2014 Channel Chiefs: The 50 Most Influential

The Channel Movers And Shakers

Every channel chief has influence, but there are a number of channel executives who are especially influential, either because the vendor they work for has a major channel presence, the channel organization has a lot of influence within the company, or the channel chief himself/herself carries great weight within the vendor executive ranks. Or some combination of all three.

Each year CRN puts together its list of the leading channel chiefs in the IT industry, about 270 this year. But this year, out of those 270, we've also identified the 50 channel chiefs we think are especially influential. Here they are, in alphabetical order by company.

Amazon Web Services
Terry Wise
Director, Worldwide Partner Ecosystem

Cloud computing is changing the face of the IT industry and the channel. And AWS is setting the pace: Last year the company beat out industry stalwart IBM for a $600 million cloud computing contract with the CIA, something that would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago.

With AWS playing such a pivotal position in the industry, Wise is positioned to determine how the company works with and through the channel. And that could set the model for other cloud computing vendors and their channel partners. As of November 2013 Amazon Web Services' Partner Network had 8,000 technology and consulting partners.

APC by Schneider Electric
Shannon Sbar
VP, Channel/Partner Sales

Data center technologies have been a growth area for the channel, and tools for energy management in particular have been in great demand. That puts APC by Schneider Electric in a critical position for solution providers and Sbar in an influential spot within the company and within the industry.

Under Sbar, APC refreshed its opportunity registration program in 2013, lowering sales thresholds and offering larger discounts to partners. The company also launched its Small IT Solutions Program providing discounts through distributors.

AT&T Business Solutions
Brooks McCorcle
President, Emerging Business Markets

McCorcle helped construct, and now manages, AT&T Partner Exchange, a new channel program launched by the telecom giant in 2013. The program, targeted specifically at IT solution providers, is designed to drive sales of AT&T's mobility, cloud and networking solutions through the channel.

McCorcle also helped create the Emerging Business Markets organization and was instrumental in AT&T's efforts to roll out innovative mobility, cloud and IP networking solutions to the channel.

Axcient
Justin Moore
CEO

Under Moore Axcient is changing the way businesses store, protect and access their data. And it's been a leader in encouraging the channel to embrace cloud services.

Axcient in 2013 reduced prices and simplified the overall pricing model for its services, giving partners higher margins, more autonomy and better flexibility. Moore and his team created a full portfolio of marketing and demand-generation assets that help partners increase their revenue.

Buffalo Americas
Bill Rhodes
Director of Channel Sales

Buffalo Americas is shaking up the SMB network storage market, competing against such storage system heavyweights as EMC and Dell, as well as expanding its reach in markets for wired and wireless networking products. And Rhodes is making sure that paradigm shift is carried through into the company's channel operations.

Buffalo Americas' grew its Authorized Partner base by 20 percent in 2013, resulting in 15 percent more revenue from partners. Rhodes has significantly improved pre/post-sales and support, including the Priority Partner Tech Support Hotline, and a new Enhanced Warranty offering.

CA Technologies
Adam Famularo
SVP, Partner Sales, North America

Famularo, a 15-year CA veteran, was promoted to his current post in November. He had been serving as senior vice president and general manager of the AppLogic Business Unit, the vendor's cloud platform operations, and before that he was senior vice president and general manager of cloud computing across all of CA. That background puts him in a key position to bring the vendor's cloud offerings into the channel and help CA's channel partners make the transition to cloud computing.

In 2013 CA aligned its direct sales and partner coverage model, putting clear partnering rules of engagement in place. The company also realigned technical resources to accelerate partner enablement worldwide to increase reach into new customer growth markets.

Ciena
Nigel Williams
VP, Global Channels and Strategic Alliances

Williams has led the effort to overhaul Ciena's BizConnect partner program to place a greater emphasis on services and what the channel chief calls partner "self-sufficiency." At a time when many partner programs are still focused on sales volumes, the changes being made to BizConnect are designed to put more emphasis on the value provided by partners.

While the bulk of Ciena's sales remain focused on carriers, the network infrastructure company is gunning to increase its enterprise business through the channel. Williams, a channel veteran from Cisco and Level 3 Communications, is spearheading that effort.

Cisco Systems
Bruce Klein
SVP, Worldwide Partner Organization

Cisco is one of the most influential companies in the IT industry and is certainly one of the top vendors in the channel. So as a Cisco channel chief Klein has instant influence, especially as Cisco expands into new areas such as software-defined networking, the Internet of Things, and converged infrastructure.

