 30 countries, 20 languages and 15 currencies.

Julian Martin

Vice President, Business Development, Mimecast

Julian Martin is responsible for developing and managing the company’s alliances with organizations such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Nuix and Binary Tree. He joined Mimecast in 2008 to build the channel and supporting partner program for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. In 2012, he moved his family to the U.S. to be 100 percent focused on aiding the growth and development of the North American business.

Sam V. Kumar

Founder and President, NewCloud Networks

Sam Kumar has 30 years of executive management and technical experience and is focused on establishing an effective corporate growth strategy, expanding the national NewCloud network, and developing a management team that delivers superior operational and sales efficiency. Before NewCloud, Kumar was a design engineer in technology research and development for GTE (Verizon). Kumar is acting board member for TiE Rockies and an industry adviser for Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network (BEN). He received his Master of Science in electrical engineering from Arizona State University.

Chris McCall

Senior Vice President, Marketing, NexGen

Chris McCall has more than 15 years of data management marketing experience, ranging from product management to demand generation and communication. Before NexGen, McCall held positions at Hewlett-Packard, LeftHand Networks, Fusion-io and SanDisk. Throughout his career, McCall has focused on midmarket technologies and bringing products to midmarket customers that resolve major IT challenges cost-effectively and simply. McCall has a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from North Dakota State University and a Master of Business Administration from Seattle University.

Robert Janssen

CEO, Outsource Brazil

Outsource Brazil, an international business development advisory and startup accelerator, is focused on providing tailored intelligence and execution for companies and startups wanting to establish profitable businesses and forge alliances to penetrate international markets. He leads Outsource Brazil’s accelerator business unit, in both Brazil and the United States, which is part of the Startup Brasil program sponsored by the federal government. He also holds a seat on the steering committee for Rio’s state government entrepreneurship foster program, Startup Rio. Janssen was recently appointed international relations vice president of the largest IT association in Brazil, Assespro, responsible for innovation, internationalization and investments.

Christof Majer

Vice President, Global Partner Sales, Qlik

Christof Majer has been leading channel sales and partner program development in hyper-growth software companies for 16 years, with IPO experience and transition management across a variety of organizations. Throughout his international career in mature and emerging software markets he has formed innovative go-to-market programs with and for channel partners, enabling partners for extensive growth. During his seven-year tenure at Qlik, Majer has played a key role in the Qlik partner program development and its market leader position as a partner-centric sales organization. Majer today leads Qlik's global channel and OEM business and Qlik's partner program, supporting 1,700 partners across 100 countries.

Scott Barlow

Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Reflexion (a Sophos Company)

Scott Barlow is an accomplished channel sales and marketing executive with an extensive record of achievement in revenue growth, channel leadership and international business development. At Reflexion, he and his team have recruited 5,000 solution provider partners across 55 countries and established major distribution, OEM and strategic relationships, building a base of more than 20,000 customers around the world. Barlow also guides the product road map for Reflexion’s flagship product, Reflexion Total Control, ensuring that it is closely aligned with the requirements of solution providers and their clients. An industry recognized channel chief and IPED channel master, he holds a Master in Business Administration and a Master of Science in geophysics from Boston College.

Hari Candadai

Global Vice President, Product Strategy, Rimini Street

Hari Candadai is a seasoned marketing professional with more than 18 years' experience in global product marketing and corporate marketing management. He has a proven ability in developing highly differentiated market positioning and messaging, successful go-to-market strategies and competitive leadership plans. Candadai's skilled in building strong customer relationships, references and optimal cross-functional partnerships.

Ron Gill

Vice President-Americas, Enterprise Sales, Ruckus Wireless

As vice president of Enterprise Sales, Ron Gill leads Ruckus Wireless sales efforts in the Americas. Gill joined Ruckus in 2008, and brings more than 20 years of experience leading sales organizations that sell wired and wireless network solutions. Before joining Ruckus, Gill held similar roles at Tropos Networks and Alvarion Inc., two early innovators in wireless networking. In the 1990s, he led worldwide sales for Asante Technologies. Gill has a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from San Diego State University.

