New Channel Chiefs at Forcepoint, Otava, PagerDuty Target Bigger Partner Share

Forcepoint, Otava and PagerDuty hired people to lead their channel partner sales.

All three technology providers announced a new channel chief on Tuesday.

Forcepoint, the cybersecurity provider, named Parag Patel its senior vice president of global channel sales. According to Forcepoint, Patel will oversee the company’s investments into its partner ecosystem. Patel said he will work to build “friction-free partnerships.”

Forcepoint’s Parag Patel

Patel spent 13 years at VMware, finishing as vice president of worldwide sales for hyperconverged software. He also led global channels and alliances for the virtualization giant from 2011-2014. VMware’s partner ecosystem grew from hundreds to “tens of thousands” during his tenure. Also, he most recently worked as general manager of business development at C3 AI.

“After more than 20 years of leading global channels and sales teams, I understand the critical role partners play in customer adoption and satisfaction,” Patel said. “From distributors to solution providers and systems integrators, MSPs, cloud partners, OEMs and technology alliances, we plan to harness the value of a broad ecosystem to make the enterprise as secure as possible.”

Otava

Otava, the hybrid cloud solutions provider, tapped Shelly Bodine as channel chief. Her appointment comes approximately a month after Otava enhanced its partner program with a new partner portal and new enablement tools.

Otava’s Shelly Bodine

Bodine has worked on both the vendor and distributor sides of the channel. She most recently worked as SoftwareOne’s North American chief of staff, where she spearheaded sales and partner teams. She also led Avnet’s enterprise channel team in the West.

Bodine praised Otava’s “unique approach to its channel business.”

“The recently launched partner portal, enhanced white-label options, and low-price commitment are all evidence of the company’s dedication to its service provider community,” Bodine said. “I am excited to be joining this talented team at such a pivotal time for cloud migration.”

Indirect channels drive approximately half of Otava’s sales.

“Our relationships with managed service providers, resellers and distributors are a high priority for Otava, and we are thrilled to welcome Shelly to the team to lead this strategic part of the business,” Otava CEO Brad Cheedle said. “Shelly has spent her career in the technology distribution and reseller space and has a deep understanding of our ecosystem. We look forward to her contributions and further advancements to the program.”

PagerDuty

PagerDuty, the digital operations management solutions provider, hired Timm Hoyt as vice president of partnership. His appointment fits into PagerDuty’s larger initiative to go to market in a “partner-first” fashion. As a result, he’ll work with the company’s product and sales teams to drive more channel partner sales revenue.

PagerDuty’s Timm Hoyt

“PagerDuty sits at the center of the digital ecosystem and partnerships are critical as they allow our customers to integrate our platform with their entire digital operations, improving overall performance and working effectively across teams, no matter their preferred working tool,” said Dave Justice, chief revenue officer at PagerDuty. “Close to 14,000 organizations, including more than 60% of the Fortune 100, rely on PagerDuty’s ability to manage urgent, mission-critical work that is essential to keeping digital services always on.”

Hoyt most recently worked for Druva, where he led global partner sales and alliances. He oversaw a dramatic shift to a partner-first model, with Druva partners going from 9% of company revenue to more than 80%. In addition, he led enterprise sales at Atlantis Computing.

“As companies move rapidly to digital first, PagerDuty is essential for helping businesses handle any urgent, mission-critical need right away,” Hoyt said. “I couldn’t be more excited to join PagerDuty to lead its partner organization and continue to empower and incentivize the partners in our ecosystem.”