Women Of The Channel 2014: Power 50 Solution Providers

Power 50 Solution Providers

The annual Women of the Channel list highlights the accomplishments of female executives within vendor, distribution, and solution provider organizations, and the impact they are having on the advancement of the IT channel.

This year's inaugural Power 50 Solution Providers honors an elite subset of female executives at solution provider organizations who are extending their respective company's sphere of influence as trusted advisers.

For more Women of the Channel coverage, check out our Power 100 lists (Part One and Part Two). You can also check out the full listing of the 2014 Women of the Channel.

Ellie Nazemoff, Acolyst

CEO / President

Years in Position: 25

Years in Channel: 25

Ellie Nazemoff implemented an innovative program designed to help technology manufacturers expand their business with the federal government and successfully navigate the public sector.

Reena Gupta, Avankia LLC, TargetRecruit LLC

CEO

Years in Position: 13

Years in Channel: 3

Gupta steered the company to its 2013 annual revenue goal and increased its global presence with customers on every continent. She is focused on developing more features and models to increase efficiency.

Sitima Fowler, Capstone Information Technologies Inc

CO-CEO

Years in Position: 11

Years in Channel: 11

Capstone has seen strong growth with more than 30 percent year-over-year revenue increases in the past three years and focuses on managed services for SMBs.

Lucy Graham, Carousel Industries

Director of Marketing

Years in Position: 6

Years in Channel: 6

Spending a lot of time with Carousel's top partners last year, Graham maximized joint programs for visibility and profitability and positioned the overall Carousel message in the marketplace.

Robyn Howes, Certified NETS, Inc.

President

Years in Position: 18

Years in Channel: 18

Howes zeroed in on measuring customer satisfaction, introducing new measures that allow the company to gauge when there is a change in satisfaction levels and proactively address the concern.

Debi Bush, CMIT Solutions of Denver

CEO

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 10

Despite lower top-line revenue, the company's bottom line was higher year over year. Bush aims to improve the client and employee on-boarding process.

Beth Burnside, CMIT Solutions of Erie

Owner

Years in Position: 7

Years in Channel: 7

A commitment to a marketing and business development plan led to the doubling of topline revenue over the same period last year. Burnside also built out the company's service delivery processes.

Shirley Peterson, CMIT Solutions of Fort Worth

President

Years in Position: 15

Years in Channel: 15

Recognized as the CMIT Solutions franchise of the month in January, the company continued to get more referrals for environmental, health care, nonprofits, aviation, accounting and financial services industries.

Barbara Vaigauskaite, CMIT Solutions of Hollywood

President

Years in Position: 8

Years in Channel: 4

The company's revenue grew at a 15 percent rate over 2012, and it became a Cisco Select partner as well as a VMware Professional partner last year.

Michelle Herring, CMIT Solutions of St. Charles/Chesterfield

Director of Operations

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 3

Herring helped form alliances with additional CMIT owners and the company increased its customer base and revenue by acquiring an existing managed services business.

Linda Kuppersmith, CMIT Solutions of Stamford

President and Chief Technology Advisor

Years in Position: 8

Years in Channel: 29

Kuppersmith steered the business to more than 50 percent growth via the addition of new clients and new offerings for the SMB market.

Kristie Scarbinsky, Comm Solutions Company

Marketing Communications Director

Years in Position: 5

Years in Channel: 9

Scarbinsky managed the adoption of a new marketing automation tool and more to give the company visibility into marketing ROI.

Dee Zepf, Continuum Managed Services, LLC

Vice President of Product and Technical Services

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 3

Leading technical enablement and education for partners, Zepf invested heavily in improving Continuum U and launched a full certification program.

Cynthia Mason, Cynergy Professional Systems LLC

President

Years in Position: 4

Years in Channel: 13

Mason inked key vendor relationships and, with a focus on federal, state and local government, expanded Cynergy's diversity status; it is one of very few to maintain all federal and California diversity statuses.

Laurie Dasher, Dasher Technologies, Inc.

President & CEO

Years in Position: 15

Years in Channel: 21

Dasher Technologies expanded its business practice and technical expertise to make it one of the fastest-growing VARs in the country around Hadoop, big data and data analytics. Dasher opened two new offices last year.

