Meet Channel Futures’ Top 20 Communications & Collaboration Channel Leaders for 2022
This is our fourth Channel Leaders of the Year list highlighting some of the biggest names in the industry.
November 22, 2022
![Communications & Collaboration Channel Leaders Hero Image Communications & Collaboration Channel Leaders Hero Image](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt27d5bd51446708e5/65240f7cb7cd538279f18b96/Communications-Collaboration-Channel-Leaders-Hero-Image.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Name: David Beagle
Job Title: Head of channels at Ooma
Tenure in Role: Three-and-a-half years
Responsibilities: Focused on enhancing company’s existing channel programs.
Previous Experience: Office Depot, Mitel, Fonality, ShoreTel
Key Accomplishment: Developed/developing a go-to-market program that can fit with any type of partner; launched a new Ooma white-labeling opportunity.
What Makes Him a Leader: As one of his colleagues puts it, he can command a room and get people on board with ideas.
Name: Jake Butterbaugh
Job Title: Senior vice president, global partner organization at Five9
Tenure in Role: Eleven months
Responsibilities: Building and managing an expanding customer experience partner ecosystem; implementing a three-pronged strategic initiative for partners.
Previous Experience: Cisco, BusinessEdge Solutions, Accenture
Key Accomplishment: Brought together all the Five9 teams under one group, making it an essential resource for partners in the CCaaS market.
What Makes Him a Leader: According to his colleagues, he is someone who sees both the forest and the trees. Butterbaugh gets the big picture but can also wade through the minutia to deliver a cohesive message to his team.
Name: Michael Day
Job Title: Vice president of global partner sales at GoTo
Tenure in Role: Eight months
Responsibilities: Shepherding the new GoTo Partner Network.
Previous Experience: RingCentral, SCRAM Systems
Key Accomplishment: Navigating partners through GoTo’s signature two new products, GoTo Connect and GoTo Resolve.
What Makes Him a Leader: His capacity to transition a channel program from a transactional experience for partners to one of cooperation.
Name: Lisa Del Real
Job Title: Global vice president of channel sales at 8×8
Tenure in Role: Eleven months
Responsibilities: Building a partner-first channel program to expand 8×8’s integrated cloud communications and contact center solution.
Previous Experience: RingCentral, First Priority Financial, Accenture
Key Accomplishment: 2019 Channel Futures Circle of Excellence winner
What Makes Her a Leader: Her broad experience driving and growing successful worldwide channel programs.
Name: Dan DeLozier
Job Title: AVP of global channel and alliances at LiveVox
Tenure in Role: A year and a half
Responsibilities: Bolstering sales and marketing efforts to capitalize on digital transformation opportunities.
Previous Experience: Everbridge, CenturyLink, Servion
Key Accomplishment: Helping to spearhead LiveVox’s expansion into the global channel marketplace.
What Makes Him a Leader: His detailed approach to establishing cross organizational harmony and collaboration.
Name: Kobi Elbaz
Job Title: Senior vice president and general manager of global channel organization at HP
Tenure in Role: One year, one month
Responsibilities: Heads channel and partner-facing engagement on a global scale for the entire HP portfolio, including building and executing HP’s channel partner strategy, driving HP partner growth and managing HP sales centers.
Previous Experience: He joined HP in 1996 and has held numerous roles.
Key Accomplishment: Under his leadership, HP partners drove more than $6 billion in revenue growth over the past year.
What Makes Him a Leader: He possesses long-term vision for the communications and collaboration space, especially considering the HP-Poly deal. “Together, HP and Poly are capitalizing on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine the way work gets done,” Elbaz said.
Name: Daren Finney
Job Title: Senior vice president of global channels at Mitel
Tenure in Role: One year, four months
Responsibilities: Strategy, program development and administration of global partner organization
Previous Experience: Citrix, Symantec, Lenovo
Key Accomplishment: Led high-performing teams through significant business transformation and modernization.
What Makes Him a Leader: The ability to cut costs and reduce complexity while driving sales growth.
Name: Gene Hawks
Job Title: Vice president of channels, North America at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
Tenure in Role: Four years, two months
Responsibilities: Streamlining partner programs for greater flexibility.
