2016 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers

Rising Stars

CRN's annual Women of the Channel highlights the accomplishments of female executives within vendor, distribution, and solution provider organizations, and the impact they are having on the advancement of the IT channel. For the third year in a row, the project will give special recognition to rising-star female executives.

Here we present the 2016 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers. For more Women of the Channel coverage, check out our Power 100 lists (Part One and Part Two) and our Power 30 Solution Providers. You can also check out the full listing of the 2016 Women of the Channel.

Meredith Caram

AT&T

Executive Director of Strategic Reach, AT&T Partner Exchange

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 5

Caram is reponsible for identifying and developing new relationships with solution providers that would be a great fit in Partner Exchange. To date she and her team have recruited more than 450 solution providers across the country.

Tania Darzi

Axcient

Field and Partner Marketing Manager

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 4

Darzi hosted events for Axcient executives and partners to engage and collaborate. She also revamped the partner program in keeping with channel community needs by simplifying the tier system and creating incentives.

Berinda Post

Brocade

Director, Channel Sales

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 5

Post coaches her team to be highly visible within partners and more and more tactical in their sales approach with them. She tasks them to take on the role of bringing new customers and opportunities to partners and to work hand-in-hand to identify new ways to break through and find new business.

Emalee Sugano

CharTec

Business Strategy Manager

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 4

Sugano launched Strategy Sessions for Members, and through analysis and goal-setting derives a 12-month plan that outlines their sales, marketing and business challenges and includes a guide on how to solve them.

Heather Collins

Cisco Systems

Director, Partner Sales

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 5

Collins oversees public sector federal systems integrators, who have a different business model than VARs. She has crafted strategies and initiatives to better align to these federal systems integrators models and improved partner satisfaction.

Jennifer Krystofiak

Citrix Systems

Senior Manager, Worldwide Channel Development

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 10

Over the past year, Krystofiak and her team evolved the roles and responsibilities of the people focused on Citrix's top partners, shifiting their role to help drive partners to source and qualify opportunities in untapped markets.

Lindsay Dick

Collabrance LLC

Director of Sales

Years in Position: 5

Years in Channel: 8

Dick has helped solidify channel and industry leader partnerships and worked on team engagement projects and internal process improvement. She also helped create the company's brand and go-to-market strategy.

Jennifer McAuliffe

Datawatch

Vice President, Strategic Global Alliances

Years in Position: 1.25

Years in Channel: 6

McAuliffe was hired to devise and launch Datawatch's formal channel program, making a 20-year-old legacy business consumable for the channel. She has since established the overall partner business strategy and set sales targets and a go-to-market plan.

Erica Mikulsky

Eaton

Channel Marketing Manager

Years in Position: 4

Years in Channel: 10

This year Mikulsky has been part of a team responsible for launching Eaton's IPM Online Certification Training Modules as well as helping to drive the messaging surrounding software-defined power into the channel.

Maureen Gaumer

EMC

Director, US Field and Partner Marketing

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 5

Gaumer furthered EMC's channel business through actively engaging partners through the Americas Partner Advisory Board and the Global Partner Summit to hear about their priorities. She also collaborated with teams across the marketing organization.

Melanie Holterhoff

F5 Networks

Sr WW Channel Marketing Manager

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 13

In the first six months after being promoted to a global role, Holterhoff launched several marketing resources through F5's Partner Portal, including Campaigns in a Box for demand generation and Webpage in a Box.

Cindy Grogan

Flexera Software

Global VP, Alliances and Channels

Years in Position: 2.5

Years in Channel: 13

Flexera has a strong alliances and channel team and executive support to grow this portion of the business. Grogan is building out a certification program and added dedicated partner enablement managers to help partners with implementations.

Katie Meckel

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Director, WW Partner Sales Engagement

Years in Position: 0

Years in Channel: 6

During the HP separation, Meckel and her team made positive changes for partners, including the migration to the pan-HPE Partner Ready Portal, which boosts productivity.

Wendy Mace

IndependenceIT

Director of Operations

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 3

Mace helped drive a number of initiatives to deliver a better overall partner experience. She took every opportunity to remove technical- and process-driven roadblocks by educating partners so they can leverage the company's software platform successfully.

Regan Ogner

Intel Security

Head of Global Channel Marketing

Years in Position: 0.5

Years in Channel: 16

Ogner and her team focused strategic investments on key partners via marketing development funds. She has created marketing campaign kits for channel partners to customize and incorporate into their marketing efforts.

Jennifer Ambrose

MobileIron

Director, Americas Field and Partner Marketing

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 11

Ambrose introduced a formal MDF program to the North American channel team, attaining 100 percent utilization, driving new leads and pipeline for the company, and contributing to revenue growth with top partners.

Shannon Kinnan

Nimble Storage

Manager, Global Distribution

Years in Position: 1.5

Years in Channel: 11

Kinnan has worked to increase the awareness of the value distribution partners bring to Nimble's 100 percent channel model. She has increased the focus on specific initiatives that help partners close sales and worry less about logistics.

Monique Rezaei

Polycom

National Channel Manager

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 6

Managing one of Polycom's largest Platinum partners, Rezaei grew revenue more than 22 percent year over year for the past three years by developing strategic partner programs and enablement initiatives and aligning goals at both Polycom and the partner.

Bridget Winston

ShoreTel

Director: Partner Business Management

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 15

Winston focused her energy on helping VARs expand their offerings to include ShoreTel cloud solutions. The VAR community is now the main source of revenue in its premises business as well as the leading force in its cloud services business.

Justine Lewis

Sophos

Vice President, Worldwide Field and Channel Marketing

Years in Position: 3.5

Years in Channel: 9

Sophos is heavily channel-focused, and Lewis steered the investment of time and marketing budgets with channel partners to help create more business, opportunity and impact. Sophos has expanded partnerships worldwide.

Meredith Bankenstein

ThreatTrack Security

Channel Marketing Manager

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 8

Bankenstein and the new director of channels worked to restructure ThreatTrack's channel program, creating a multilayered partner program that helps build more trusted relationships and enable to the company to deliver the right tools and support.

Gena Phelps

Tintri

Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 10

Phelps joined forces with the marketing and partner sales teams to develop new offerings with the goal of transforming Tintri into a channel company, not just one that sells through the channel. The program now offers clear benefits and strong business incentives.

Laura Davis

VMware

Sr. Director, Public Sector Partners

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 4

As the leader of the Public Sector Partner Organization, Davis developed and executed against a partner strategy specific to that market. She worked closely with channel leaders to integrate the company's products and services into their business.