Under the Spotlight: Women in the EMEA — Barracuda, Rubrik, Acronis, More
Six EMEA channel leaders share their experiences and discuss how partners and vendors can enable more women to become leaders.
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“Break down the idea that it’s just women who should be supporting women.”
Ghazal Asif is the recently appointed VP of global partners and alliances at Rubrik, based in the UK.
Channel Futures: How long have you worked in the channel?
Ghazal Asif: I have worked in the channel for over fifteen years. Before joining Rubrik, I worked at Google for just under two years as head of channel sales/director, EMEA. Prior to that I was SVP of worldwide channels at Cybereason.
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
GA: Developing people and building incredible partnerships that make a difference is one of the best parts of working within the channel. I am able to be involved in the creation of shareholder value by enabling teams to deliver their very best work.
Partners are key to our success at Rubrik. Working closely with them allows us to continue building out a stronger ecosystem and form those deep relationships based on trust and support.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
GA: Customers are making better informed buying decisions and have more information at their fingertips than ever before. Partners need to work hard to provide differentiated value through services and other offerings to ensure the success of their customers.
In this space, IT organisations have traditionally had very separate practices for data centres and security. Ransomware attacks, however, are removing the barriers between the two. In 2022, partners will be challenged to merge their own siloed data and security practices to meet customer needs. To overcome this challenge, our partners must be prepared to shift how they approach both data and security customers, even if it means breaking away from established conventions.
CF: What can channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
GA: Firstly, I believe that overinvesting in underrepresented groups by developing mentorship and sponsorship programs is critical. Men in leadership roles should sponsor one woman – be her biggest champion. Break down the idea that it’s just women who should be supporting women.
Secondly, I think ensuring there’s a 50/50 representation of women in the hiring pipeline for every role should be standard. This will mean there are more women being hired and will create a pool of internal women to promote and develop into leadership roles.
Finally, women in channel leadership positions should actively discuss their roles and be visible role models. You can’t be what you can’t see!
CF: What can we expect from Rubrik in 2022?
GA: In 2022, we’re going to be at the forefront of the latest and greatest data security solutions so that our partners can help keep their customers safe in the face of rising cyber threats. We are laser-focused on the success of our partner community and will continue to drive best-in-class customer and partner satisfaction.
“Partners wants a more productive relationship with their vendors.”
Leigh Nordhoff is head of commercial sports partnerships EMEA, Acronis.
CF: How long have you worked in the channel?
LN: I have worked in the channel for 16 years and have been with Acronis for the last five-and-a-half years. Acronis is the first company I have worked for that provides women with amazing opportunities, promotes inclusivity and encourages women to be leaders.
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
LN: The best part of my job is seeing our service providers and cloud distributors grow their business and promote their brand via the power of our #TeamUp programme. This programme allows service providers to get involved with major sports teams and support Acronis cyber protection products and services on our behalf. It’s great to see the excitement on people’s faces when they see their company branding on a Formula One car or live at a stadium during a football game. Acronis is the only brand that is able to offer such services to our partners.
With more than 50 sports teams in our portfolio, it’s great to pass on some benefits to our partners and help them use it to grow their business. In addition to branding, social media exposure and case studies, partners can let their customers experience VIP hospitality, meet sports legends and spend time with team executives. It’s a great experience that they will remember. It’s very powerful to help build business relationships. So it’s been great to develop this programme here at Acronis and see it perform so well in real life.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
LN: Channel partners have begun to look for a productive relationship with their vendors. Transactional relationships limited to receiving invoices and generating license keys are making way for dynamic relationships where partners can receive much more from a vendor. We aim to develop a working relationship with each partner. Our goal is to help our partners get more customers and grow their business. Partners are the heart of our business: their success is our success.
CF: Is there one thing you believe channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
LN: Provide women (and everyone) with an opportunity to grow and develop professionally within the company. Reward creativity and success of women. Lead by example.
CF: What can we expect from your company in 2022?
LN: We will continue releasing new software features, support our partners via the #CyberFit Partner Programme, and provide unique opportunities and marketing benefits to help grow their business. It’s going to be a great year for the company and our partners and I’m excited to be a part of it.
“It is important to make paths to leadership clear.”
Samantha Sene is channel sales leader for UK&I, Benelux and the Nordics for A10 Networks.
CF: How long have you worked in the channel?
SS: I have been working in the channel for 20 years, in both vendor and distribution roles.
