The Top 25 Channel Sales Leaders Of 2010

CRN's Top 25 Channel Sales Leaders are the executives who’ve had the greatest impact on sales volume through channel partners for their specific companies in the last year. Here's a look at who made the cut in part 3 of our Top 100 Executives Of 2010 list.

You can call him “the fixer.” DiFranco knows exactly which buttons to press to improve channel metrics and has made big strides in simplifying the broadest and deepest channel program in the industry, particularly deal registration. At the same time, he has provided more big paybacks for VARs committing to more of the HP portfolio. DiFranco has kept his cool and made improvements one click at a time. He’s also made sure that each business unit head works closely with partners.

He’s the channel chess master. He has taken the lead in moving partners to higher ground with a sharper focus on selling services, vertical specialization and cloud as Cisco looks to dominate the data center.

He’s a channel legend who has used his skills to give Juniper the juice to grab a CRN Annual Report Card award from Cisco. Under his leadership, Juniper has aggressively courted Cisco and HP partners.

No one has put together a better longterm plan to drive partner profits. He’s leading the charge for partners in business analytics, cloud and IBM’s Smarter Planet.

He’s a one man channel cavalry. In less than a year, he has fast tracked SAP’s channel enablement efforts. With 25 years of indirect sales experience, he’s making SAP a channel power.

He helped transform Avaya into a true networking channel player from data to video in record time. He also integrated Nortel’s enterprise unit and bulked up his executive ranks with veteran channel talent.

Her appointment to this new post in July put the spark back in Microsoft’s SMB efforts by pointing partners in the right direction. No one has a better grasp of SMB channel dynamics.

No channel chief walked away with as many CRN awards in 2010. Under his leadership in North America, EMC’s channel has gotten stronger every year. He was recently promoted to his new post.

He has put together an all-star channel program and a best-in-class comprehensive SMB product portfolio covering switching, wireless, network storage and IP surveillance.

He upped the company’s channel commitment, which led to stellar sales growth in the business market—particularly in digital signage. Look for him to rev up the commitment again in 2011.

He’s bringing virtualization into every nook and cranny of the channel. His latest win: toolkits aimed at delivering virtualization in prepackaged bundles like Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server and SAP.

He is one of HP’s biggest enterprise assets and has worked closely with partners to deliver big sales growth, especially in networking. He’s there for partners to help to close deals.

He did a superb job reshaping the Sun-Oracle channel, providing new advanced specialization incentives and a “Diamond” level aimed at getting partners to develop more services around Oracle products.

He’s a channel stalwart who’s proved his mettle by delivering partner program improvements for three years straight. Expect more channel improvements in 2011.

He’s taken Lenovo’s program to new heights by hitting the streets and meeting with partners. His mission: listen to partners and adapt the program to meet their needs.

He gets an “A” for channel leadership. He delivered game-changing services opportunities along with a new program that rewards partners for investing in Symantec certifications and specializations.

He’s one of the best at driving partners to the next big opportunity. He bested HP with better engagement on managed print services and strong support for Xerox partners.

She’s the gold standard. Year in and year out, she’s kept the company at the absolute top of the pyramid for channel excellence. Panasonic is a perennial CRN Annual Report Card and Channel Champion.

He’s kept Intel at the top of the pack with one of the best channel programs in the business. He’s also pushed to move partners into digital signage, surveillance and security.

He is leading the charge to take CA’s storage channel business to new heights. He’s already making moves to get partners to play a bigger role with managed services and cloud.

Beloved by his partners, he’s a master at building highly targeted SMB channel programs that pay off in big profits for Adtran solution providers. No one in the channel gets better scores for partnership.

He’s a 20-year channel veteran who joined Trend this year and had an immediate impact. He has moved quickly to maintain the security vendor’s channel edge and drive more profits for partners.

He’s simply one of the best at driving sales growth, and the numbers speak for themselves. His channel savvy led to a win in the CRN Annual Report Card Network Security Appliances category.

He’s a great leader who recently delivered the best quarterly results in the company’s 35-year history. He has given the distributor a shot in the arm with high-margin vertical market and technology opporunities.

She has upped channel commitment considerably with services opportunities and improved ease of doing business for partners. She has also raised NetApp’s visibility in the solution provider community.

For more of the Top 100 Executives Of 2010, see part 1 of our list, The 25 Most Influential Executives Of 2010, and part 2, The 25 Most Innovative Executives Of 2010.