Meet Channel Futures' Top Network & Connectivity Channel Leaders for 2023
Channel Futures has unveiled its network and connectivity leaders list for 2023. Execs from Lumen, Granite and Verizon are here. See who else is and why.
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Job Title: Vice President of Channel Sales at Lumen
Length of Tenure: Four months
Previous Experience: CenturyLink
Key Accomplishment: Helped advance Lumen's co-selling efforts between direct teams and partners.
What Makes Him a Leader: An effective leader of direct and indirect sales teams with an astute knowledge of the inner workings of the channel.
Job Title: Director of Strategic Channel Sales at Granite
Length of Tenure: 12 years
Responsibilities: Leads a team of national and regional channel managers
Previous Experience: Network Plus
Key Accomplishment: Has built trusted relationships with members of the tech advisor community.
What Makes Him a Leader: One partner called Bishop someone who battles for the channel partner "like no other."
Job Title: Vice President of Business Market at Verizon
Length of Tenure: 15 years
Responsibilities: Oversees advanced solutions, inside sales, digital and resellers
Previous Experience: T-Mobile
Key Accomplishment: 2011 Q4 Top Performer Award (Verizon)
What Makes Him a Leader: He's praised for his humility in working with employees and partners, and for his creativity and commitment during the sales process.
Job Title: Senior Vice President of Sales and Sales Operations at Comcast Business
Length of Tenure: 16 years
Responsibilities: Oversees national sales and sales operations
Previous Experience: Level 3, WilTel, Broadwing, MCI
Key Accomplishment: Leads a business services division that nearly reached $9.7 billion in revenue in 2022.
What Makes Him a Leader: Connell played an important role sponsoring Comcast Business's partner program, lending executive support to Craig Schlagbaum's team.
Job Title: President and Managing Director of Telstra
Length of Tenure: Two years
Responsibilities: Oversees sales and operations in the Americas
Previous Experience: Zayo
Key Accomplishment: Oversaw 15% year-over-year growth in Americas region.
What Makes Him a Leader: Drake is leading an expansion of Telstra into both the Americas and into the technology advisor channel.
Job Title: Regional Channel Manager at Telesystem
Length of Tenure: Three years
Responsibilities: Oversees South Atlantic region (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia)
Previous Experience: Windstream, Spectrotel, VoIP Networks, Mass Communications, Cortel
Key Accomplishment: Twenty-five years of empowering great customer confidence.
What Makes Her a Leader: Praised for partner advocacy and her knowledge of the telecommunications industry.
Job Title: Director of Channel Sales at Spectrotel
Length of Tenure: Eight years
Responsibilities: Oversees sales and operations with Spectrotel agents
Previous Experience: Trans National Communications, VGE, Cable & Wireless
Key Accomplishment: As a master agent manager, he exceeded 100% of sales goals and revenue attainment for seven consecutive years.
What Makes Him a Leader: Partners laud him for his responsiveness and advocacy on their behalf.
Job Title: Vice President of Channel Sales at MetTel
Length of Tenure: 21 years
Responsibilities: Forecasting, developing and managing sales through the partner community
Previous Experience: Telenetwork Services
Key Accomplishment: 2020 Channel Futures Top Gun 51
What Makes Him a Leader: He has advocated for increased investment into the agent channel to deliver enhanced support.
Job Title: Director of Americas and Parter Markets at Vodafone
Length of Tenure: 16 years
Responsibilities: Leads commercial activity in United States, Canada and Latin America, as well as a few European markets
Previous Experience: Versatel, Proximus
Key Accomplishment: Signing agreements with multiple tech services distributors (TSD), including AppDirect, Avant and Bridgepointe
What Makes Him a Leader: Vodafone plans an aggressive expansion of indirect U.S. sales from 20% to 50% upcoming years.
Job Title: Director of Channel Marketing at Spectrum Enterprise
Length of Tenure: Nine years
Responsibilities: Leads marketing strategy for partner program, VARs and carriers
Previous Experience: Integra, Level 3, CenturyLink, Qwest, MCI
Key Accomplishment: Spectrum named top connectivity provider in Avant's vendor NPS rankings.
What Makes Him a Leader: Lopez leads indirect sales channel marketing programs at one of the cable channel's more consistent vendors.
Job Title: Vice President of Sales, Mountain Region at Nitel
Length of Tenure: Seven months
Responsibilities: Oversees relationships with partners in the Mountain region
Previous Experience: Masergy, Lumen, GTT, Level 3
Key Accomplishment: Industry insiders call Minnella one of the major up-and-comers in the managed network services channel.
What Makes Her a Leader: She's praised as an empathetic manager and a sharp sales professional who creatively identifies solutions and removes barriers.
Job Title: Vice President of Channel Sales at Crown Castle
Length of Tenure: Four years
Responsibilities: Oversees U.S. channel team and partner relationships
Previous Experience: Access America Telemanagement, SBC, TW Telecom, CenturyLink, Exario, Internet Connect
Key Accomplishment: Crown Castle's channel drove more than 50% of the company's new logo acquisition last year.
What Makes Him a Leader: Paschal intimately understands the technology advisor and services distributor channel, and his team has earned compliments from partners for their responsiveness.