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
SS: I love working with people and teams and seeing them succeed in business. Taking a partner through the journey of onboarding sales, technical and marketing and helping them win new customers is a real win for me.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
SS: Due to the pandemic, partners and distributors have had to think about how they can not only maintain their customer relationships, but also win new business. In the last 18 months, I have watched the channel pivot in the way that they have operated. We have all had to learn how to sell remotely and I have seen an increase in using video and digital channels for sales promotion. There has been some amazing and impactful content from the partner community, which will continue to evolve in 2022.
CF: Is there one thing you believe channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
SS: It is important for any organisation to make the paths to leadership clear. Female mentorship programs, in which young women can speak to other women who have risen through the ranks before them, will not only demystify the path for growth for these top leadership positions, but will inspire young candidates to aim high for themselves. For similar reasons, these same organisations will attract more female talent simply by having female leadership. The more women that a potential candidate can see in senior and executive positions, the more she will be inspired to join that business.
There are things that these organisations can do at all levels that will inspire and retain their female employees. Flexible working and a true culture of work/life balance ensures that valuable talent feel valued and accommodated, regardless of the life decisions they make outside of work.
CF: What can we expect from A10 Networks in 2022?
SS: A10 Networks had incredible success with our channel initiatives in 2021. 2022 presents an exciting opportunity to build upon these initiatives, particularly as physical events come back to the fore. With our channel partner program firmly established, and many of our partners well on their way to achieving Elite Partner status, we are looking forward to developing deeper relationships as we focus on working with quality partners.
The success of our channel initiatives in EMEA will also be replicated globally, particularly in APAC, as we continue to harness and enrich the knowledge level of our partners. Alliances, like the ones we hold with Dell and Ericsson, will be a key focus in 2022, driving combined technology solutions to deliver better outcomes for customers.
“Organizations completed two years’ worth of digital transformation in just two months.”
Jessica Kingham is manager, channel sales, Barracuda Networks.
CF: How long have you worked in the channel?
JK: I’ve worked in the channel for over five years, having joined Barracuda as national channel manager in June 2016. I became manager, channel sales, in June 2021.
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
JK: One perk of working in the channel is that the industry is constantly evolving. Because the channel is always changing, it has given me the opportunity to adapt, grow and shine on a daily basis. It never stays still, it’s always full of variety with no two days the same, and that’s massively important for me.
As for my job in particular, there is always the opportunity to meet so many different people and personalities. I’ve been able to collaborate with partners and customers on projects that are unique to them.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
JK: During my time at Barracuda, I have had the pleasure of working with lots of different customers and partners. But, over the last two years, COVID has made organisations, including Barracuda, completely rethink their approach and accelerate many of the initiatives that they had. The pandemic has been responsible for the biggest changes I’ve seen as of late.
Organizations completed what would have been two years’ worth of digital transformation in just two months. And where at the time this was a daunting experience for most, being involved in the process has made being in IT so exciting. Being a part of such crucial projects, at such a crucial time for organisations across the world has been amazing.
CF: Is there one thing you believe channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
JK: One of the most important things when you’re learning and growing in your career is making sure you surround yourself with likeminded and motivational people. What has helped me on a personal level is having those industry leaders around me, who were all easily accessible and volunteered their time to help mentor me along my channel journey.
I was given opportunities to learn and grow from them, and I was given the freedom to be creative in how I wanted to develop the channel. My voice was heard and appreciated and that goes a long way in showing employees, especially women, that they are valued.
CF: What can we expect from Barracuda in 2022?
JK: 2022 will be the year we continue to leverage more and more technologies to address the challenges that the channel sees on a daily basis. Cybersecurity defences need to be strengthened, as the nature of threats and the complexity of environments has changed. This is the year we need to see more cooperation to shore up defenses against attacks by cybercriminals. This is a great opportunity to bring in different perspectives, and in the cybersecurity or IT space, that will play a prominent role in a company’s success in securing themselves.
We also need to make 2022 the year that the channel reignites the meaningful conversation around ransomware. We’re now dealing with global criminal operations that are driving ransomware and similar types of attacks to all sizes of businesses, at differing scales, and it’s important for people to recognize the scale of the attacks. Whilst we hear about ransomware everyday, and we know the importance of protecting against it, and whilst some are sick of reading or writing about it, end users still need to hear about it, read about it and know that we care.
“Partners to learn to support more flexible work modes within their own businesses.”
