Top 50 Midmarket IT Vendor Executives

Leading The Way: The Top 50 Midmarket Vendor Executives

This inaugural list highlights the IT industry's most influential vendor executives who serve midmarket and midsize customers. This list was conceived to put a spotlight on the professionals driving one of the most important customer segments in the industry today. These executives were nominated by peers, colleagues, customers and partners because of the strong relationships they have built with midmarket customers, for their leadership, strategic thinking and solution excellence they demonstrate. Many of the executives on the list appeared at the Midsize Enterprise Summit West in Phoenix, Ariz. this week where it was unveiled.

8x8 Inc., Don Trimble, Vice President, North American Sales

Don Trimble is an industry veteran who has been serving the midmarket IT business for 25 years. He has been in his current role at 8x8, Inc., which focuses on VoIP and cloud-based unified communications, for the past three years. Trimble's decade-long experience working with top technology companies and partners to bring innovative solutions to the market is the cause for his nomination. He has robust knowledge of the partner business model and has built strong relationships with members of the midmarket IT community.

AirWatch, Gavin Harris, Director of Midmarket Sales

Gavin Harris has been driving midmarket IT sales for the past 15 years and is currently the director of midmarket sales at AirWatch -- a mobile device, application and content management solution provider that serves hundreds of midmarket customers. During Harris' four years at AirWatch, he has led its midmarket sales team to tremendous growth. His leadership and expertise have helped his sales team secure thousands of new midmarket customers. The time and research that Gavin dedicates to midmarket companies demonstrates his commitment to the industry, and it sets an example for his team to follow.

Astute Networks, Ted Lesinsky, Vice President of Sales

Ted Lesinsky, a one-year newcomer to Astute Networks, is no stranger to the industry. Serving the midmarket IT business for 10 years, Lesinsky now drives midmarket sales for Astute -- a performance storage appliance company known for its VISX family of flash-based technology. Lesinsky is highlighted for his continued vision, performance and exemplary dedication to the midmarket.

Axcient, Justin Moore, CEO and Co-Founder

Justin Moore has guided Axcient to being one of America's fastest-growing companies with annual revenue of $17 million. It is a disaster recovery and business continuity company dedicated to the SMB market. Moore has been in the midmarket IT business for six years and in his current role at Axcient for the past five years. The idea for Axcient came to him after he experienced a large data loss while preparing a presentation for a previous business. His vision, led by his understanding of the market need, is what sets him apart from his peers.

Barracuda Networks, Michael Hughes, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales

Michael Hughes has been in the midmarket IT business for 14 years and in his current role at Barracuda Networks, a provider of security, storage, application delivery and data protection, for the past four years. Hughes has exhibited exceptional leadership in developing Barracuda's worldwide sales organization. Aside from his commitment to customers, he has also mentored team members so they can successfully reach their personal career goals. The time and research that Hughes dedicates to midmarket companies demonstrates his commitment to the industry and sets an example for his team to follow.

Birst Inc., Brad Peters, CEO

With a total of 20 years in the midmarket IT industry, Brad Peters joined Birst, which offers a cloud-based business intelligence platform, in 2003. Peters and his team at Birst focus on midmarket customers and are dedicated to providing solutions that solve challenges around people, budget and time. His leadership and vision have resulted in an innovative solution for customers in the midmarket to gain significant competitive advantage. Birst's customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and overall market reputation are all stellar, which is a true testament of its leadership from Peters.

Cisco, David Tucker, Vice President, Midmarket and Emerging Collaboration

David Tucker has been in his current role driving midmarket sales at industry titan Cisco for the past year, although he has been in the industry for eight. Leading a company like Cisco, the leading networking solutions provider with annual company revenue of $46 billion, certainly takes a strong leader like Tucker. He is a founding member of the $1 billion collaboration business, and he led a team to create the first IP PBX over a decade ago. In his current role leading midmarket collaboration strategy, he is leading a team that spans several different businesses at Cisco, challenging people to collaborate on one cohesive midmarket offering.

Condusiv Technologies, Jerry Baldwin, CEO

Jerry Baldwin is a well-known industry executive with over 20 years in the midmarket IT business. He has been in his current role as CEO at Condusiv for the past two years. Condusiv, a developer of high-performance software, focuses its attention on the midmarket to help CIOs more efficiently access data and improve application and system performance. Baldwin's leadership has transformed Condusiv from a legacy software manufacturing company into a high-value thought-leader delivering products that help midmarket CIOs achieve their goals. He is truly a change agent whose visions are realized.

