The 2023 Women On The Rise

These women are reaching new heights at their companies by putting partners front and center, demonstrating strong business acumen and collaborating with colleagues to drive success. Keep an eye on these up-and-comers who are poised to rise to the top.

Women On The Rise

This year’s Women on the Rise honorees are being lauded across the channel for the many ways they are driving partner success.

The accolades from their colleagues are many: having a passion for collaboration, demonstrating a tireless work ethic, putting forth a can-do attitude, being a catalyst for growth and demonstrating a “we before I” attitude. These women are partner advocates in all they do—solving problems, making it easier for partners to engage with their company and figuring out ways for them to generate revenue and find new opportunities.

These women may be behind the scenes at times, but partners know who they are and why they deserve this honor.

Congratulations to all of 2023’s Women on the Rise.

(This list was formerly known as Rising Female Stars)

By Company:

A-E | F-K | L-O | P-S | T-Z

Alexandra (Sasha) Gorbatenko

Global Channel Marketing Program Manager

Acronis

Gorbatenko launched a number of powerful pro­motions for cloud service providers, which gener­ated over $4 million in incremental annual recur­ring revenue for Acronis.

By Company:

A-E | F-K | L-O | P-S | T-Z

Stephanie Erickson

Channel Account Manager, Southeast

Adlumin

Erickson joined Adlumin— a young channel-first company poised for hyper­growth—in October 2022 and in her first four months signed and on-boarded five net-new partners in her region.

Jessica Rudy

Principal Program Experience Leader

Amazon Web Services

Rudy leads the AWS Partner Network Programs Delivery expe­rience, working behind the scenes to simplify partner registration, on-boarding requirements and program application experience.

Jennifer Kirkey-Chan

Director, North America Channel Marketing

AMD

Kirkey-Chan was recently named to her new role and brings considerable expertise to the mission of helping drive stronger marketing relationships with AMD’s channel and OEM partners.

Hannah Osterheim

Director, Customer Success, MSP

Arctic Wolf

Osterheim’s winning atti­tude and willingness to commit herself to helping MSP partners succeed make her an invaluable member of the channel team. She constantly advo­cates for partners at events and with the sales teams.

Meghan Cohen

Sales Manager

Arrow Electronics

In her work at immix- Group, an Arrow Company, Cohen has a deep under­standing of the public sector buying process. Her passion for customer support and operational excellence helps channel partners reach their goals.

Sarah Gerichten

Sr. Manager, Partner Engagement

Atlassian

In her role at Atlassian, Gerichten built a team focused on more effectively engaging partners. With that goal in mind, she and her team re-envisioned communication systems, content and channels.

Florence Sollo

National Partner Director

Avaya

Sollo is a tireless coach and has exhibited urgency, commitment and follow-through in supporting her team and her partners. In 2023, she took these strengths to a different set of large national partners, serving as an additional layer of leadership.

Kirsten Vogelsang

Partner Marketing Specialist

Barracuda MSP

Vogelsang joined Barracuda MSP in 2022, tasked with revamping its partner marketing enable­ment offerings. She has spearheaded the stream­lining of a new marketing enablement request pro­cess and completed its initial rollout.

Tiffany Harris

Director, Global Marketplaces, Cloud Partner Sales

Broadcom

Harris leverages her can-do attitude to equip Broadcom partners and improve their overall experience. She is instru­mental when it comes to reporting and what happens with quoting, fulfillment and support.

Michelle Richards

Director, Operations

Bvoip

Richards is the unsung channel hero at bvoip. She started as a support triage coordinator and has been promoted twice over the past year to now being the director of operations. Key to these promotions is that she always goes the extra mile for partners.

Amy Kelley

Director Of Operations

Carahsoft

Kelley has taken on the challenge of evaluating the cloud licensing mod­els from Carahsoft’s top vendors to build the infra­structure needed to ensure correct cloud invoicing, usage reports and sales options.

