2015 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers
Rising Stars
CRN's annual Women of the Channel 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. For the second year in a row, the project will give special recognition to 25 rising-star female executives.
Here we present the 2015 Women Of The Channel: Up-And-Comers. For more Women of the Channel coverage, check out our Power 100 lists (Part One and Part Two) and our Power 50 Solution Providers. You can also check out the full listing of the 2015 Women of the Channel.
Holly Adams, Centrify
Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 1.5
Years in Channel: 9
Adams spearheaded the development and execution of the 2014 launch of the Centrify Channel Partner Network, which provides three distinct tiers -- Premier, Select and Authorized -- with various levels of engagement.
Mary Beach, F5 Networks
Sr. Channel Program Manager
Years in Position: 4
Years in Channel: 8
As solutions become increasingly more complex to deploy, Beach worked to develop a technical enablement strategy to help partners sell and offered new free certification preparation courses and testing.
Samantha Ciaccia, Datto
Channel Engagement Manager
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 3
As one of Datto's road warriors, Ciaccia was a frontline evangelist of the company's total data protection platform, educating MSPs on the right positioning of the business continuity solutions.
Hope Davo, Fonality
Director, Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 0.5
Years in Channel: 2
Davo and her team launched a new Channel Partner Program that includes simplified commission structures, MDF, a new partner portal and sales enablement tools. She also invested in building online tools such as the Fonality Partner Exchange.
Adine Deford, AppZero
CMO, VP, Channel Development
Years in Position: 2.5
Years in Channel: 9
Targeting systems integrators, VARs and other partners with migration practices looking to slash costs, Deford built out AppZero's three-tier channel program, developed a partner portal and on-boarded 54 new partners.
Lisa Del Real, Ring Central
Director, Channel Programs, Operations
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 4
Del Real led efforts to build business analytics tools to better manage and measure ROI in the channel business of Ring Central's partners. She also championed sales leadership to collaborate and promote the channel, reducing channel conflict.
Laurie Desroches, DataGravity
Director, Channel Sales Operations
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 10
Desroches helped develop the DataGravity early access channel program from the ground up, enabling her to work with the first group of channel partners given access to the DataGravity Discovery Series and apply their feedback.
Stacy Desrosiers, Ctera
Director, Worldwide Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 20
Desrosiers brought 20 years of channel experience to her new role. Since joining, she has developed the new Ctera Cloud Accelerator Channel Program, which includes expanded sales support.
Danielle Faletra, Axcient
Partner Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 5
When Faletra first started her team she saw an opportunity for growth through streamlining the partner portal and making sure the data sales representatives were accessing was clean and easy to manage.
Megan Flanagan, Code42
Manager, Channel Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 5
Flanagan and the entire Code42 channel team focused on building awareness of their channel initiatives for the fast-growing company. Flanagan helped build upon Code42's Channel Day Event, unifying all the channel activities taking place.
Jacqueline "Jack" Foster, Arcserve
Director, Americas Marketing
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 7
Foster and her team were central to the growth of the Arcserve channel business through the launch of new programs, campaigns and the go-to-market tools they need to sell new technology.
Heidi Ganser-Muhs, Unify
VP, Channel Strategy, Tech Operations
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 8
Ganser-Muhs was tasked with creating and directing a completely new channel program for Unify, leading a global interdisciplinary working team from scratch and creating a communicable program guide in 90 days.
Stacey Kirsch, Bluebeam Software
Sr. Channel Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 3
Kirsch met face to face with Bluebeam partners, encouraging them to offer additional Bluebeam promotions to boost brand awareness. The company saw 60 percent growth in channel sales from 2013 to 2014.
Jaana Linsenmayer, Nintex
Director, Partner Programs
Years in Position: 0.5
Years in Channel: 10
Linsenmayer was brought on board to help grow Nintex's partner program and led the creation of a Campaign-in-a-Box initiative -- new tools that give partners high-quality resources that are easy to customize and deploy.
Cindy Liu, Equinix
Sr. Director, Channel Sales Enablement
Years in Position: 5
Years in Channel: 2
Liu started Equinix's channel program from scratch in 2014 and grew to a full launch in January 2015, driving project management across sales, support, sales enablement, reporting, product and pricing, and the channel team.
Amanda O'Neill, AT&T
Director, Sales Operations, AT&T Partner Solutions
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 3
O'Neill led the inside sales enablement team, which on-boards and activates solution providers, and the sales operations team, which focuses on process development, improvement and implementation.
Jennifer Pospishek, Teradici
Director, Worldwide Partner Program, Marketing
Years in Position: 2
Years in Channel: 10
Popishek and her team led Teradici's channel business through delivery of product enhancements, active partner and program expansion, and outreach.
Tracy Staniland, Asigra
VP, Corporate Marketing
Years in Position: 5
Years in Channel: 15
Staniland developed a Brand Advocacy Program that rewards partners through gamification for their contributions to promoting the Asigra brand through social media and more. She also strengthened the Sales Qualified Lead Referral Program.
Caralyn Stern, Sophos
Director, Marketing, Americas
Years in Position: 1.5
Years in Channel: 7
Stern realigned the marketing team to better reflect the company's 100 percent channel commitment. She zeroed in on increasing awareness via new campaigns and upped investments in demand generation.
Samina Subedar, Connected Data
Sr. Channel Marketing Manager
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 6
Subedar spearheaded the launch of the Connected Data Excelerate Partner Program for the company's Transporter business line. More than 250 partners have been recruited in less than six months and channel sales increased triple digits.
Sherri Turpin, EarthLink
Channel Chief
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 10
Turpin acticulated how partners should think about EarthLink at a series of eight road shows held across the country. The road shows reached the right partners and educated them on how to best pitch and position EarthLink in the marketplace.
Leslie Vitrano, APC by Schneider Electric
Director, Channel Marketing, Communications
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 1
Vitrano focused on increasing APC's reach to the channel and enabled partners to take advantage of industry trends with APC. She also improved incentive programs.
Jessica Walker McFarland, Splunk
Sr. Manager, Global Partner Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 7
Since joining Splunk, Walker McFarland launched a marketing automation tool built for channel partners, called Splunk Partner Hub. The portal lets partners find, execute and report on marketing activities.
Susan Wu, Midokura
Director, Technical Marketing
Years in Position: 1
Years in Channel: 10
Although new to Midokura, Wu hit the ground running by making significant progress in securing new partners, including one with Redapt, a global systems integrator focused on data center infrastructure and cloud engineering services.
Fahima Zahir, Violin Memory
Director, Channel, Field Marketing
Years in Position: 3
Years in Channel: 1
Zahir led Violin away from a direct sales model to become a growing channel sales leader, creating the entire Violin channel program from scratch. Violin has now grown its total available market from $5 billion to $15 billion annually.