Sonia St. Charles, Davenport Group

CEO

Years in Position: 13

Years in Channel: 13

Davenport Group was named to the Inc. 500|5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies and to the CRN Fast Growth Top 25 list last year, validating the hard work the team has done.

J. Susan Ahmed, Edge Solutions LLC

Vice President, Services

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 20

Ahmed helped Edge Solutions fortify its services business, resulting in it becoming a significant contributor to overall revenue. She aims to have services account for 30 percent of total revenue, with higher margins than the rest of its business.

Julie Haley, Edge Solutions LLC

CEO

Years in Position: 6

Years in Channel: 6

Haley hired new talent, with Edge Solutions' personnel now more than 50 percent women. She also lowered operating costs and increased profit through an increase in service delivery sales year over year.

April Hughes, Encore Technology Group

Business Development Executive

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 10

Hughes helped increase Encore's national cloud revenue by 300 percent by adding new customers ranging from five to 10,000 users in four new states.

Jeanne Michele Miller, Ener Systems, LLC

President

Years in Position: 15

Years in Channel: 14

Ener Systems sales were up in 2013 vs. 2012 and the company maintained Associate level Intel channel membership. MIller continued her monthly blog for business owners.

JuliAn Coy, Explore Consulting

Vice President, Professional Services

Years in Position: 8

Years in Channel: 8

Explore continued to be a top NetSuite solution provider and achieved top worldwide sales success again in 2013; more than 50 percent of NetSuite's new business last year came from leading partners.

Gail Wilson, GWA Business Solutions Canada Inc.

President

Years in Position: 30

Years in Channel: 30

Wilson aligned GWA with a vertical market software company to much success and added a new position that is directly dedicated to working with the company's existing partner base.

Michelle Rust, Hardware.com

Vendor & Marketing Specialist

Years in Position: 0.5

Years in Channel: 1

Hardware.com had some great wins over the past year and, although new to the company, Rust worked with a great team to help foster the growth of the company through marketing and vendor management.

Elise Hernandez, Ideal System Solutions, Inc.

President/CEO

Years in Position: 17

Years in Channel: 17

Hernandez redefined core competencies and target markets and aligned the organization toward these areas. She also refined a 2012 upgrade of infrastructure and integration of a backend support system.

Caroline Hinton, Insight

Vice President - Strategic Partnerships (Software)

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 15

Due to the acceleration of cloud adoption and program changes from key partnerships, Hinton's mission was to shape Insight's internal strategy as well as strategic partners' strategies.

Kimberly Svoboda, Insight Enterprises

Vice President/General Manager Sales

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 23

Svoboda and her team spent much of last year developing the company's sales and solutions strategy to help clients achieve strong business results and exceeded performance targets.

Elise Starr, International Integrated Solutions Ltd.

Vice President of Operations

Years in Position: 25

Years in Channel: 25

IIS crossed the $100 million threshold in sales in 2013 as Starr acted on the longstanding vision to become more of a services- and solutions-oriented company and established big data and cloud practices.

Renae Johnson, Logicalis US

Vice President, Cisco Solutions

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 10

Although new to the company, Johnson expanded her role from working for Cisco in channels to managing the relationship between Logicalis and Cisco, and met with sales and technical teams face to face.

Christine Zagielski, Lumenate

Regional Vice President

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 15

Zagielski integrated her team from three different companies (Lumenate and two acquisitions) and transformed the sales teams from specialty focused to more strategic.

Tina Lux-Boim, Managed Maintenance, Inc.

President and CEO

Years in Position: 7

Years in Channel: 16

Lux-Boim set out on a trajectory to transition MMI from a primarily services-driven company to a software company, enabling increased profitability and greater value to the market.

Brenda Stallings, Matrix Integration

President/CEO

Years in Position: 35

Years in Channel: 35

Stallings plans to visit top-tier clients to understand more about Matrix's strengths and opportunities to help their business objectives and to build the company's leadership team for future success.

Crystal Williams Mayer, MetaLogix, Inc.

CEO

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 9

Williams Mayer, under MetaLogix's "Expanded Horizons" theme, expanded new service offerings in social media and Web development, design and marketing solutions, which resulted in high returns.

Janice Newlon, Novacoast Inc

COO

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 14

Novacoast expanded its staffing division and revenue was up 40 percent. Newlon concentrated on the company's RFP process and finalized the company's GSA schedule.

