Cisco Vet Joins SonicWall Channel Team as North America Leader
This is not the SonicWall of yesteryear.
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Channel Futures: How will your previous experience with Cisco, JS Group and more come into play in this new role?
SonicWall’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain: So I’ve been in the technology channel for close to 18 years now, and I have always been partner-first. I think there are so many amazing companies that are selling to partners. How do you differentiate? That is really an important factor and for me it’s always been about how do I help them succeed. What’s in it for our partners, and having the right solutions, the right technology, the right ability to help them be enabled and supported, and successful is at the core of what makes me who I am. And so I think that it’s just a really great fit to have the ability to work with these partners in a new way and help them with a new focus to really help enable their success. I’ve been very blessed to have such wonderful relationships with so many partners, and really get to listen and learn what keeps them up at night and how maybe they don’t always feel that they’re getting the right support from different vendors. And I’m so happy to have the ability to help drive that success for them, and have a culture that really wants to listen and help them succeed.
CF: What’s your take on SonicWall’s current channel strategy and partner program? Any changes needed?
MRM: SonicWall has a process of redefining and reimagining a lot of the program right now, and I’m going to be a big part of that movement. I’d say within the next year you’re going to see some significant changes that continue to drive the right offers, the right programmatic opportunities, the right incentives and rebates to really help partners drive revenue and success. Every program has an opportunity to adapt and evolve, and I think that’s the place we’re at now. So we’re going to do a lot of listening and learning, and hearing what we need to do to make the most optimal experience for our partners and drive that with our partnership together.
CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?
MRM: So firstly, it’s making the announcement at CP Expo and MSP Summit that I’m here, and SonicWall‘s back bigger and better than ever. I’m really excited that’s going to be our exclusive first coming out to the community and a lot more of that. We need to be a part of the community. MSPs, MSSPs, all partners are very ecosystem-driven and I’m going to be a huge part of that catalyst of how we show up, where we show up and how we connect with the people that are really driving our sales as a customer, both current and future partners that we want to work with. So I’m very excited for that new opportunity as well.
CF: You’re an advocate for women in tech and DE&I. Will that come into play in your new role?
MRM: Absolutely. I think it should come into play wherever you are. I think for me, the biggest thing is diversity of thought helps all companies in how we go to market, how our customers receive us, and how the team works internally and externally. So I think that it is really critical to have different people of different backgrounds and different lenses contribute to how we have our strategy. That’s something I’m very passionate about. I’ve been in a lot of amazing women and diversity communities like Xposure and ACW, and CompTIA’s Advancing Women in Technology. McKinsey reported a quarter of women have left technology. There’s still this unrest. Representation matters. And it’s a huge opportunity for me to have one of the leading channel positions at SonicWall as a diverse female and help to bring that both internally and externally to our partners and our team.
CF: What can partners expect from you in this leadership role?
MRM: The first thing that I have to do is really just get a pulse for where we’re at as a company. And there’ll be a lot of what I’ll call active listening to understand the strengths that we have and some of the opportunities to improve. There’s so much that we can do as a company and our new GTM. And how you strategically position that or rank that road map for success is going to be contingent upon our partners’ feedback. So we want to do a lot of great things in the years ahead and we want to drive that success. But it’s going to be determined by where we see the biggest opportunities and knock those out as we get through those milestones together.
CF: What are the biggest challenges facing SonicWall’s partners and how will you address those?
MRM: The biggest challenge that I’ve seen so far is the same challenge that every partner experiences with a vendor, which is how do you get the right enablement, education and support, and profitability in your partnership together? I do believe that we have a best-in-class product, but it’s not just the product alone that differentiates the company. In order to have a symbiotic and successful relationship, you really need to have an understanding of what’s in it for your partners and you need to have the idea that you are supporting them in a way that can drive their success and mutual success together. So in turn, I do believe that there is a lot of that active listening that’s going to drive how we strategically plan how we’re going to enable these partners more, educate them more, provide more incentives and rebates, and opportunities. I also want to look at integrations and driving more success in different capacities than we have before as well. So there’s a lot of work to be done, but I think we’re already off to a great start and the best is yet to come.