Rodolpho Cardenuto

President, Global Partner Operations, SAP SE

Rodolpho Cardenuto was appointed president of global partner operations at SAP in May 2014. He is responsible for driving SAP board-sponsored initiatives through strategic SAP partners and accelerating the company's growth through new and existing sales channels worldwide. Cardenuto was previously president of SAP Americas (January 2013 to May 2014). Before that, he was leading the SAP Latin America and Caribbean region and delivered double-digit growth for 14 consecutive quarters. Before joining SAP, he spent 17 years at Hewlett-Packard in leadership roles, including sales management and GM in Brazil and leading the industries, partners and SME business in Latin America.

Annette Green

Vice President, Commercial Business Unit, SAS

Annette Green leads the business and strategic operations of the commercial organization within the SAS Americas sales division. As vice president, Green has profit and loss responsibility for a business unit focused on key enterprise accounts in a portfolio of verticals and the SMB go-to-market strategy and operating plan for both field and inside sales. She has been with SAS for 25 years, achieving increasing levels of responsibility within marketing and sales management. Green earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from North Carolina State University and completed graduate studies in the School of Management Sciences.

Jason Collier

Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder, Scale Computing

Jason Collier is responsible for the technology vision of scale computing. Previously, Collier was vice president of technical operations at Corvigo, where he oversaw sales engineering, technical support, internal IT and data center operations. Before Corvigo, Colllier was vice president of information technology and infrastructure at Radiate. There he architected and oversaw the deployment of the entire Radiate ad-network infrastructure, scaling it from less than 1 million transactions per month when he started to more than 300 million at its peak.

Mark Roberts

Chief Market Officer, ShoreTel

Mark Roberts joined ShoreTel in December 2013 as chief marketing officer, bringing 20 years of technology sales, marketing and product management experience. Roberts has spent most of his career at technology companies, holding senior positions at Mitel, NexTraq, Polycom, 3Com and Intel.

Derek Dal Ponte

Director, Channel Marketing, Silver Peak

Derek Dal Ponte is a Silicon Valley marketing veteran, with more than 20 years of experience designing, developing and managing global channels. He is driven by a passion for partnering and often serves as the voice of the channel. He has earned a reputation as an innovative marketing professional, fire jumper and all-around problem solver who has helped multiple companies such as NetApp and Adaptec ascend to hero status in their markets. Dal Ponte and his team are building a partner program to empower partners to take the newly announced Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect solution to market to enable midmarket customers to quickly and easily deploy a new SD-WAN solution.

Doron Kempel

CEO and Chairman, SimpliVity

Doron Kempel is the founder and CEO of SimpliVity, a provider of hyper-converged infrastructure. Before starting SimpliVity, Kempel was the founder and CEO of Diligent Technologies, a pioneer in enterprise data deduplication. Diligent was acquired by IBM in April 2008. Before Diligent, Doron served as vice president and general manager at EMC. Before joining EMC, Doron was vice president of sales and marketing at Imedia Corp., a pioneer in digital video distribution. Imedia was acquired by Terayon Communications Systems. Doron holds law and philosophy degrees, as well as a master's in business administration from Harvard University.

Mike Valentine

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Sophos

Michael Valentine joined Sophos in 2013. He is responsible for the company’s global sales and channel organization. With more than 20 years of senior sales and channel experience at global IT security companies, Valentine is a recognized and respected sales executive. Before joining Fortinet, he held senior sales positions at both SonicWall and WatchGuard Technologies, as well as senior sales positions at Panasonic. Valentine has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from the University of Texas, Arlington.

Charlie Grieco

Vice President, North American Sales, SOTI

Charlie Grieco's leadership and strategic approach have been pivotal in growing sales of SOTI’s industry-leading mobility management solution, MobiControl, by more than 50 percent year over year in 2015. Previously, Grieco was director of enterprise mobility solutions architecture at Dell, where he drove Dell’s mobility strategy. Before that, Grieco held senior positions in software and services sales at Dell. Before Dell, Grieco was senior service sales manager for the Americas and before that, director of system support engineering for Canada at SGI.

Curt James

Co-founder and Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, StorageCraft

Curt James is a co-founder of backup and disaster recovery solution provider StorageCraft, where he serves as vice president of marketing and business development. Since StorageCraft’s founding in 2003, he has provided direction for channel programs, branding, advertising and marketing programs. Before StorageCraft, James spent 18 years in various roles at PowerQuest Corporation, Lineo, Novell and General Dynamics. His breadth of experience also includes living and working in the Asia/Pacific region. He has a master's degree in business administration from National University and a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University, where he majored in international marketing and had a minor in Japanese.