Job Title: Global Channel Chief at Cato Networks
Length of Tenure: One year
Responsibilities: Leads worldwide partner efforts
Previous Experience: HP, VMware, Check Point
Key Accomplishment: 2020 Channel Futures Top Gun 51
What Makes Him a Leader: Rauch is an elder statesman of the channel, bringing a deep knowledge of the VAR and GSI market to Cato Networks while helping Cato affirm its commitment to technology advisors.
Job Title: Senior Vice President of Integrated and Partner Solutions
Length of Tenure: 33 years
Responsibilities: Oversees indirect efforts, which includes agents, resellers and wholesale.
Key Accomplishment: Channel Futures 2023 Influencer, Multi-year Stevie finalist
What Makes Her a Leader: Rao has sponsored a resurgence in AT&T's agent go-to-market efforts in an industry where many providers wax and wane in their commitment to the channel.
Job Title: Senior Vice President, Global Service Sales & Customer Success at Extreme Networks
Length of Tenure: Seven years
Responsibilities: Oversees recurring revenue that comes from maintenance services and subscription services
Previous Experience: Cisco
Key Accomplishment: Named to Technology and Services Industry Association (TSIA) advisory board.
What Makes Him a Leader: Extreme grew its SaaS annualized recurring revenue 30% in its last quarter.
Job Title: Channel Chief at T-Mobile
Length of Tenure: Seven years
Responsibilities: Oversees go-to-market efforts of the T-Mobile channel partner program.
Previous Experience: Ameriprise, Northwestern Mutual, Auctions by Cellular, Samsung
Key Accomplishment: 2023 Channel Partners Circle of Excellence
What Makes Him a Leader: He has quickly risen through the ranks at T-Mobile to lead its channel program.
Job Title: Global Director of Channel Marketing and Enablement at Aryaka
Length of Tenure: Two years
Responsibilities: Works with the Aryaka channel sales team to build and operate partner programs.
Previous Experience: SAP, Qlik, Sage
Key Accomplishment: 2023 DEI 101 Honoree, Alliance of Channel Women Big Impact Winner for Q4 2022
What Makes Her a Leader: Steele tackles her job with a high level of commitment and collaboration and is a beloved fixture of the channel community.
Job Title: Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Powernet
Length of Tenure: 23 years
Responsibilities: Working with agent, vendor and technology partners
Previous Experience: National Telecom Association
Key Accomplishment: Local Chapters Committee Chair for Alliance of Channel Women
What Makes Her a Leader: Thurnau operates with a deep knowledge of the channel and relationships that she has nurtured over the years with internal teams and channel partners.
Job Title: Vice President of Sales at CommandLink
Length of Tenure: One year
Responsibilities: Oversees a team of national sales directors
Previous Experience: 8x8, Mitel
Key Accomplishment: 2020 PlanetOne Channel Manager of the Year, Telarus Coin of Excellence
What Makes Him a Leader: Walker leads a partner sales team at CommandLink that has drawn praise from the lips of countless technology advisors.
Job Title: Senior Leader of Americas Managed Services at Cisco
Length of Tenure: 27 years
Responsibilities: Oversees managed services for service providers and non-service providers in the Americas
Previous Experience: N/A
Key Accomplishment: Part of a team that has driven more than $9 billion in managed services sales.
What Makes Him a Leader: Wozniak is a key face for Cisco's U.S. telco partners, helping them and other managed service providers drive Cisco-based solutions.
Job Title: Senior Vice President of Channel Sales at AireSpring
Length of Tenure: Four years
Responsibilities: Oversees relationships with TSDs, MSPs, VARs and technology advisors
Previous Experience: NetFortris, Fonality, Imagine Technologies, Avaya
Key Accomplishment: Built Fonality's sales organization, driving revenue growth, global sales strategy design and channel program for North America, APAC and Japan.
What Makes Him a Leader: Young brought a pedigree of sales and channel leadership to AireSpring. Under his oversight, the company has deepened its reputation among partners for its customer experience.
Job Title: Senior Vice President of Channel Sales at AireSpring
Length of Tenure: Four years
Responsibilities: Oversees relationships with TSDs, MSPs, VARs and technology advisors
Previous Experience: NetFortris, Fonality, Imagine Technologies, Avaya
Key Accomplishment: Built Fonality's sales organization, driving revenue growth, global sales strategy design and channel program for North America, APAC and Japan.
What Makes Him a Leader: Young brought a pedigree of sales and channel leadership to AireSpring. Under his oversight, the company has deepened its reputation among partners for its customer experience.
The best channel leaders aren't always at the top of the food chain. Sometimes they are the executives working directly with partners on a daily basis and building a much-needed rapport with them.
Whether the national VP of channel sales or someone in a regional role, our brand-new list of channel leaders in network and connectivity recognizes the best of the best for 2023. The slideshow above describes what makes them a leader and outlines the experience that got them to where they are today.
Take Verizon's Michael Caralis, for instance, who partners recognize for creativity and commitment during the sales process.
Then there's MetTel's Tim Hanley, who has advocated for increased investment into the agent channel to deliver enhanced support.
Take a look at this list, then explore our others from EMEA, cloud, security, distribution and more.
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