7 Channel People of the Week at AppDirect, ConnectWise, Sophos

Welcome to this edition of Channel People of the Week, our weekly collection of the individuals, executives and influencers who have made the biggest impact on the channel in the last seven days.

This week, Channel Futures' top stories, determined by a combination of online traffic and performance in our daily and weekly newsletters, feature two major conferences in the industry. First up is the MSP Summit, Informa's (Channel Futures' parent company) big Atlanta event for MSPs, distributors and vendors. Roughly 1,300 professionals gathered there to network, learn and discuss the big industry topics of the day.

AppDirect had a similar conference in Chicago at the same time. The event, known as AppDirect Thrive, was the first one in five years, making the gathering a big opportunity for the company's partners.

ConnectWise had two big news stories this week. The first was its acquisition of two data protection providers. The second was CEO Jason Magee stepping down and a new chief executive stepping in.

All that and more is in this week's Channel People of the Week, which you can see us count down in the slideshow above.