John Belle

Vice President, Americas Commercial Sales, Symantec, Veritas Division

As Symantec's vice president of commercial sales and renewals, John Bell leads more than 280 midmarket-focused salespeople across North and South America. In this role, he focuses on improving the customer and partner experience within the midmarket, building ways to align the company's solutions to customer business needs and creating lasting lifetime customer value. Belle drives alignment between sales, marketing, operations and development within Symantec to ensure that the company's offerings are developed and brought to market with midsize customers in mind. Before his current role, Belle led various Symantec channel and inside sales organizations aimed at the midmarket.

James Moon

CEO, TechMedics

James Moon has always been excited by working with computers, and often recalls how excited he was to get his first computer, an Apple IIe. It was 1983, the beginning of the personal computer revolution. As technology advanced, so did his interest in computers. Shortly after finishing his degree at the University of Southern California, he started his first full-time job, where he was assigned the responsibility of connecting two computers to share data: his first network setup and the beginning of his IT career. By then, personal computers had become mainstream business tools. In 1996, he began working for Pacific Enterprises/Sempra Energy as a network administrator. His responsibilities extended to leading enterprise projects in addition to managing day-to-day support. In 2000, Moon left Sempra to focus full-time on TechMedics.

Patrick Mani

Vice President, Corporate and Business Channel Sales, Toshiba America Information Systems

Patrick Mani is responsible for developing the global sales and management strategy for both channel and corporate global business sales. He oversees sales for the division’s product line, which includes traditional notebook computers, tablets, workstations, convertibles, detachables and a wide variety of accessories. Mani has 26 years of tech sales and management experience and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from George Mason University.

Janet Schijns

MarTech Chief, Vice President, Verizon Enterprise Solutions

Janet Schijns and her team are responsible for understanding customer segment technology issues worldwide, identifying key enterprise solutions that meet their business needs and generating demand for Verizon solutions. Schijns previously served as vice president of corporate, medium and indirect marketing. While in this role, she launched the award-winning Verizon Partner Program (VPP). She joined Verizon in 2010 as vice president of business solutions for Verizon Wireless. Before joining Verizon, she held a variety of leadership roles at Motorola Solutions and The JS Group. Schijns is dedicated to diversity leadership advancement and is a lifelong advocate of STEM careers for women.

Brandon Sweeney

Vice President, North America Commercial Segment, VMware

Brandon Sweeney is responsible for both customer acquisition and serving existing customers in the commercial and SMB segments as well as overseeing the Americas inside sales and partner ecosystem. In addition to managing day-to-day business operations, Sweeney leads and develops the overall business strategy for the segment. Sweeney previously led VMware’s Americas partner organization, with responsibility for revenue and market share across all partner routes to market. Before joining VMware in 2004, he held a variety of roles at Click Commerce, Morgan Stanley and IBM.

Mike Salem

CEO, Vorex

Mike Salem is the CEO and founder of Vorex Inc., a leader in cloud-based business management solutions that combine project management and professional services automation (PSA) tools for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) and IT service providers. After more than 20 years working in project management, professional services automation and IT solutions for large enterprises, Salem saw a need for similar solutions that helped SMBs manage their core operations more efficiently while also being cost-effective. Salem founded Vorex in 2007 to fill this gap using his extensive insight and expertise in business management software.

Patrick Kennedy

Vice President, Enterprise Marketing and Analyst Relations, Webroot

As a 20-year-plus veteran in the technology sector, Patrick Kennedy has had roles at several global technology leaders such as Intuit, 3Com and Symantec. Kennedy has been responsible for the market introduction of multiple high-profile products, including Webroot SecureAnywhere and Norton Internet Security. He is also a security evangelist, and has promoted the importance of smarter threat intelligence for big-data architecture at a number of security forums during the past year, including the SANS Cyber Threat Intelligence Summit 2015.

John Corley

President, Channel Partner Operations, Xerox

John Corley was named to his current position in September 2014. Corley previously served as senior vice president and general manager, Canadian operations, for Xerox Canada. He was responsible for the sales of all document technology services and solutions across all channels in Canada. Before that, Corley led marketing strategy for Xerox North America and was responsible for the development of go-to-market strategies across all its channels and market segments. He joined Xerox in 1994 as a sales representative in Toronto.