The Top 25 Technology Disrupters Of 2022

Here are the men and women who are pushing boundaries and turning the IT market on its ear.

The Disrupters

As the global economy potentially heads towards a recession, and a chip shortage and supply chain crisis wreak havoc on the industry, the technology disrupters have stepped up.

While the pandemic continues to create surging demand for technologies to enable distributed working and learning, our list of the Top 25 Technology Disrupters of 2022 highlights executives who have answered the call -- meeting the rapidly evolving needs of customers while creating new opportunities for channel partners.

Our list includes executives who’ve proven themselves to be game-changers in red-hot markets ranging from security and cloud, to data center and hybrid infrastructure, to collaboration and networking, and more.

What follows is our list of the Top 25 Technology Disrupters of 2022.

Be sure to also check out the complete list of CRN’s Top 100 Executives Of 2022.

25. Philip Burger

VP, U.S. Channel Sales

Acer

Burger joined Acer in 2008 and has since climbed the ranks to become its U.S. channel chief. Like many in the PC industry, Acer experienced a huge sales increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Burger is now helping the company’s partners navi­gate difficult supply chain issues.

24. Bob Calderoni

Interim President, CEO

Citrix Systems

Calderoni is no stranger to Citrix, having served on the board of directors since 2014. But his installment as interim CEO in October gives him great sway over Citrix’s future as it navi­gates a merger with Tibco and aims to conquer the markets for Desktop as a Service, cloud computing and virtualization.

23. Phil Soper

Head of North America Partner Sales

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Soper, who likes to point out that this is “not your grand­father’s HPE,” is changing the face of the channel by bringing new incentives to the table aimed at accel­erating the GreenLake partner ecosystem trans­formation. Partners see his appointment to the post in June as game-changer.

22. James Robbins

GM, President

Dynabook Americas

Robbins joined Dynabook in 2021, with a goal of breathing new life into the former Toshiba PC business. Under his lead­ership, the company has been able to build a quick following amid a supply chain crisis by leveraging its Toshiba heritage and the financial muscle of parent company Foxconn.

21. John Pagliuca

President, CEO

N-able

Pagliuca became CEO of N-able as it spun out of SolarWinds in 2020 and is focused on empower­ing MSPs to boost their profitability and furthering the digital evolution of the small-medium entrprise. No one should bet against his ability to compete for the hearts and minds of MSPs.

20. Jason Magee

CEO

ConnectWise

Magee has a lot on his plate with the merger of archrivals Kaseya and Datto now complete. The 11-year ConnectWise vet­eran has the experience, top-notch technology and loyal partnerships to ensure his seat at the MSP table.

19. Bryan Palma

CEO

Trellix

Palma this fall stepped in to lead FireEye-McAfee Enterprise, now known as Trellix. Palma is now tasked with pulling the companies together and leveraging the best of both sides in a hard-charging and potentially disruptive way within the cybersecurity industry.

18. Nick Schneider

CEO

Arctic Wolf

He’s been on the job for less than a year, but Schneider is already making a differ­ence at Arctic Wolf. The company is seeing demand for its complete security offering, which includes managed detection and response, managed risk, managed cloud monitor­ing and managed security awareness.

17. Charlie Tomeo

CRO

Axcient

Tomeo joined Axcient less than two years ago, but he has since been busy building programs that keep MSPs focused on storing, protecting and sharing data. His fin­gerprints are all over the Axcient Partner Program, which was enhanced with a number of new benefits.

16. Sanjay Beri

Founder, CEO

Netskope

After last year’s $300 mil­lion infusion of new funding into Netskope, Beri’s job has been to further drive adoption of SASE, and he’s having success. In late June, Netskope achieved a major milestone when it was awarded the indus­try’s first SASE U.S. Federal Civilian Government con­tract in history.

15. Gajen Kandiah

CEO

Hitachi Vantara

Kandiah joined Hitachi Vantara at a critical time. The company three years earlier was formed from the merger of Hitachi’s storage, IoT and big data analytics businesses, and just after it merged with Hitachi con­sulting. Since then, he has helped turn the company into a leading global IT ser­vices business.

14. Joyce Mullen

President, North America

Insight Enterprises

Mullen has put together an executive team that is a model of diversity, equity and inclusion, with six of its nine named executive officers being women. In the process, she has run a world-class IT solution provider that in 2021 saw revenue grow 13 percent to $9.44 billion.