Datto Inc., Austin McChord, Founder and CEO

Austin McChord founded Datto, a backup, disaster recovery and intelligent business continuity software provider, in 2007. He has led Datto to four consecutive years of 300 percent year-over-year growth, landing Datto a place on the 2012 Inc. 500 list as the No. 38 fastest growing private company in the U.S. and the No. 1 fastest growing company in backup and security. His genuine love for technology and goal to bring the midmarket the best products and services make him a charter member of the midmarket IT community. His loyalty to the Datto Partner community and the channel has created not only a reputation of superior technology and service but also partnerships that work together to enhance businesses all over the world.

Dell SecureWorks, Jeff Multz, Director, North American Midmarket Sales

Jeff Multz, a 28-year veteran of the midmarket IT business, has been leading midmarket IT sales for Dell SecureWorks for the past 10 years. Dell SecureWorks offers managed security, threat intelligence, incident response services and security and risk consulting; Multz's laser-like focus on the midmarket helps to tailor these solutions to the needs of midmarket IT executives. He is a strong and respected leader with an unrelenting focus on the midmarket and a deep understanding of the security threat landscape.

Eaton, Herve Tardy, Vice President and General Manager, Distributed Power Services

Herve Tardy has led Eaton's distributed power services business for the past six years, although he has been in the midmarket IT industry for a total of 28 years. Eaton, a large power management company with revenue of $21 billion, gains approximately 70 percent of its business from midmarket sales with leadership from Tardy. Tardy was previously honored by CRN as one of the Top 25 Channel Sales Leaders of 2012 as part of CRN's annual list of Top 100 Executives, and he has played a key role in forging new partnerships for Eaton.

EMC, Richard Napolitano, President, Unified Storage Division

Richard Napolitano has been driving sales in the midmarket IT business for 30 years, seven of which have been at EMC, a $22 billion unified storage provider. He continually provides motivation and inspiration among his team at EMC to drive performance excellence across his organization. His leadership serves as the role model for the entire business unit to follow as he challenges and inspires employees to take greater ownership and pride in their work. Napolitano's commitment to his vision for the midmarket has yielded products and solutions that have stayed steps ahead of customer needs.

Fiberlink, Christopher Clark, President and COO

Christopher Clark, a 20-year industry veteran with 10 years in his current role, is interested in ensuring that the midmarket gets the same level of service and product features as the Fortune 500. This is reflected in both the corporate culture at Fiberlink as well as its MaaS360 product pricing and strategy. He is always pushing Fiberlink employees to innovate, and it's that drive that allows each and every person in the company to take part in helping to shape its technology.

Fortinet, Bryan Wood, Vice President, U.S. Channels and Midmarket Sales

Bryan Wood has been in his current role at Fortinet, a network security appliance and unified threat management provider with revenue of $602 million, for six out of the 10 years he has been in the IT industry. Wood launched the new MSSP partner program for Fortinet and broke records by securing 20 new partners in 31 days. His excellent work helped secure Fortinet both CRN Annual Report Card (ARC) and Business Solutions Best Channel Vendor 2013 awards, which recognized Fortinet for support, partnership, margins and channel friendliness.

Halo Business Intelligence, Ray Major, President and CEO

Ray Major certainly caters to the midmarket, as approximately 80 percent of Halo BI's business comes from midsize organizations. With three years under his belt at Halo BI, which offers an enterprise-class business intelligence and analytics software platform, Major brings first-hand expertise on serving midmarket organizations. As a former senior vice president in a midsized organization for more than a decade, he understands the challenges companies face better than most and has a personal drive to deliver products that are real solutions. He spends a considerable amount of time talking to customers, discussing their needs and challenges, which may be attributed to his origins as an educator.

Hewlett-Packard, Aaron Mills, Vice President, U.S. Midsize Commercial and Inside Sales

Aaron Mills has been serving the midmarket IT business for eight years and has been in his current role at HP, the technology giant with annual revenue of $115 billion, for the past two years. With approximately 60 percent of its business from midmarket sales, HP has a broad portfolio of midmarket solutions all designed to drive bottom line benefits for CIOs and help them innovate for success. Mills is a huge advocate of the midsized-enterprise, making himself available through his constant presence and contributions. His vision, passion and reputation with midmarket customers have generated a level of trust and loyalty that is rare in the technology industry.