Christina Ruth

Channel Account Manager

Check Point Software Technologies

Ruth’s knowledge of Check Point’s history and processes has positioned her as a team lead in her region. She has a unique perspective on how the sales organization thinks and a strong understand­ing of the channel team.

Liz Styba

Advisory Partner Executive, Global Strategic Partners

Cisco Systems

Styba is a strategic thinker and a catalyst for growth with some of Cisco’s most forward-looking partners. She has been with Cisco for 12 years and has worked with specialty partners, global incubation partners and advisory partners.

Tracey Jones

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

Cloudera

Jones manages the IBM partnership at Cloudera and consistently delivers business results that have a big impact. She is known for bringing the partner voice and organization to any project she is work­ing on.

Jessica Chavez

Global Partner Development, Enablement Manager

Cloudflare

Chavez has been key to building relationships with partners and taking them through an on-boarding and enablement journey. She has been responsible for creating content and managing training on zero trust solutions.

Shayla Mobley

Sr. Partner Sales Manager

Comcast Business and Masergy

Mobley supports the partner community in northern Florida and has built strong relationships in the region. She is also an active participant in Comcast Business and Masergy’s DEI program with partners.

Ines Helou

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Marketing

Commvault

Helou has delivered suc­cess with MSP partners through the Metallic MSP portal. She created enable­ment content for sellers and support reps to accel­erate the effectiveness of partner sellers and cus­tomer on-boarding.

Maddie Metheny

Group Manager, Partner Marketing

ConnectWise

Metheny receives kudos for her ingenuity in value creation and her ability to inspire. She works with the security and partner development team to support partners’ growth with resources, training and marketing planning.

Allison Stevens

Sr. Director, Channel, Field Marketing

Critical Start

Stevens has been key to growing Critical Start’s partner network and directing efforts toward focus partners. Her vision­ary approach led to a multipronged marketing strategy in collaboration with each partner.

Janani Nagarajan

Sr. Director, Product Marketing

CrowdStrike

Nagarajan spearheads the go-to-market strat­egy for CrowdStrike’s most important alliances across industries, which enables the development and delivery of security solutions to customers and partners.

Helen Kim

West Coast Territory Sales Manager

D&H Distributing

Kim has been instrumen­tal in taking smaller SMB accounts and growing her territory, extending D&H’s partnership and offerings across categories includ­ing cloud, ProAV and high-end devices.

Christine LoPresti

National Channel Account Manager

Deepwatch

LoPresti recently joined the team and very quickly assisted in driving the East territory in incre­mental pipeline, deal registration and ARR bookings. She is known as a dedicated and hard-working team member.

Sarina Romaguera

Partner, Customer Collaborations Lead, Corporate Sustainability, ESG

Dell Technologies

Romaguera is leveraging her sales and market­ing experience and ESG passion to deliver train­ing, sales enablement, marketing and content to partners.

Beatriz Jimenez Hatfield

Manager, Channel Sales Engineering

Eaton

Jimenez Hatfield has been a standout in the channel sales engineering group as a subject matter expert. She is as focused on her team member develop­ment as she is in delighting Eaton’s partners every day.

Samantha Serpa

Sr. Director, Marketing

ESET North America

Serpa has empowered her team through data-driven decision-making and educating employ­ees and partners about ESET solutions. She also has emphasized ESET’s track record, reliability and advanced security tools as invaluable assets.

Lorna Pierno

Director, Global Channel Marketing, Communications

Extreme Networks

Pierno is lauded for hav­ing a tremendous amount of creativity in her role at Extreme. She is con­tinually thinking of new ways to arm channel partners with the tools and resources needed to succeed.

Angela Holmes

Channel Director

Fortinet

Holmes was promoted into her role last year after several successful years as a top-producing chan­nel account manager. Partners are highly com­plementary of her and her team’s responsiveness and proactive approach to partner engagement.