Klein led Cisco's decision to double its midmarket channel investment last year to $150 million. His organization also introduced tools to help partners build cloud and managed services offerings into their portfolios and transition to a recurring revenue model. The company launched the Cisco ISV program to deliver vertically relevant solutions with partners to customers as well.

Cisco Systems
Edison Peres
SVP, Worldwide Channels

Peres is the longtime head of Cisco's worldwide channel operations, through which the company does more than 80 percent of its business. But beyond providing stable leadership for Cisco's partner program for more than a decade, Peres has taken on the role of partner transformer-in-chief, urging solution providers to adopt a hybrid IT business model that encompasses managed services, on-premise solutions, and public-private cloud offerings with professional consulting services. And partners are listening.

Under Peres' leadership in 2013 Cisco launched Cloud Reseller Programs, including new business models and initiatives such as the "Business Transformation Playbook," to support partner cloud and managed services sales. New specializations help partners focus on midmarket solutions.

Comcast Business Services
Craig Schlagbaum
VP, Indirect Channels

Schlagbaum was in an influential position even before the recent news that Comcast will acquire Time Warner Cable in a $45.2 billion blockbuster deal. The channel chief has been the driver behind a cultural and strategic shift to embrace channel partners within Comcast Business Services.

Schlagbaum also sees growing acceptance among solution providers to featuring cable as a primary solution for their business customers. The number of partners producing new sales revenue on a monthly basis grew significantly in 2013. A deal with distributor Synnex unveiled in August to bring telecom carrier services to the IT channel is a good example of Schlagbaum's vision.

Condusiv Technologies
Jerry Baldwin
CEO

Condusiv has been winning applause from solution providers for having both breakthrough virtualization technology and a top-notch partner program under Baldwin. The CEO spearheaded last year's launch of an Elite tier within its channel program and recruitment of key partners to the Elite and Premier levels. The company also introduced online training and exams for all partners.

Dell
Jim DeFoe
VP, North American Channel Sales

DeFoe, a 17-year Dell veteran, is vice president of the company's North America nationally managed partners. Given that Dell North America president Bill Rodrigues and vice president of worldwide channels Cheryl Cook are both new to the channel, the deep experience of DeFoe and Frank Vitagliano, North American Channel Sales vice president, are invaluable.

Partner education has been a focus for Defoe. In 2013 Dell PartnerDirect provided more than 163,000 training courses and added four software competencies and certifications: security, data protection, systems management and information management.

Dell
Frank Vitagliano
VP, North American Channel Sales

Dell has been making the transition from a direct-only computer vendor to a company that counts on the channel for more than one-third of its sales. Those efforts got a boost last year when the company hired Frank Vitagliano, a 40-year industry veteran, as its new vice president of North American channel sales.

Along with his experience and "channel cred," Vitagliano brought to Dell his extensive relationships with many networking, security and infrastructure solution providers.

Eaton
Curtiz Gangi
Director, U.S. Channels

Curtiz and his organization have focused on partner development related to power management, helping educate the market about the impacts of power related to virtualization, managed services and other data center technologies. Curtiz has also played a key role in establishing strategic alliances with key vendors of data center products including Cisco, EMC and VMware.

EMC
Gregg Ambulos
SVP, Global Channel Sales

Ambulos is responsible for executing EMC's go-to-market strategy for channel and distribution partners. That's a critical position for EMC, as it expands beyond its core data storage turf into cloud computing, big data, security and content management.

Under Ambulos EMC spent much of 2013 overhauling its partner programs and preparing for the launch of the EMC Business Partner brand -- the new umbrella name for all EMC partner programs.

EMC
Terry Breen
SVP, Strategic Alliances

In 2013 Breen's Global Alliance organization worked to build an ecosystem of cloud service providers, systems integrators, outsourcers and OEMs into EMC's go-to-market strategy, and provided a path for resellers to move into the EMC Cloud Service provider program. Under Breen's leadership, strategic partners have been the fastest-growing segment of EMC's sales organization.

Extreme Networks
Theresa Caragol
VP, Global Partners & Channels

Extreme Networks acquired Enterasys Networks in November, instantly making it a networking industry powerhouse. From the channel perspective, the deal doubled Extreme's partner base with about 1,000 active partners in the Extreme Partner Network program under Caragol's management.

Extreme Networks is now positioned to compete more forcefully against Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Huawei, and the company's channel efforts, led by Caragol, will be a major factor in how well those efforts succeed.