IBM, Judy Smolski, Vice President, Midmarket, IBM North America
IBM, Amy Lewis, WW Sales Executive Business Analytics Midmarket

IBM has two outstanding executives for this year's list, and given the size and scope of IBM, we're honoring both individuals. Judy Smolski (pictured left) and Amy Lewis (right), both focus on addressing the needs of IBM's midmarket customers and growing that customer base. Smolski, responsible for North America midmarket hardware, software and services sales, has never wavered from her assertion that midmarket clients need the same capabilities and support as IBM's largest customers. Her passion and commitment for midmarket companies is clear, as for more than 39 years she has dedicated her career to advocating for their requirements. Lewis, who leads worldwide midmarket business analytics, is responsible for developing and executing a go-to-market model that successfully supports midmarket business analytics hyper-growth. Known for her knowledge and expertise in the business analytics portfolio, she has established herself as a consistent voice of the midmarket for IBM and is a key driver for the midmarket across several divisions.

Igloo Software, Dan Latendre, CEO

Igloo software is a hosted solution that brings together content and conversation in one unified environment and is uniquely fitted for midmarket customers. Approximately 90 percent of Igloo's business comes from midmarket sales. Dan Latendre brought his 25 years of midmarket IT experience to the Igloo team five years ago, and he has helped enhance the company's growth. His leadership and passionate entrepreneurial spirit is visible in his work efforts whether by participating in product meetings or in marketing meetings, Latendre's hands-on approach has allowed the company to evolve dramatically as a leader in the social business industry.

Imperva, Dan Carcone, Director Midmarket Cloud Sales and Channel

With 20 years of midmarket IT experience, six of which have been at Imperva, Dan Carcone has made his mark in the midmarket IT space by showing model leadership and excellence. Imperva, a data center security solutions company, caters to midmarket customers and their challenges.

Information Builders, Gerald Cohen, President and CEO

Gerald Cohen has led Information Builders, a business intelligence software solutions company, for 38 years since he founded the company in 1975, and he has consistently guided the company and its employees to strive for success in the midmarket. He has always stated that innovation is the foundation of success, and although the software business has undergone dramatic shifts in the past five decades, his focus on innovating within Information Builders is a primary reason for the company's growth, especially in the area of midmarket sales. Information Builders is one of the largest independent, privately held companies in the software industry.

Interneer, Romeo Elias, Founder, President and CEO

Interneer is a new generation business process management software provider founded by Romeo Elias, who has been in the midmarket IT industry for 15 years. Elias' leadership has helped Interneer grow, and his dedication to deliver the best business process management solutions for midmarket clients and partners has allowed Interneer to strive to become the best BPM product specifically geared for midmarket. With over 50 percent of the company's business coming from midmarket sales, Elias certainly knows how to meet the needs of midmarket CIOs.

Ipswitch Inc., Ennio Carboni, President, Network Management Division

As a business leader, Ennio Carboni practices what he preaches and has contributed to a company that is fulfilling its mission to serve the midmarket. Carboni believes Ipswitch's success in the midmarket is due to selling products at value price, marketing them at a genuine emotional level and selling through licensing models and channel partners to make sure they are affordable. His goal is to make IT executives' jobs easier. With 25 years in the business, nine of which have been at Ipswitch -- best known for WhatsUp Gold- -- his commitment to the midmarket and its customers is stronger than ever.

Juniper Networks, David Helfer, Vice President of World Wide Commercial Sales

During his 13-year tenure at Juniper Networks, David Helfer held positions from regional sales to leading global channels, residing in various areas around the world. This global perspective allowed him to meet customers and partners from dozens of regions worldwide who share both similar as well as unique challenges and business objectives. Through partner enablement and product development, Helfer has helped Juniper demonstrate midmarket leadership.

Kaspersky Lab, Jim Sullivan, Director of North American Channel Sales

Jim Sullivan has been a leader in the IT security field for seven years. His team is having a big impact on Kaspersky's growth and momentum in the midmarket space. Along with his passion for IT, he is fanatical about sales effectiveness and enablement. He coaches midmarket sales reps at Kaspersky on strategic territory and account planning, how to engage prospects, and how to align the Kaspersky value proposition with the needs and business objectives of the customer. His dedication and commitment to enabling sales reps reach their highest potential is infectious, and he has helped Kaspersky reach record-breaking midmarket sales levels in 2013.