CF: Is this your first venture into cybersecurity or have you been in cybersecurity in previous roles?
MRM: Yes, I was at Cisco as well. We say we’re a networking security and collaboration company. So that has been my pulse, our partners, for the last 15 years that I’ve been at Cisco cumulatively, because I’m a boomerang. … Cybersecurity is more important now than ever before. It is one of the prevalent needs of our partners. There was a cyberattack every 39 seconds during the pandemic, and a ransomware attack every 14 seconds. We all know it’s not if, but when. SonicWall has 30 years of threat intelligence in over 251 different areas around the world. We have really strong standing to do threat detection, prevention and intervention. And it is really critical for us to have the ability to say that this is not just a product, not the firewall that you use to know SonicWall for, but a platform using machine learning (MI), artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to really double down on how we assess the threat landscape, and protect our partners and their customers.
CF: With you on board, what can partners expect from SonicWall in the months ahead?
MRM: I would say the biggest thing you could expect from SonicWall is boundless energy. I bring a lot of experience and background in this space, but I am excited to lead an amazing team. Honestly, everybody at SonicWall and part of the reason I’m here is because of the partners who just rave about it, and love the products and the people so much. And I’m excited to join such an incredible team, and to drive a new day for SonicWall and a new experience for our partner.
CF: With you on board, what can partners expect from SonicWall in the months ahead?
MRM: I would say the biggest thing you could expect from SonicWall is boundless energy. I bring a lot of experience and background in this space, but I am excited to lead an amazing team. Honestly, everybody at SonicWall and part of the reason I’m here is because of the partners who just rave about it, and love the products and the people so much. And I’m excited to join such an incredible team, and to drive a new day for SonicWall and a new experience for our partner.
CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO — Channel vet Michelle Ragusa-McBain has joined the SonicWall channel team as vice president and North America channel leader.
SonicWall’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain
Ragusa-McBain’s goal is to enable partners to grow and profit with the “boundless shift to cybersecurity.” SonicWall announced her appointment at this week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo, co-located with MSP Summit.
SonicWall recently expanded its executive lineup with the appointments of Peter Burke as vice president and chief product officer, Jason Carter as chief revenue officer and Chandrodaya Prasad as executive vice president of global product management.
What She Brings to the SonicWall Channel
Ragusa-McBain previously was global partner sales leader at Cisco. There, she bridged the relationship with Cisco and MSP partners globally through leading the Cisco Provider Elevate community.
Before Cisco, she was vice president of global channel and digital strategy at JS Group.
Here’s our list of channel people on the move in March. |
Ragusa-McBain serves as chair emeritus of Advancing Women in Technology for CompTIA. She’s also co-founder of the Tech Worlds Half nonprofit, a longstanding member of the National Women in Technology Group and most recently serves as Florida leader for Alliance of Channel Women (ACW).
“For me, SonicWall is a 30-year industry legend in cybersecurity, one of the hottest topics right now obviously for many MSPs and MSSPs, and customers and partners around the world,” she said. “And SonicWall is sort of this amazing kind of comeback story because they had their acquisition and now they’re private again. And this is not the SonicWall of yesteryear. They have new leadership. They’re reimagining how they go to market (GTM). They have this amazing outside-in approach, which is really all about listening to partners and understanding what they want and need, and helping to adjust the product solutions and services to help them grow. And so for me, that’s really a big part of culture of any company, to have that sort of channel-first spirit, and the ability and desire to help our partners grow in such boundless opportunities. It’s just a wonderful connection and fit, and I’m really excited to be a part of that movement.”
See our slideshow above for more from the latest SonicWall channel team member.
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