Ron Huddleston, Microsoft and Salesforce Channel Pioneer, Dies

Twilio chief partners officer and longtime channel executive, Ron Huddleston, has died. While his tenure at Twilio was a short eight months, Huddleston had a solid career in the industry, holding executive positions at Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle.

“Our thoughts are with Ron Huddleston’s family and friends as we mourn his passing on Friday. We are heartbroken over the loss of a dear friend, respected colleague and accomplished leader. He made an indelible impact on all who knew him and will be greatly missed,” Jeff Lawson, entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Twilio, tweeted.

In an interview with Channel Futures when he was introduced as Twilio’s chief partner officer, Huddleston said that he took a leap in his career by joining the company.

“The communications industry and the role at Twilio is a whole new space for me, and the more I learned about the opportunity and ecosystem, the more excited I became.”

Ron Huddleston

Ron Huddleston

Prior to Twilio, Huddleston was corporate vice president of the Microsoft One Commercial Partner (OCP) organization, leading a major revamp at the software giant. He called his time at Microsoft “an incredible experience and a highlight of my career.” His departure, less than one year into the job – taking “indefinite family leave” – was a jolt to the Microsoft community. Huddleston joined Microsoft in 2016.

Judson Althoff, executive vice president, worldwide commercial business at Microsoft, who also worked with Huddleston at Oracle, wrote on LinkedIn about his colleague’s passion, dedication and optimistic approach to life.

“For as long as I have known Ron, one thing was always clear: He was passionate about his work, especially the cultivation and nurturing of relationships with partners. He spent more than 20 years dedicated to partner success, helping partners grow and partner ecosystems thrive,” he said.

He also wrote about being inspired by Huddleston’s words that “all partnerships are based on trust. When you have trust, anything is possible.”

At Twilio, Huddleston was responsible for scaling the vendor’s partner program by bringing in enterprise partners and resellers. Huddleston was building Twilio’s partner program based on two pillars: the company’s developer heritage and his ability to drive partner success through a transformed communication strategy.

Less than six months later, the vendor announced Twilio Build, a comprehensive partner program for technology partners – or builders, as the company calls them – and consulting partners, also known as consulting builders, built from the ground up by Huddleston.

In his impressive career, Huddleston also held executive positions at Salesforce from 2009-2016, and prior to that, Oracle, for about five years. As senior vice president of global ISV and channels at Salesforce, he was credited with developing the company’s enterprise application marketplace, AppExchange.