F5 Networks
Jim Ritchings
SVP, Worldwide Channels

Not many years ago F5 Networks was a niche supplier of load-balancing technology. But the company has grown quickly as it expanded into application delivery software for deploying and managing applications across virtual and physical networks. That puts F5, and Ritchings and F5's channel partners, in a pivotal spot as software-defined networking takes off.

Under Ritchings F5 Networks in 2013 designed a deal-registration system to reward partners whose customers procure and deploy F5 products in multiple countries. The company reported significant year-over-year revenue growth across all partner segments last year.

FireEye
Steve Pataky
VP, Worldwide Channels, Alliances

FireEye caught everyone's attention in 2013, not just for its blockbuster IPO, but for its leading-edge technology that detects malware that gets past traditional antivirus systems. That means the company is not just shaking up the IT security market, but the IT security channel as well.

Under Pataky, a 25-year channel veteran, FireEye in 2013 launched Fuel, its worldwide partner program, and recruited more than 500 partners. The company formed its first partner advisory council, seeking feedback on where the vendor should invest in partner programs and infrastructure.

Fortinet
Bryan Wood
VP, U.S. Channels and Mid-Enterprise Sales

Fortinet is battling Check Point, Palo Alto Networks and other competitors in the rough-and-tumble IT security arena. And Wood is charged with making sure Fortinet's channel partners are part of those efforts. He assumed his post in May after Michael Valentine and Kendra Krause headed over to rival Sophos in early 2013.

Wood has focused on new partner recruitment, as well as developing the existing partner base: Fortinet's partner-led sales saw double-digit growth in 2013. Under his direction Fortinet unveiled a four-point program giving Managed Security Service Providers in the Americas beneficial pricing, dedicated technical support and MSSP-specific marketing programs.

Hewlett-Packard
Sue Barsamian
SVP, GM, Enterprise Group,
Worldwide Indirect Sales

Barsamian is the right executive at the right time. A rising star within HP, Barsamian has driven major initiatives in enterprise indirect sales strategy and channel engagement in just five months. She has pulled together a team of top-flight channel professionals and is changing the indirect sales game for the better for HP and its partners. On the top of her list: a sharp focus on new channel rules of engagement to formalize partner engagement and reduce channel conflict.

Hewlett-Packard
Jos Brenkel
SVP, Worldwide Sales Strategy and PMO
Printing and Personal Systems

Brenkel deserves big credit for keeping HP's PPS channel firing on all cylinders by teaming closely with PPS EVP and General Manager Dion Weisler on channel engagement. One sign of his effectiveness: commercial notebook and ink in office sales growth. Among his accomplishments are re-establishing a dedicated public sector team to help partners and HP sales reps team on opportunities and new partner specialization categories. Brenkel's a steady channel hand for a business unit competing in what may be the toughest industry terrain.

Hewlett-Packard
Harry Gould
VP, Worldwide Channels and Alliances, Software

A seasoned indirect sales veteran brought to HP a year ago, Gould has brought channel DNA to HP Software. Gould's software organization in 2013 launched eight specializations under HP PartnerOne, covering enterprise security, IT operations, cloud and application life-cycle management.

With HP's big data, security and cloud software portfolio attracting big attention, Gould is on the top of the get-to-know list for partners looking to aggressively pivot to the new style of IT.

IBM
Marc Dupaquier
GM, Global Business Partners

Dupaquier, a 29-year IBM veteran, was just named general manager in January, taking over from former general manager Mark Hennessy. He is responsible for leading the organization that supports IBM's 140,000 business partners, a number that makes IBM a formidable player in the channel, despite the vendor's declining sales in recent quarters.

Dupaquier's challenge is helping those thousands of partners transform their businesses to include more software and services, including cloud computing and managed services. (Partners account for more than half of IBM's hardware sales, but only 30 percent of software sales.) He'll also have to work with partners as IBM completes the $2.3 billion sale of its x86 server business to Lenovo.

Intacct
Taylor Macdonald
VP, Channels and Commercial

Intacct has targeted the midmarket for its cloud-based accounting and financial management applications, and the channel, under the direction of channel veteran Macdonald, has been a major factor in its growth.

Intacct's channel revenue grew by 75 percent in 2013. Macdonald doubled the size of the channel team and grew the partner roster by 30 percent (the company has been aggressively recruiting Microsoft and Sage Software partners). Intacct is building a hybrid channel with partners and its direct sales team.

