| |  |
| Executive | Amnon Bar-Lev |
| Title | Vice president, field operations and technical services |
| Where based | Check Point Software Technologies, Inc., 3A Jabotinsky St., Diamond Tower, Ramat Gan, 52520, Israel |
| Responsibilities | Responsible for worldwide sales field operations, worldwide channel and partner programs and worldwide technical support. |
| To whom do you report | Gil Shwed, chairman and CEO, Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. |
| No. of years in current position | 2 |
| No. of years in the channel | Amnon became the Vice president of Field operations and Technical Services and responsible for Check Point's channel program in September 2005. He took a more direct role managing the channel program in July 2006. Prior to joining Check Point, Amnon was the founder and CEO of Xpert Integrated Systems, Ltd., a leading channel reseller of unique security, business continuity and infrastructure platforms and solutions. Overall, Amnon has 8 years experience working in the channel. |
| Number of direct reports | 12 direct |
| Amount of revenue responsible for | 100% percent of channel revenue ($579,350,000 in fiscal 2005). |
| Best business decision in the past 12 months | To improve Check Point's channel program. This included the introduction of Check Point's Collaborative enterprise Support program (in EMEA only). Check Point also upgraded its co-op channel programs to provide more support and funding to assist our partners' marketing efforts. |
| Top channel goal for 2007 | To roll out our new partner program with the upgrades to co-op channel and channel advisory programs. |
| Top lesson learned from solution providers | To keep a close relationship, update them on a regular basis, explain your motivations and share your company and partner vision. Always listen to your customer. |
| Biggest challenge | To have sustained growth, while continuing to add value to the channel and maintaining our 100 percent indirect channel model. |
| Biggest technology innovation to affect your channel philosophy/operations | Adding three new product lines and a hardware offering. |
| Favorite gadget | I have no favorite gadget. I see all of them as tools I can use to work more effectively and stay in touch with my worldwide team. |
| First personal computer | A PC 286 purchased in 1990. |
| Most admired channel leader | None. I look at all of them as models and colleagues I can learn from to improve my work in my specific business environments. |
| Most admired company | I tend to look at all businesses models and companies as a menu of best practices to mirror or bad practices to avoid. |
| Most admired business person | N/A |
| Degree(s), College(s) | Bachelor of arts degree in computer science (HONS) and management (HONS), Tel-Aviv University |
Our list of the most innovative executives of the year spotlights the people that are pushing the envelope with new products and channel programs to bring solution providers to new heights.
Find out which executives made the grade and held their own, despite the great IT downturn of 2009.
Most everyone loves Thanksgiving turkeys. But IT industry turkeys? Not so much. We look at 10 examples of 'turkeys' that have disappointed the tech industry this year.