LifeSize, Ray Villareal, Vice President, Americas and General Manager, Global Services

Ray Villareal, a 20-year midmarket IT industry veteran, recently joined LifeSize, a midmarket-focused provider of high-definition video collaboration. He has led and maintained LifeSize's U.S. sales and services organization over the past year, and he's inspired them to deliver on the LifeSize Smart Video promise. Customer satisfaction from LifeSize's midmarket customers has never been more evident, with over 100 customer success stories on its company website. He demands success from his team to ensure they deliver the highest quality of experience throughout the sales process.

MegaPath, Dan Foster, President

MegaPath's midmarket services help organizations grow their business while increasing productivity and ROI, and Dan Foster's core focus on midmarket customer success at the executive level has helped it do just that over the past 12 years. Going well beyond customer satisfaction, Foster is engrained in nurturing the customer experience. Speaking to Foster's focus on customer success, he has guided MegaPath to innovate solutions that enable midmarket customers to not only address the business challenges of today, but those of the future as well.

Microsoft, Efrem Stringfellow, Regional Vice President, Corporate Accounts

With 26 years of experience in the midmarket IT business, Efrem Stringfellow joined industry giant Microsoft two years ago, in part, to strengthen the company's midmarket focus. Stringfellow is an experienced leader in the high-tech industry currently overseeing Microsoft's central region, which is rich with midmarket companies. His performance metrics include more than $1 billion in annual revenue for Microsoft products along with the development of a strong partner ecosystem and the growth of Microsoft's software market share, as well as increased customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, marketing effectiveness and community relations.

MicroStrategy, Deron Miller, Senior Vice President of American Sales

As MicroStrategy's senior vice president of sales for the Americas, Deron Miller is a driving force in accelerating the company's strategy and presence in the SMB market, leveraging both direct and indirect channels to provide BI, analytics and mobile platform solutions to midmarket organizations in various industries and markets. Miller has served midmarket IT customers for almost 30 years and is concentrated on meeting their needs and fighting their challenges

NEC Corporation of America, Kevin Hooper, Senior Vice President

Kevin Hooper brought a wealth of experience and expertise in the midmarket industry when he joined NEC in 2012. He understands the unique challenges and issues that midmarket executives face every day and brings a deep knowledge of what solutions work best in this market segment. His knowledge and experiences along with NEC's long history of delivering reliable and robust products and services combine to deliver solutions well suited to meet midmarket executives' business requirements. He has been in the industry for 20 years and is undoubtedly a true midmarket leader.

NetApp, Ernesto China, Director, Global Midsize Business Marketing

Under Ernesto China's global marketing leadership, NetApp's midsize business program has grown to be a significant 30 percent of NetApp's overall business over the past four years. This rapid growth has enabled NetApp to become a market share leader for networked storage systems under $40,000. With China's help, NetApp has outpaced the market and competitors with double-digit year-over-year growth. Over the last year, NetApp midmarket products and solutions have also been recognized as leaders in this segment, and China's leadership has helped the company cater to midmarket needs.

Oracle, Daniel Freund, Group Vice President

Daniel Freund, 18-year industry veteran, leads the entire North American inside sales and services organizations across Oracle's technology, business intelligence, middleware and hardware product groups. Freund has established an innovative, hub-based inside sales and service organization structure specifically supporting Oracle's North American midsized customers. These dedicated sales teams led by Freund are focused on the breadth of Oracle's midsize customer offering, and they deliver a high volume of midmarket business with hundreds of entities per quarter. This innovative sales structure and Freund’s leadership have ultimately led to significant year-over- year growth for the past five years during his tenure at Oracle, a technology giant with annual revenue over $36 billion.

PM Solutions, J. Kent Crawford, Founder and CEO

J. Kent Crawford founded PM Solutions, a project management consulting firm that helps mid-size IT leaders deliver key transformational initiatives and demonstrate value to the business. He has spent 30 years in the midmarket IT business and has gained respect as both an influential member of the project management community and a thought leader. Crawford has infused PM Solutions with dynamic leadership, vision and spirit. Under his guidance, PM Solutions spearheaded numerous innovations, including the creation of a unique research program that has contributed over a dozen significant studies to identify project management best practices and trends.

Polycom, Jim Kruger, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President

Jim Kruger is a member of the Polycom Office of Strategy and Technology -- a cross-functional team that champions deep understanding and strategic representation of midmarket customer needs. In this role, Kruger and team are responsible for Polycom's product road map prioritization and differentiation, concept to market, and strategic direction and vision. Polycom's midmarket portfolio offers affordable and easy-to-use video collaboration solutions specifically built for midsized businesses, and Kruger's 18-year industry experience enhances the $1 billion company's understanding of the midmarket.