Intel
Steve Dallman
VP, GM, Original Design Manufacturing Channel Engagement

As businesses and consumers purchase fewer traditional desktop PCs in favor of mobile devices, Dallman is charged with working with manufacturing partners who are designing and building Ultrabooks, small factor PCs, tablets and smartphones using Intel chips. That means a lot of Intel's prospects for growth hinges on Dallman's work.

Signs of success so far: Last year ODM partners grew their tablet sales by 125 percent, and channel partners increased their SKU purchases from ODMs by 85 percent. Dallman's organization also provided engineering resources to give channel OEMs their own designs and software for small businesses.

Intelisys
Jay Bradley
President

Master agent Intelisys once traditionally worked with telecommunications service agents. But recently the company has built a stable of VARs from the IT arena, putting it in an advantageous position to capitalize on the convergence of IT and telco -- and the IT and telco channels.

One example of how Bradley and his company is bridging the two worlds: He led the development of the Advanced Commissions Program, a flexible system that allows solution providers to choose how they receive commissions on cloud and carrier service deals, easing the transition between the up-front cash flow VARs have traditionally relied on and a recurring revenue model.

Intronis
Neal Bradbury
Co-founder and channel development

Many smaller solution providers are looking to build a cloud business but don't have the resources to build their own data centers. That's where Intronis comes in, providing channel partners with white-label cloud services such as data storage, data security, and backup and recovery.

In 2013 Intronis, under Bradbury's direction, significantly grew the volume of storage being managed by Intronis partners. And the company expanded its VMware backup and recovery capabilities and added the ability to create and update recovery VMs in a cluster.

Juniper Networks
David Helfer
VP, Channels and Commercial

Juniper Networks suffered an executive exodus in 2013, including a number of executives from its channel management ranks. Helfer, a 13-year Juniper veteran who managed the company's EMEA channel operations, was named to his current post in October after the departure of Emilio Umeoka.

Juniper also has a new CEO, Shaygan Kheradpir, and he's going to be looking to Helfer as a channel veteran to help get Juniper back on track. Helfer is also in a critical position as he's in charge of the recently combined channel and commercial operations.

Kaspersky Lab
Chris Doggett
SVP, Corporate Sales

Kaspersky is a fast-growing endpoint security technology provider that sells 100 percent through the channel. So the challenge for Doggett is making sure the company's channel program keeps up.

Early last year Doggett retooled the channel program, building up the channel and sales teams and improving support processes. As of mid-2013, partner recruitment was up more than 300 percent year over year and deal-registration volume was up 20 percent. Earlier this month Doggett outlined plans to go after large, enterprise accounts using regional partners for engagements.

Lenovo North America
Chris Frey
VP, North America Commercial Channels

Lenovo's been on a roll, with its market-share gains in PCs (becoming No. 1 in market share) and servers and its recent deal to acquire IBM's x86 server business for $2.3 billion.

That means more work for Frey, the company's channel chief. But he'll take it. Lenovo's channel sales grew 30 percent in 2013, contributing to Lenovo’s 20 percent-plus SMB market growth. Last year Frey's organization increased the number of VARs selling ThinkServer products five-fold, leading to a 75 percent sales increase.

McAfee
Gavin Struthers
SVP, Worldwide Channels

Struthers, who is starting his third year in his current post, is playing a critical role as the company's more than 2,000 partners make the transition from simply reselling to providing more cloud-based management services.

Struthers' organization added 676 new partners in North America and 414 partners in Latin America to the McAfee SecurityAlliance program in 2013. But Struthers also has been weeding out VARs that fail to meet sales engineer certification requirements.

Microsoft
Jenni Flinders
VP, U.S. Partner Group

This will be a year of significant change for Microsoft, with Satya Nadella set to take over as CEO from Steve Ballmer as the company works to reshape itself as a services and devices company.

Flinders' organization will play a key role in that transformation, given that 95 percent of the company's revenue is generated through the channel. Flinders' challenge will be helping the company's tens of thousands of U.S. partners move into mobility, cloud, social enterprise and big data. Last year the vendor doubled the number of partners selling cloud solutions.

N-Able by SolarWinds
Mike Cullen
SVP, Sales

SolarWinds develops cloud-based remote monitoring/management and service automation software, critical technologies for managed service providers targeting SMB customers. (SolarWinds acquired N-Able in May 2013 for $120 million.)

That makes Cullen a VIP for many MSPs. In 2013 the company expanded its partner network, which is now serving more than 100,000 small and midsize customers and managing more than 1 million devices globally.