By Company:

A-E | F-K | L-O | P-S | T-Z

Christine Ululati

VP, Business Development

GlassHive

Ululati entered the chan­nel only 12 months ago but her entrepreneurial background allowed her to come into the channel and hit the ground running. She has brought vendors and partners together in a sin­gle platform and enabled them to work together.

Erin Simone

Sr. Marketing Manager, Global Partner Experience Lead

Google Cloud

Simone has been at Google Cloud a little over two years and has had a tremendous impact. She strives for excellence in every partner-facing moment and has launched creative new programs.

Gabriella Di Fraia

Partner Marketing Manager, North America

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Di Fraia has a partner-first mindset, always putting “we before I” in all that she does and loves to learn, listen and engage. She joined HPE in May 2022 and has since then built a strong partner network.

Anastasia Novikova

Head Of Global Partner Operations

Hitachi Vantara

Always behind the scenes but never forgotten by her colleagues, Novikova works tirelessly to drive Hitachi Vantara’s global partner operations. She is laser-focused on data quality, operational excel­lence and alignment.

Bobbie Watkins

Worldwide Attach Capabilities Program Manager

HP Inc.

Watkins has changed the way that HP evalu­ates its promotions and has done a great job of aligning people inside the company. She has an eye for detail, ensuring that promotions launch on time and correctly.

Cynthia Gonzales

Director, Field, Channel Marketing

HPE Aruba Networks

Gonzales has proved her mettle within the HPE Aruba channel market­ing team, developing a reputation for building engaging programs that not only support the sales team but also bring pipe­line growth to partners.

Becky Teal

Community Lead

Huntress

Teal leads Huntress’ part­ner experience, and her genius zone is connecting partners with each other to grow and expand their business. Her effective­ness with partners is built on her deep understand­ing of MSPs and their needs.

Caitlyn Conroy

Partner Marketing Program Director, IBM Americas

IBM

Conroy’s energy and brain­power are always on. Her can-do, say-yes attitude, creativity and innate under­standing of a partner-first mentality—with sales a very close second—drives the team to make innova­tive, impactful decisions.

Rachel Baer-Morash

National Strategic Partner Manager

Imperva

Baer-Morash quickly gets up to speed on Imperva’s products and truly under­stands what motivates key partners in her region. She knows it is important to understand the partners’ business model.

Farrah Zidehsarai

Director, Advanced Solutions

Ingram Micro

Zidehsarai has contin­ued to transform Ingram Micro’s Advanced Solu­tions business to operate efficiently and has devel­oped ideas for building new value stacks for partners. She also has built relationships with key business leaders.

Sarah Hambright

Director, Partner Growth

Inky

Hambright has been instrumental in the devel­opment of Inky’s partner strategy and rapid chan­nel growth. She has provided feedback to internal teams that led to major improvements in the company’s go-to-market with the channel.

Kim Ly

Partner Development Manager

Intel

Ly joined Intel in 2022 and has made a major impact in that time. She runs an internal Center of Excellence with the field team to drive col­laboration and extend the partner program to all Intel partners.

Shea Kopelman

Manager, Channel Marketing

Intermedia

Kopelman was recently promoted to lead Intermedia’s field marketing team in supporting the partner community and has a number of ini­tiatives in the works to help partners receive the resources they need.

Gina Madson

Sr. Marketing Manager, Partner Channel

Intuit

Madson has had a big impact on the Quick­books Solution Provider Program in the past year by developing new initiatives and content, which have exponentially increased prospects for Intuit.

Sarah Knauf

Director, East Channel Sales

Juniper Networks

Knauf heads up the East channel organization and was responsible for $1.1 billion in channel revenue last year with 52 percent year-over-year partner- initiated growth. She has received numerous kudos from leadership for her sales acumen.