ProfitBricks Inc., Robert Rizika, CEO

Bob Rizika brings more than 25 years of experience to the cloud computing industry. His expertise is in leading and building successful technology companies in infrastructure, content distribution and mobile industries, all of which enable him to drive leadership in the U.S. midmarket-focused operations of the company. His vision for service excellence extends from the pre-sales educational efforts that ProfitBricks undertakes to post sales where engineers with specialties in networking, storage, operating systems, data center management and more strive to provide consistent high-performing and reliable service. Today, 35 percent of ProfitBricks' business comes from midmarket sales, and the company saw 100 percent growth in midmarket sales from last year.

Red Hat, Roger Egan, Vice President of North American Channel Sales and Development

Roger Egan's leadership has contributed to the growth Red Hat has recently experienced. With over $1.3 billion in company revenue, Red Hat has made a large investment in the midmarket customer segment and has a sales force in North America dedicated to working with its partners to grow that customer segment. Red Hat's open source products and solutions help midmarket customers drive down costs, and Egan's 10-year stint in the midmarket IT business has helped shape the way the company serves the midmarket IT customer segment.

Reflexion Networks, Scott Barlow, Vice President of Sales

From an overall corporate point of view, perhaps the most innovative thing that Reflexion does to ensure support for its midmarket customers is to have its vice president of sales also serve as product manager for all of its hosted services. Combining that with Scott Barlow's 12 years of experience in the midmarket IT business makes for a model solution for midmarket IT executives.

Ruckus Wireless, Ron Gill, Vice President-Americas Enterprise Sales

Ron Gill has excelled in growing and nurturing the Ruckus channel in the midmarket, consistently helping the company add a significant amount of new partners year after year and leading the company's efforts to help keep partners productive and successful for their mutual clients. His leadership and 22-year experience in the midmarket IT business have a direct impact on helping Ruckus increase both its market position and revenue in the enterprise WLAN market. With 67 percent of its business coming form midmarket IT sales, Gill has helped this supplier of advanced wireless services become a beacon of excellence in the midmarket.

Samsung Electronics America, Tod Pike, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Business Division

Tod Pike's 35-year legacy in the midmarket IT business brings a wealth of business-to-business sales and marketing experience and strong leadership skills to Samsung. Samsung's Enterprise Business Division has started to establish a business-to-business and enterprise mentality in a traditionally consumer brand. For example, the group's sales team is organized based on business marketing and particular vertical industries to drive growth. Pike's business unit is centered on responding to a particular industry need first, whether it's in healthcare, education or retail, with the right solutions.

SAP, Kevin Gilroy, Senior Vice President, Global Indirect Channels

Kevin Gilroy's team says that he has midmarket DNA in his body. As a channel executive for more than 25 years at HP, Arrow Electronics and SAP, Gilroy has worked with partners around the world to help deliver enterprise software to the midmarket. In his current role, Gilroy's main priority is to understand the needs of the midmarket and how to make IT executives in this segment more successful through the use of innovative technology. Furthermore, he has enormously helped SAP's channel, the primary driver for its midmarket customers, and continues to drive results. In 2012, SAP's partners experienced 45 percent year-over-year growth in software revenue as they expanded their reach into the midmarket.

SAS, Kevin Garabedian, Senior Director of SMB Solutions

Kevin Garabedian is a seasoned professional serving the midmarket IT business. With five years at SAS, which provides solutions for midsize business based on an integrated framework of data management, visualization, analytics, forecasting and reporting, he has led his team to drive high sales in the midmarket customer segment. He is continually active at the Midsize Enterprise Summit -- the world's largest gathering of midmarket CIOs -- and actively networks with customers to understand their needs.

Scale Computing, Jeff Ready, CEO and Founder

As a former IT leader of a midmarket company, Jeff Ready lives the mission of the company -- to deliver innovative solutions to solve the problems of midsize company IT departments. His vision has been to innovate in the area of appliances so that midmarket IT teams can concentrate on applications and users, letting Scale's solutions take care of the infrastructure for them. Sale Computing's business is completely dedicated to the midmarket IT customer, and Ready focuses on solving the server, storage and virtualization challenges that he once faced as a midmarket IT executive.