NetApp
Peter Howard
VP, Global Channel Sales

Howard, an eight-year NetApp veteran, was tapped to become NetApp's global channel chief in May, a critical role given that more than 80 percent of NetApp's sales are through indirect channels.

Howard oversaw a redesign of NetApp's channel program in August with the goal of simplifying how solution providers work with the company. The most important change among NetApp partners, Howard said, has been in developing professional services practices around NetApp’s data management product portfolio. The most profitable partners sold professional services with more than 70 percent of their NetApp transactions.

NetSuite
Craig West
VP, Americas Channel Sales

NetSuite has been one of the fastest-growing vendors of cloud-based ERP, CRM and commerce applications. Under CEO Zach Nelson and channel chief West, it's also been one of the biggest proponents of bringing the channel into the cloud.

About 40 percent of NetSuite's business is generated through the channel, and in 2013 channel partners drove 40 percent of the company's new-business bookings.

To step up its channel partners' game, West's organization implemented an ERP Consultant Certification Program in November that validates solution providers' professional services expertise in implementing, integrating and optimizing NetSuite cloud ERP solutions against NetSuite’s best practices and implementation methodologies.

Palo Alto Networks
Ron Myers
VP, Worldwide Channels

Palo Alto Networks, the fast-growing developer of next-generation firewall appliances, appointed Myers its first global channel chief in September. Myers, a 15-year channel veteran, was working as global channels president for videoconferencing vendor Polycom when Palo Alto Networks called.

Myers oversees relationships with some 1,300 partners, about 500 of which were added to the NextWave partner program in 2013. Some of those partners have told CRN they are replacing customers' legacy firewalls with Palo Alto appliances. With partners playing such a major role in Palo Alto's aggressive market plans, Myers has a big role to play.

PTC
Kerry Grimes
SVP, Worldwide Channel Sales

PTC has been steadily growing channel sales of its product design, engineering and life-cycle management software. In October the company hired Grimes, a 20-year channel veteran who previously worked at Siemens PLM Software, to be the company's worldwide channel chief. One of his first acts was to issue a 12-point "Rules of Engagement" document spelling out how PTC and its channel partners will co-exist in the marketplace.

Grimes' appointment, along with the hiring of former Autodesk channel exec Gary Smith to be PTC's North America Channel vice president, are signs of channel commitment from CEO James Heppelmann and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales Bob Ranaldi.

Red Hat
Mark Enzweiler
Senior Vice President of Global Channel Sales and Alliances

Red Hat is quickly becoming a force in the market, not just with its open-source Linux, but also with its middleware, data storage, virtualization and cloud computing software. And it's also becoming a force in the channel, which now accounts for about 70 percent of Red Hat's sales (up from 53 percent in fiscal 2008).

Enzweiler is the top channel exec at Red Hat: The company is searching for a replacement for Roger Egan, vice president of North America channel sales, who left the company in January. Enzweiler, meanwhile, has focused on bolstering the company's partner enablement offerings, including free training and certification, and growing channel investments around storage and cloud technologies.

Ruckus Wireless
Ron Gill
VP, Americas, Enterprise Sales

Ruckus Wireless has been aggressively pursuing the enterprise and SMB wireless markets and under Gill is bulking up its Big Dog partner program along the way. In a sign of its growing channel presence, the company swept the SMB networking hardware category in CRN's 2013 Annual Report Card scores.

In 2013 Gill's organization launched the company's first formal lead-generation program and telesales team to generate and deliver qualified leads to channel partners. It also expanded channel support with more regional channel managers, inside sales reps and systems engineers.

Sage North America
Joe Langner
EVP, GM, Midmarket Solutions

Sage has been going through some significant changes in recent years, including slimming down its product line and instituting a controversial subscription pricing plan. But the one constant through it all has been the vendor's reliance on its channel partners who account for most of the company's sales, including about 85 percent of the company's core ERP products.

And Langner is in charge of Sage North America's channel efforts. Last year he led the development of the Sage Advisor Dashboard that gives partners detailed insight into their customers’ business needs and helps spur cross-sell opportunities. (Tom Miller, Sage's North America channel chief, retired in early 2013. Earlier this month the company hired Donald Deshaies as vice president of channel management.)

Salesforce.com
Ron Huddleston
SVP, Global ISV, Channel Alliances

Salesforce.com's partner ecosystem of ISVs, OEMs and service companies has been growing at a tremendous rate and now generates $1 billion in revenue for themselves and nearly $200 million for Salesforce, the latter growing at 25 percent per year. Huddleston's organization grew the company's partner ranks by 50 percent in 2013.