Amanda Gonzalez

Account Executive

Kaspersky

Gonzalez joined Kasper­sky in October 2022 and in that time has dem­onstrated her ability to execute. She has proven to be a fast learner and has taken on the chal­lenges of her role with passion and dedication.

Ann Selbe Pete

Business Development Manager

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A

Selbe Pete is the key person on one of the com­pany’s largest dealers in the country. She is respon­sible for all of the dealer’s sales of Konica Minolta’s products across its entire geography.

Melissa Gould

Canadian Distribution Sales Leader

Lenovo

Colleagues say Gould’s unparalleled drive and commitment to building channel partnerships have been extraordinary, earning her leadership positions in several indus­try organizations.

By Company:

A-E | F-K | L-O | P-S | T-Z

Chandra Cramer

GM, Enterprise, U.S. Channel Sales Organization

Microsoft

Cramer has been respon­sible for helping Microsoft’s channel sales team trans­form to a sales organization with joint accountability for the business. She does all of this while maintaining strong “thrive” scores for employee satisfaction.

Casandra Brice

VP, Global Customer Success

N-able

Brice brings a next-level perspective to the art of partner engagement. N-able’s relationship with partners aims to go deeper than a mere transaction as they look to N-able to pro­vide them with technology that allows them to scale their business.

Michelle Dizon-Lagunte

Head Of Worldwide Partner Incentives, Investments, Compliance

NetApp

Dizon-Lagunte has been key to the transformation of NetApp’s incentive and investment portfolio. She has established a future-ready process for the key behaviors it wants to reward partners for.

Christina Pulley

Sr. Director, Americas Channels

Netskope

Pulley stepped up to run Netskope’s North America regional channel manag­ers at a critical time in its growth phase. She is implementing repeatable, scalable programs and aligning to a new sales structure.

Melissa Rubsam

Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing Programs

Nextiva

Rubsam develops programs that deliver enor­mous value to Nextiva’s partner ecosystem. Not only does she keep part­ners regularly informed, she also manages partner marketing and demand generation programs.

Connie Santiago

Sr. Channel Sales Manager

Nutanix

Santiago is a champion in the channel sales management space for Nutanix. She oversees some of the most chal­lenging partnerships and has the ability to drive meaningful change for the company.

Sara Moody

Enterprise Industry Partner Marketing Lead

Nvidia

Moody’s expertise in the channel and her under­standing of what partners need to be successful have helped contribute to the achievements of an ever-growing marketing organization and partner ecosystem.

Rachel LaFon

Global Manager, Partner Success

OpenText Cybersecurity

LaFon is dedicated to pro­viding partners with the tools and resources they need. She and her team set the foundation for positive partner relation­ships through their work on the partner portal and program.

Monique Reed

Channel Program Director, Strategic Initiatives

Palo Alto Networks

Known for her ability to solve complex problems in ways that always have Palo Alto Networks part­ners’ best interests at heart, Reed is playing a critical role in the com­pany’s mission to secure the public cloud.

By Company:

A-E | F-K | L-O | P-S | T-Z

Nicole Faletra

Sr. Director, Channel, Americas

Pax8

After six-plus years at Pax8, Faletra knows her way around the cloud and is an expert when it comes to meeting new MSPs, communicating the cloud distributor’s value and bringing them into the fold as engaged partners.

Brook Lee

Channel Development Manager

Pia

Lee has been instrumental in supporting Pia through in-person channel events and virtual technical dem­onstrations. She uses her strong engineering back­ground and business acumen to find the best fit for partners.

Amanda Zandbod

Manager, National Partners

Proofpoint

Joining Proofpoint over two years ago, Zandbod has leveraged her experience in the cybersecurity industry to establish valuable rela­tionships, engage with her partners and collaborate with the sales organization to drive results.

Jami Haycock

Sr. Channel Sales Manager, Federal Partners

Pure Storage

With a tireless work ethic, Haycock built Pure’s fed­eral partner ecosystem and strategy from the ground up. She also seg­mented partner coverage to align with growing part­ner needs.