ShoreTel, Bernard Gutnick, Senior Director of Product Marketing

Bernard Gutnick has been in the midmarket IT business for 23 years and is focused on sharing the best practices of experts by inviting them to be speak at conferences that help midmarket IT executives. He takes pride in having executives share their experiences and is a strong advocate for networking and sharing among midmarket IT executives and partners. With over 65 percent of its business coming from midmarket sales, ShoreTel -- a provider of business communication solutions for unified communications, mobility and enterprise contact centers -- and Gutnick are dedicated to serving the midmarket IT community.

Sophos, Michael Valentine, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Under Michael Valentine's leadership, Sophos is stronger than ever with 30 percent year-over-year growth since his arrival as a leader at the company. As unified threat management is primarily a midmarket security appliance, his knowledge and vision have helped Sophos greatly improve both its offerings and global go-to-market strategy. Sophos' products are tailored to the midmarket --- those companies with under-staffed or no internal staff to focus on security. Valentine has driven midmarket IT sales for 20 years.

Symantec, Stephen Banbury, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Segment Marketing

Stephen Banbury has been leading Symantec's midmarket efforts for the past three years. With an overall 13 years in the midmarket IT business, Banbury is dedicated to bringing his vision and leadership to Symantec to help drive midmarket IT sales.

Symantec has two core areas of accomplishment for midmarket customers: channel partners and product leadership. CRN recently awarded five-stars to Symantec's partner program making Symantec products more attractive to sell and more available to midmarket companies through the partners they want to buy from. Symantec continues to invest in R&D for its core midmarket products, Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Backup Exec. These investments have resulted in leadership positions for both products in Gartner's Magic Quadrants for their respective categories.

Tableau Software, Christian Chabot, CEO and Co-Founder

Christian Chabot, along with Chris Stolte and Pat Hanrahan, founded Tableau Software in 2003. Tableau's business intelligence and data analytics tools, specifically DataSelf, are geared towards midmarket customers in that they are easy to use, quick to deploy and cost effective. With a 62 percent growth in midmarket sales since 2012, Tableau is quickly becoming a leader in business intelligence software, and Chabot is on the forefront of that success.

Tegile Systems Inc., Rohit Kshetrapal, CEO

Rohit Kshetrapal designed the Tegile Systems office without any walls so that the entire office can hear his commitment to excellence and midmarket customer satisfaction. His passion for midmarket IT is infectious to the company culture. He engages with Tegile's midmarket customers on a daily basis ensuring that they are seeing the value expected. Kshetrapal has been in his current role at Tegile, an enterprise storage company, for the past three years and has been serving midmarket IT customers for a total of 20 years.

Twilio, Bobby Napiltonia, Chief Revenue Officer

Bobby Napiltonia is an industry veteran with over 25 years in IT and has led many successful companies into midmarket success, such as BEA Systems, Salesforce.com, and he is now applying his successful formula to Twilio. His efforts have helped midmarket companies become more innovative and transform their competitive positions, boosting their performance. He has been with Twilio, a software-enabled communications platform, for the past year and has helped its midmarket sales grow by 100 percent during that time.

VMware, Brandon Sweeney, Vice President, U.S. Mid-Market Businesses

Brandon Sweeney has a passion for the small and midmarket business. He brings vision to midmarket solutions and creates an impact through his direct customer focus, partner relationships, ongoing need to stay in touch with the midmarket trends and communication through social communities. Under Sweeney's leadership, the company launched a small and midmarket customer advisory board to listen and gather feedback. He also has spearheaded focused, cross-functional resources dedicated to the midmarket in the organization. He has also adjusted VMware's partner relationships to align with the small and midmarket segment. He has been serving the midmarket community for 10 years in his current role at VMware for the past two years.

Xerox, Douraid Zaghouani, President, Channel Partner Operations

Douraid Zaghouani has one of the most influential positions to drive innovation and growth for the midmarket. His role is to accelerate the growth in the important small and medium-sized business marketplace through Xerox's channel partners in North America and Western Europe while continuing to implement an efficient and effective business model to meet their needs. He also leads the worldwide corporation's desktop printer and enterprise printing businesses. He has spent at least 10 years at Xerox supporting the SMB marketplace.

Xirrus, Shane Buckley, CEO

Shane Buckley is a seasoned leader with over 20 years of CEO and executive experience in global companies and on a global scale. He has grown companies from early and late stages to market leadership positions. While at Xirrus, which provides wireless solutions, he has pursued partnerships and developed software to wirelessly enable the midmarket. With approximately 50 percent of Xirrus' business yielding from midmarket sales, Buckley and the rest of the Xirrus team have helped many midmarket companies successfully support the exploding mobile bring-your-own-device and application requirements today.