A key achievement for Salesforce in 2013 was the introduction of Salesforce1, a platform for ISV partners to build mobile applications.

SAP
Kevin Gilroy
SVP, Global Indirect Channels

Gilroy, a 24-year veteran at Hewlett-Packard, joined SAP as senior vice president of North America in January 2010 and became senior vice president of global indirect channels two years later.

While SAP was traditionally know for selling big ERP systems to big companies, the vendor has expanded deep into SMB markets in recent years -- most of that through the channel. Under Gilroy, SAP has doubled the number of partners in its Global VAR Program (the company has some 13,000 partners worldwide) with channel revenue growing 40 percent annually. And the company is very close to meeting its goal of driving 40 percent of its software revenue through the channel by 2015.

Sophos
Michael Valentine
SVP, Worldwide Sales

Security industry veteran Valentine joined Sophos in February 2013 following a five-year stint at Fortinet. Based in Sophos' U.S. headquarters in Boston, Valentine faces the critical task of reigniting North American sales for the U.K.-based security technology company. (In August Sophos hired Dell SonicWall sales executive John Keenan to manage its North American sales operation.)

Valentine's task is to leverage the company's channel operations to spur that growth. Sophos added more than 700 partners globally in 2013, including more than 250 in the Americas. The company also launched an MSP partner program, created a partner lead-generation campaign, and better aligned its sales organization to the channel.

VCE
Chris Sullivan
VP, Global Channels & Investor Alliances

VCE is competing with established giants such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM and in the fast-growing converged infrastructure market. And it's counting on its channel operations under Sullivan to help it succeed.

VCE began demonstrating a sharper focus on the channel last year. Sullivan oversaw the launch of the VCE Partner Program in September to reward partners who invested in VCE products. Also new last year were VCE Service and Solution specializations to increase partner differentiation, value and margins.

VMware
Dave O'Callaghan
SVP, Global Partner Organization

VMware counted heavily on channel partners when it was an industry disrupter with its virtualization products. The channel will be equally important as VMware expands with its software-defined data center, hybrid cloud and converged infrastructure (through its role in VCE) technologies, and its upcoming VSAN storage offering.

O'Callaghan, who took the reins as VMware's global channel chief in June, is widely seen as the right man for the job, given his 25 years of industry experience that includes channel posts at Cisco and Hitachi Data Systems. O'Callaghan's focus has been on investing in the VMware Partner Network program to boost partner profitability in VMware's core technology areas.

VMware
Frank Rauch
VP, Americas Partner Organization

As VMware expands with its hybrid cloud, software-defined data center and VSAN storage technologies, Rauch will be responsible for getting those products to market through its tens of thousands of partners in the Americas.

Under Rauch the Americas Partner Organization in 2013 focused on aligning company strategy with top partners, motivating solution providers to achieve enterprise status and increase deal sizes. The company also developed new rules of engagement for Americas partners, and reduced the number of declined and stalled deal registrations.

WatchGuard Technologies
Alex Thurber
VP, Sales

WatchGuard competes in the no-holds-barred market for unified threat management appliances, going up against Barracuda Networks, Sophos and Dell SonicWall. Industry veteran Thurber, with stints at Cisco, McAfee and Tripwire under his belt, joined WatchGuard in June.

WatchGuard recorded channel revenue growth exceeding 20 percent in 2013 and Thurber's task is to keep that momentum going. The company rolled out an enhanced deal-registration program last year and began a major redesign of its partner program slated to launch this spring.

Xerox
Douraid Zaghouani
President, Channel Partner Operations

Xerox has long been a mainstay of the channel and, as solution providers expand into managed print services and related MSP offerings, the company's importance will grow. Zaghouani has been with Xerox for more than 10 years and he plays the influential role of accelerating growth in SMB markets through Xerox's channel partners.

Xerox grew its partner base by double digits in 2013 under Zaghouani and the company launched an authorized dealer program with customized benefits for partners with expertise in the copier/multifunction printer space.

XO Communications
Shane McNamara
VP, Partner Channel

XO Communications is one of the nation's largest communications service providers, offering IP communications, cloud computing, networking and hosted IT services. That puts the company -- and McNamara -- in an important position for partners as the boundaries between IT and telecommunications blurs.

McNamara led the effort to expand XO Communications' channel program in 2013, offering new sales, marketing, technical, and customer service and training benefits to the company's channel partners.