Andrea Horton is marketing director UK&I at distributor, Nuvias Group.
CF: How long have you worked in the channel?
AH: I have worked in IT since I left university when I was lucky enough to get an opportunity at a rapidly growing ISP in the early 2000s. Dial-up internet was still a thing and it was before the broadband revolution. This is where I first developed a passion for IT, and where I first experienced the speed of pace and change of industry, and which I have come to love about working in IT. I joined distribution in 2005 and have been here ever since. I enjoy the variety of vendors and technologies that working in this part of the channel offers and, having worked with hundreds of partners over the years, it’s really rewarding engaging with them, understanding their business plans and helping them to achieve their targets through joint marketing plans and activities.
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
AH: They say that variety is the spice of life and this absolutely rings true in marketing, and particularly distribution marketing. One day is never the same, whether it’s the activity you are working on – be it an event, a brochure or an email campaign, or the vendor you are working with or the partner you are supporting, the dynamics of the execution is something I really enjoy. Seeing Nuvias evolve over the last five to six years and being part of this growing business has been a privilege and my varied roles in the company have given me the opportunity to make significant input and contribution to the Nuvias success story.
Having recently taken up a new role as marketing director for the UK&I, I am really excited about what the next 12 months has in store. We have a new team, including our first marketing apprentice who I will enjoy sharing my passion for marketing with, and lots of new initiatives to deliver to channel partners to help them on their transformation journeys, as they adapt to meet the challenges of a post-pandemic world.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
AH: We are all adjusting to hybrid work and extended networks. The channel needs to learn to support more flexible work modes within their own business as well as providing the technology solutions that support both visibility and security for their customer businesses. The channel has an opportunity to evolve to become more strategic and to become a trusted advisor about their chosen solutions and leveraging business intelligence for a more targeted approach to match offerings to demand.
As partners look to leverage the new business opportunities in front of them, they will face increasing challenges around skills shortages, keeping their teams up to speed with new technologies, onboarding new vendors quickly and adapting their business models to meet the end-user demands of consumption-based IT. This is where distribution has a real opportunity to step in and support the channel like never before with finance solutions, training on-demand, technical resources, and services that partners can pick and choose to deploy quickly and easily to fill their shortages and address their challenges.
CF: Is there one thing you believe channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
AH: It will require a conscious effort for everyone in the industry to support positive moves towards redressing the imbalance that exists at the top of the IT channel. Whilst companies are becoming more aware of the need to better support working mums, offering flexible working conditions, and giving equal opportunities to their employees the lack of women leaders means a lack of female influence on the culture of organisations and a lack of role models, particularly in certain roles.
Whilst there are many successful women working in IT, they are predominantly in HR, marketing and sales roles, and they are often still led by male leaders. It is these very leaders that need to see an all-male exec and management teams as a negative feature in their organisation and positively seek out high-achieving women to be part of their team. Without this female influence at the top, I fear we will never inspire the next generation of females to join this industry, lead by example or create the cultural shift that is very much needed to make the difference for the future of women in IT.
CF: What can we expect from Nuvias in 2022?
AH: Nuvias has been on a growing trajectory over the past couple of years, not just in terms of revenue and acquisitions but also in terms of adding to our range of partner services and technology solutions, as well as investing in our own tools and platforms to streamline our partner engagement and business processes. Through our Nuvias Digital Initiative we are evolving our online engagement model to one that offers self-serve, real-time and on-demand content and data giving partners more control over what they access and when. In parallel, we continue to invest in our team of sales, marketing and technology specialists to support partners with projects, building pipeline and leveraging market opportunities.
This year we will be getting closer to our partners through direct engagement and building closer partnerships through events and on-site activities. The first of which we launch in March with our Nuvias & Juniper Networks Mist AI Airstream tour, visiting partners across the UK with a fun and engaging experience brought direct to their door.
“There is a stigma around progression for mother.”
Rachel Rothwell is regional director Western Europe at Zyxel.
CF: How long have you worked in the channel?
RR: This April makes it 25 years!
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
RR: My favourite part of the job has got to be the people. Having worked in the channel from a young age, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside a number of inspirational, highly intelligent people. I’ve loved working alongside my colleagues and peers and watching them develop their careers alongside me.
