The starting line for Denise Millard’s 25-year route to win the leading spot in Dell Technology’s global channel began in the same town where runners gather annually for the Boston Marathon: Hopkinton, Mass.

A rising star inside EMC, even before Round Rock, Texas-based Dell’s 2016 acquisition, Millard was part of creating the enterprise storage giant’s first channel program, EMC Velocity, said Bill Scannell, Dell’s president of global sales and customer operations, in a statement announcing Millard’s promotion to senior vice president global channel strategy and programs.

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“Denise has more than two decades of experience with the channel and has had a big influence on our partner strategy for several years,” he wrote in Monday’s post. “She helped launch the EMC Velocity Program, the company’s first partner program, and was instrumental in the creation of its partner strategy. Her leadership will help us build on our world-class partner program and empower partners to meet the changing needs of our customers.”

While Millard is in the foreground of the latest announcement, Dell has been active—and public—in how it is reorganizing its sales force around the channel. In August, Dell changed the compensation model for its direct sales force, offering them more money to close storage deals through Dell reseller partners. The move, crafted by Scannell, has been roundly hailed for eliminating decades of friction between direct sellers and Dell’s channel partners.

C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company and a Dell Titanium partner, said his Dell Apex sales funnel is three time the size it was earlier this year.

“This is Dell putting the right people in the right place to go win with the channel,” he said.