Hayley Wienszczak

Sr. Director, Ecosystem Operations

Red Hat

Wienszczak leads opera­tions for Red Hat’s entire ecosystem motion glob­ally. She has overseen a transformation of tooling and capabilities to enable programs such as a stra­tegic partner incentive.

Kennedy Beeson

Territory Partner Manager

RingCentral

Beeson has shown herself to be a true rock star at RingCentral, consistently exceeding expectations and delivering results. She has been respon­sible for driving growth and providing support to RingCentral partners across the Southeast.

Heather Driscoll

National Channel Account Manager

RSA Security

Driscoll has been a pro­ponent of RSA’s cloud conversion efforts. She has been educating and training sales represen­tatives and acts as their main point of contact as she supports some of RSA’s largest partners.

Joana Brady

Sr. Channel Marketing Manager

Samsung Electronics America

Brady works closely with distribution account man­agers to implement annual marketing programs. She’s involved at every level of the business and is always willing to support requests outside her responsibilities.

Catalina Bernal

Partner Business Manager

SAP

Bernal has a level of professionalism and business acumen that has established her as a trusted adviser within her partner portfolio. As a result, her partners thrive as they continue to transi­tion their practices to the cloud.

Abbie Hausfeld

Regional Channel Manager

Scale Computing

Hausfeld stands out as an individual who is deter­mined to see success. One of her key strengths is her organizational skills, which help in building successful partnerships. She under­stands her partners and knows what is needed to achieve mutual goals.

Tamara Vishniakoff

Marketing Communications Manager

ScalePad

A versatile marketing expert who was recently promoted, Vishniakoff is developing campaign and project plans, coaching campaign management teams and overseeing programs that support ScalePad’s growth.

Ethel Berg

Director, Supplier Services

ScanSource

Berg has developed a reputation for proactively tackling challenges and keeping customers and suppliers front and center. She is known as a collab­orator who works across departments to make sure things get done properly.

Carolyn Pater

Channel Marketing, Strategy Manager, North America

Schneider Electric

Pater has led the marketing and e-commerce strategy across top partners in the U.S. and Canada, setting ambitious revenue targets and implementing strategic initiatives. She also is lead­ing efforts to help partners leverage sustainability.

Annette Montoya

Sr. Manager, Channel Operations

SentinelOne

Montoya is always think­ing of new, innovative ways to improve and sim­plify processes for and with SentinelOne’s part­ners. She was the driving force behind the launch of the Partner Compliance Platform.

Ngoc Tram Nguyen

Lead Product Manager, Productivity, Business Applications

Sherweb

Nguyen leads product strategy for productivity and business applica­tions, keeping a sharp eye on customer needs while developing marketing plans and sales tools for partners.

Anne-Marie Clegg

Global Partner Marketing Lead

Skyhigh Security

Clegg brings her back­ground in computer engineering to bear as she builds awareness of the channel programs, tools and other resources at Skyhigh. She also makes it her mission to advo­cate for partners with the broader team.

Leanna Parker

Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing

Snowflake

Parker leads the partner marketing strategy and execution for global and regional solution partners, guiding them to invest in joint go-to-market in vari­ous marketing motions, field marketing and demand generation.

Elizabeth Reynolds

Regional Channel Sales Director

SonicWall

Viewed as a natural leader who plays a critical role within SonicWall’s sales team and helps drive part­ner success, Reynolds turns heads with her chan­nel know-how and positive attitude, making her a val­ued teammate.

Vanessa Dionisio

Sr. Manager, Partner Program, Sales Operations

Sophos

Dionisio works tirelessly to ensure Sophos is easy to do business with and partners find value in its quoting and opportunity management tools. She also thinks through how processes impact partners’ daily business.

Mackenzie Scott

Channel Marketing Analyst

Spectrum Enterprise

Beginning her career with Spectrum as an intern, Scott is now a thriving member of the channel marketing team. Her can- do attitude sets her apart as she is always willing to help partners and team members.