In my time working at Zyxel, Lee Marsden and Jean-Michel are two standouts. They’ve helped me develop into the director I am today, giving me confidence in myself and encouraging me to push myself and take on extra responsibilities. This sense of community spirit is rife within the channel, and it’s fantastic to be able to pass on the baton to my younger peers now.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
RR: There are plenty of challenges facing the channel industry at the moment. The pace that technology is evolving is much faster than it was 25 years ago when I first started. Educating these changes to customers is a constant challenge that we all face.
Similarly, the ways in which we communicate with our customers has changed drastically. Previously, we’d pick up the phone or interact face to face. Now, with the emergence of social media, we have a range of digital, instant routes to interact with our customers and the wider community. Navigating this “always on” landscape and the ever-changing social trends may be an uphill struggle at times but present some fantastic opportunities too.
CF: Is there one thing you believe channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
RR: Like the wider tech industry, the channel is very much a male-dominated industry and the ratio of men to women can often make it harder for women to be heard and recognised. That being said, I firmly believe it’s a great industry to work in and that the channel can offer so many fantastic opportunities for women to pursue, no matter their area of interest.
I think one of the major barriers preventing women from pursuing leadership positions is the stigma around progression for mothers. But with hybrid and remote working a widespread lesson from the pandemic, there is now the flexibility supporting work/life balance which allows determined women to become great parents without feeling too much pressure from their employers. We all have a responsibility to remove this stigma and educate smart, ambitious women that they no longer have to choose between being a great mum and a great professional – they can do both.
CF: What can we expect from Zyxel in 2022?
RR: Short answer? Great things. 2021 was a tough year for the entire industry for various reasons, not least product shortages. But in spite of these obstacles, I’m very proud of the enormous growth we still managed to achieve. Last year, one of our programs grew by 85%. This is all thanks to our loyal customers, and this year, they can expect to benefit from exciting new programs.
“There is a stigma around progression for mother.”
Rachel Rothwell is regional director Western Europe at Zyxel.
CF: How long have you worked in the channel?
RR: This April makes it 25 years!
CF: What’s your favourite part of your job?
RR: My favourite part of the job has got to be the people. Having worked in the channel from a young age, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside a number of inspirational, highly intelligent people. I’ve loved working alongside my colleagues and peers and watching them develop their careers alongside me.
In my time working at Zyxel, Lee Marsden and Jean-Michel are two standouts. They’ve helped me develop into the director I am today, giving me confidence in myself and encouraging me to push myself and take on extra responsibilities. This sense of community spirit is rife within the channel, and it’s fantastic to be able to pass on the baton to my younger peers now.
CF: What are some of the biggest changes you’re seeing in the channel today?
RR: There are plenty of challenges facing the channel industry at the moment. The pace that technology is evolving is much faster than it was 25 years ago when I first started. Educating these changes to customers is a constant challenge that we all face.
Similarly, the ways in which we communicate with our customers has changed drastically. Previously, we’d pick up the phone or interact face to face. Now, with the emergence of social media, we have a range of digital, instant routes to interact with our customers and the wider community. Navigating this “always on” landscape and the ever-changing social trends may be an uphill struggle at times but present some fantastic opportunities too.
CF: Is there one thing you believe channel organisations and vendors can do to encourage or enable more women leaders?
RR: Like the wider tech industry, the channel is very much a male-dominated industry and the ratio of men to women can often make it harder for women to be heard and recognised. That being said, I firmly believe it’s a great industry to work in and that the channel can offer so many fantastic opportunities for women to pursue, no matter their area of interest.
I think one of the major barriers preventing women from pursuing leadership positions is the stigma around progression for mothers. But with hybrid and remote working a widespread lesson from the pandemic, there is now the flexibility supporting work/life balance which allows determined women to become great parents without feeling too much pressure from their employers. We all have a responsibility to remove this stigma and educate smart, ambitious women that they no longer have to choose between being a great mum and a great professional – they can do both.
CF: What can we expect from Zyxel in 2022?
RR: Short answer? Great things. 2021 was a tough year for the entire industry for various reasons, not least product shortages. But in spite of these obstacles, I’m very proud of the enormous growth we still managed to achieve. Last year, one of our programs grew by 85%. This is all thanks to our loyal customers, and this year, they can expect to benefit from exciting new programs.
The lack of women leaders continues to be a challenge in the channel. Here we speak with six women in the EMEA channel about their experiences. —
They share their opinions on how to enable more women channel leaders, as well as the changes partners are seeing, and what’s next for their companies.
Check out our slideshow above to discover more.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Christine Horton or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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