Janis Baldwin, Nth Generation Computing

CEO

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 12

Nth Generation added 40 new clients in 2013, which brought in more than $2.5 million in revenue. The company also kicked off its big data practice and expanded its cloud practice last year.

Jane Linder, NWN Corporation

Managing Director

Years in Position: 5.5

Years in Channel: 6

Linder last year took responsibility for the marketing team and, for a short time, the partner development team. She amped up customer intimacy with CIO Roundtables and three Executive Advisory Councils.

Susan Paul, Pariveda Solutions

Vice President - Strategy Practice

Years in Position: 6

Years in Channel: 20

Paul developed the business case and launched Pariveda's Strategy Practice that helps clients run IT as a business, for the business, demonstrating the company's intent to grow.

Trish Southwell, Patriot Technologies

Executive Vice President, Sales Operations

Years in Position: 15

Years in Channel: 20

Southwell expanded Patriot's mobile security solution offering, which involved working with multiple vendor partners to create a comprehensive, integrated solution, adding value for customers and vendor partners.

Patricia Gallup, PC Connection, Inc.

Chairman & Chief Administrative Officer

Years in Position: 32

Years in Channel: 32

Gallup invested in in-house technical talent, launched a cloud practice, and expanded the portfolio across data center, networking, storage, software, life cycle, mobility and cloud.

Jill Atcheson, Presidio

Director, Digital Marketing

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 5

As director of digital, Atcheson drove regional demand generation, working with sales leadership and making sure that Presidio's digital vision aligned with the company's business objectives.

Kirsten Craft, Prolifics

Vice President of Business Development

Years in Position: 1

Years in Channel: 14

Craft launched a business development unit focused on accelerating sales for strategic initiatives and enabling the sales force to increase their overall effectiveness.

Dina Moskowitz, SaaSMAX Corp.

CEO

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 5

In mid-2013 the SaasMax Marketplace platform went from beta to commercial launch. Moskowitz doubled the size of the SaaSMax team and more than tripled the size of its community of vendors and resellers.

Thai Lee, SHI International Corp.

President and CEO

Years in Position: 25

Years in Channel: 25

With Lee at the helm, for the first time in SHI's history the company posted $5 billion in revenue and topped 2,500 full-time employees in 2013, doubling revenue and head count in the past five years.

Nancy Gorski, Strategic Mobility Group

President

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 3

In 2013 the company doubled sales and expanded its sales force. Gorski also expanded into new industries, including health care, and forged partnerships with software providers, telecom and others.

Georgia Vasilion, Technology Integration Group

Public Sector Vice President

Years in Position: 3

Years in Channel: 13

Vasilion continued to drive public sector sales within the company by working with the TIG sales force as well as other manufacturers with programs, contracts and contract compliance.

Kim Girards, The Ergonomic Group

President, CEO

Years in Position: 30

Years in Channel: 30

Business users are changing the technology landscape and Girards kept Ergonomic Group ahead of these changes by offering converged infrastructure and cloud solutions, helping clients react at the speed of their business.

Ilene Rosoff, The Launch Pad

President & CEO

Years in Position: 22

Years in Channel: 25

Rosoff refined the company's RevITup SliverCloud series, a fully packaged cloud-based solution offering hosted VoIP services, hosted Exchange with smart devices, file storage and sharing, and offsite data backup.

Michelle Drolet, Towerwall

Founder, CEO

Years in Position: 21

Years in Channel: 21

Drolet built closer ties with security partners Sophos, Varonis and AlienVault and re-introduced them to Towerwall's customer base of banks, universities and bio-pharmaceuticals.

Susan Penevolpe, WTG

Vice President of Sales

Years in Position: 2

Years in Channel: 12

Penevolpe helped steer WTG to more than 30 percent growth last year and built systems and processes to scale the company's continued growth and the development of the team and agents.

Norrie Davidson, WW Works

CEO

Years in Position: 3.5

Years in Channel: 4

Davidson grew the business in gross revenue by 300 percent and grew the number of employees over the past three years by 333 percent. WW Works won Lenovo Partner of the Year and VentureTech Rookie of the Year.

Jennifer McGraw, Zumasys

COO

Years in Position: 9

Years in Channel: 9

To meet the increased demand for services and expand product offerings, McGraw focused on the scalability of operations, growing head count 46 percent and doubling the engineering team.