Hitu Chawla

Group VP, Worldwide Partner Strategy, Solutions

Splunk

Chawla is building new economic models, advancing partner profit­ability and creating new ways for all partner types to engage in co-selling with Splunk to leverage the power of ecosystems with mutual customers.

Rachael Marshall Watkins

Lead Partner Architect, Global Channel, Alliances

Synack

Marshall Watkins’ blend of technical and business acu­men plays a key role within Synack’s alliance go to market. She has assembled internal stakeholders to launch technical integra­tions to further partnerships.

Annia Rodriguez

Program Manager, Global Channels, Alliances

Synopsys

Rodriguez has only been working in the partner space for two years, but in that time she has played an integral role in optimizing and helping to grow Synopsys’ partner program.

Coleen Ernst

Sr. Manager, Business Development

TD Synnex

Ernst recognized the need for more agnostic and scalable resources to meet the growing demands of the channel. In addition to her sales innovation, she is a fierce leader who advocates for her team.

By Company:

A-E | F-K | L-O | P-S | T-Z

Whitney Sieben

Director, Global Strategic Partners

Tenable

Sieben has been instru­mental in building the Tenable MSSP program. She has developed sev­eral innovative programs and always finds a way to meet her partners’ needs in order to be successful in the marketplace.

Heather Hartland

VP, Experiential Marketing

ThreatLocker

Hartland describes her­self as relentless when it comes to the pursuit of new markets and improving go-to-market activities. She evange­lizes ThreatLocker’s zero trust security strategy to partners and customers through education.

Tricia Blade

Director, Global Channel Marketing

Trellix

Blade leads Trellix’s global channel marketing team with a primary mission to generate demand and leads for partners through curated sales and mar­keting campaigns, brand awareness and thought leadership.

Maranda McClure

Distribution Channel Manager

Trend Micro

Known for being dedicated and hard-working, McClure was promoted from run­ning Trend Micro’s sub-100 channel business to man­aging the entire Ingram Micro account, due in part to the accolades from the Ingram Micro team.

Julie Kriz

Sr. Manager, Cloud Marketing

Veeam Software

Kriz displays her deep understanding of the ser­vice provider business as well as every aspect of marketing—from chan­nel and direct to field and digital. She knows what makes her partners tick and comes up with ways to boost their revenue.

Sue Bialorucki

National Account Manager

Vertiv

Bialorucki inspires team­mates with her energy, generosity of spirit and knowledge of Vertiv, all traits she uses to build deep channel bonds. She is known as a collaborator who is always willing to share ideas to help a col­league or partner.

Akila Kumar

Director, Global Partner Program Incentives, Cloud, SaaS Director

VMware

Kumar understands the intricate details of partner profitability needs and is critical to building a strong foundation in VMware’s partner program incentive structure.

Alyse Brady

Regional Channel Manager

Vonage

Brady is responsible for growing and maintain­ing relationships with more than 200 MSPs and technology consultants. She also provides train­ing and presentations to keep partners educated on Vonage’s latest soft­ware offerings.

Laura Ziton

Sr. Channel Account Manager

Wasabi Technologies

Ziton is devoted to her channel partners, making sure they have every pos­sible resource they need to find and close oppor­tunities. She often starts by identifying channel champions and educat­ing them on the value of Wasabi.

Alexandra McWethy

Director, Demand Generation Programs

WatchGuard Technologies

McWethy’s team is focused on building demand gen­eration for partners, which in essence means creat­ing end-user demand. Her strategy is based on creat­ing a digital presence.

Elorie Widmer

Director, Global Partner Marketing Programs, Campaigns

Zscaler

Widmer has built a cohe­sive and creative team and strategy with partners that drive collaboration, inno­vation and pipeline. She is always exploring ways to drive awareness and build loyalty.