13. Matthew and Peter Cassar

Co-Founders, Co-CEOs

Sherweb

MSPs looking to add cloud services to their offerings have a friend in Sherweb and co-CEOs Matthew and Peter Cassar. The Cassars made Sherweb a pioneer in becoming a full cloud distributor for MSPs with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure.

12. Kevin Lynch

CEO

Optiv

Since taking the helm of Optiv two years ago, Lynch has transformed it into a next-generation security services solution provider that’s charting a new path for customers to defeat attackers. He has created an Enterprise IoT Lab that shows customers how to discover IoT devices pres­ent in their environment.

11. Ryan Walsh

COO

Pax8

Pax8 is at the forefront of cloud-focused distribu­tion with a platform that combines the benefits of multiple vendors’ offerings in an easy-to-consume fashion. Walsh is driving day-to-day execution and ensuring partners remain at the center of Pax8’s mis­sion to transform the cloud market.

10. Tomer Weingarten

Co-Founder, CEO

SentinelOne

SentinelOne may have made history when its IPO last year became the most valuable in cybersecurity. Weingarten’s company keeps growing at an im­pressive clip, and many see its innovative products, such as its SentinelOne Singularity, as true market disrupters.

9. Kyle Hanslovan

Co-Founder, CEO

Huntress Labs

Few have done more to protect MSPs from cyber­attacks than Huntress Labs, which under Hanslovan has made security a priority for MSPs. Hanslovan is often the first to publicly divulge new threats and discuss what they mean to MSPs and is ready to discuss any and all security implications.

8. Dan and Michael Schwab

Co-Presidents

D&H Distributing

The Schwabs continue to push D&H into the cloud fast lane. The latest: a new Modern Solutions Business Unit that rips apart the old distribution go-to-market model. The new multivendor Everything-as-a-Service business unit is backed up by a $5 million investment.

7. Matt Hicks

President, CEO

Red Hat

In July, Red Hat promoted Hicks to the top role of president and CEO of the company. A 16-year Red Hat veteran, Hicks brings major technical acumen to the job, previously serving as an OpenShift found­ing team member and overseeing all product engineering for the IBM subsidiary.

6. Bill Scannell

President, Global Sales, Customer Operations

Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies’ long­time sales leader is on a roll. With the company last year hitting a record $101 billion in revenue, Scannell’s sales engine is firing on all cylinders. Scannell has proven his channel mettle in keeping that momentum strong.

5. Vladimir Rozanovich

SVP, President, North America

Lenovo

Lenovo made a bold move last year when it lured Rozanovich away from AMD to lead the com­pany’s North American operations. He is focused on new areas of growth, telling CRN that Everything as a Service is going to be a big part of the company’s business going forward.

4. Jeetu Patel

EVP, GM, Security, Collaboration Division

Cisco Systems

Patel in 2020 took two of Cisco’s biggest business units under his wing: col­laboration and security. Since then, Cisco Webex has added more than 1,000 new features, and the security portfolio continues to climb by double-digit revenue.

3. Keith White

EVP, GM of HPE GreenLake Cloud Services Commercial Business

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

With his cloud smarts and passion for partners, White has been instrumental in building a broad ecosys­tem for HPE GreenLake. His ability to drive part­nerships with companies such as Nutanix, SAP and Equinix is helping drive dra­matic GreenLake growth.

2. Fred Voccola

CEO

Kaseya

Voccola in 2022 engineered the most significant event in the MSP field when his company acquired rival Datto, thereby cementing Kaseya’s position as the top provider of technol­ogy to MSPs. He has a lot of work to do as he starts melding the two into one, but Voccola is not one to be discounted.

1. Hock Tan

CEO

Broadcom

Tan has bought four companies for a combined $71 billion since 2015 in a relentless drive for growth.

Now he has set his sights on VMware via a pro­posed $61 billion acquisition that has the potential to shake up the cloud market, follow­ing Symantec in 2019, CA Technologies in 2018, Brocade in 2016 and the merger in 2015 between Avago and Broadcom.

It’s moves like those that led the co-founder of Broadcom, Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, to describe Tan as a “visionary” leader for creating “a fast-paced, no-nonsense, process-driven business culture that we need to take our combined company to the next level.”

In June, following the revelation that Broadcom had reached the VMware agreement, Tan appeared on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” where host Jim Cramer asked Tan if there was anyone left to acquire.

“Oh, I’m sure there will be, but I’m focused on one deal at a time,” Tan answered with a smile.