Previous Experience: Zones Inc., Meru Networks, Vology Data Systems, Tech Data (now TD Synnex)
Key Accomplishment: Responsible for the 2021 revamp, simplified and improved VAD strategy at ALE which includes partner recruitment and further increases partner profitability with new logos.
What Makes Him a Leader: Hawks is described as an honest, authentic leader who supports employees both professionally and personally, making a happier and more productive team.
Name: Jon Heaps
Job Title: Vice president of channels at Observe.AI
Tenure in Role: One year, ten months
Responsibilities: Heading strategic channel program initiatives.
Previous Experience: Talkdesk, ShoreTel, inContact
Key Accomplishment: Accelerating Observe.AI’s next phase of growth with technology services distributors.
What Makes Him a Leader: Being one of the most well-respected innovators in the industry.
Name: Ray Hicken
Job Title: Vice president of strategy and business development at NICE CXone
Tenure in Role: Three years, four months
Responsibilities: Develops, leverages and executes growth strategies for all U.S.-based channel partners.
Previous Experience: Telarus, CarrierSales, inContact
Key Accomplishment: Mentoring those he manages to take ownership and to steer their own sales cycles.
What Makes Him a Leader: His ability to simplify complex product landscapes for stakeholders.
Name: David Hogan
Job Title: Vice president of growth segments, sales at Ribbon Communications
Tenure in Role: Four years, ten months
Responsibilities: A focus on distribution, channels, enterprises, business development, partnerships.
Previous Experience: SDN Communications, Frontier Communications, Qwest Communications
Key Accomplishment: Helping solve the challenges enterprises and industry verticals face when modernizing voice and data networks and securing access to communications applications.
What Makes Him a Leader: According to his colleagues, a keen ability to assess and improve processes.
Name: Kristyn Hogan
Job Title: Vice president of global collaboration partner sales at Cisco
Tenure in Role: Two years
Responsibilities: Working closely with Cisco’s regional partner organizations and global partner organizations, Hogan leads the strategy and execution across each of the company’s unique routes to market.
Previous Experience: Cisco Meraki; held previous positions at Cisco
Key Accomplishment: Handling growth across the company’s $4 billion+ collaboration business.
What Makes Her a Leader: Her passion for mentoring Cisco’s future leaders.
Name: Steve Infante
Job Title: Senior vice president, global channels at UJET
Tenure in Role: Eight months
Responsibilities: Leads all global channel routes to market for UJET and supports the global channel around its OEM partnership with Google CCAI Platform.
Previous Experience: Five9, Cisco, Accenture, CDW
Key Accomplishment: Building from the ground up UJET’s channel program.
What Makes Him a Leader: Combining both an analytical mindset and creativity to solve problems for partners.
Name: Mike Kane
Job Title: Senior vice president of global channel sales at Dialpad
Tenure in Role: One year, nine months
Responsibilities: Bolstering channel go-to-market strategy, enablement, qualified pipeline and revenues.
Previous Experience: Ping Identity, Softchoice
Key Accomplishment: Drove Dialpad to become a channel-first company. For several quarters his team generated over half of Dialpad’s revenue.
What Makes Him a Leader: A dynamic sales and marketing leader whose precision execution of solutions and offerings for customers helps set the companies he works for apart.
Name: John Lindsley
Job Title: Vice president of channels at Avaya
Tenure in Role: Eleven months
Responsibilities: Leads North American channels organization, driving demand generation, partner engagement and participation, satisfaction and loyalty, market differentiation and overall brand ambassadorship.
Previous Experience: Mitel, Verizon
Key Accomplishment: Growing on-premises, subscription and cloud revenues through a diverse partner ecosystem during challenging financial times.
What Makes Him a Leader: His ability to authentically listen and receive input are qualities his peers say define his leadership style.
Name: Zane Long
Job Title: Senior vice president of global partner sales at RingCentral
Tenure in Role: Six years, ten months
Responsibilities: Growing UCaaS and CCaaS business through Channel Harmony, the program he spearheaded and the foundation of RingCentral’s partner program.
Previous Experience: Vonage, Cbeyond, Genband and Level 3
Key Accomplishment: A 2022 Channel Futures Channel Influencer Award winner
What Makes Him a Leader: His approach is described as collaborative and enthusiastic when it comes to fostering his team’s success.
Name: Curt Mark
Job Title: Vice president of global channel sales at Intermedia
Tenure in Role: 14-and-a-half years
Responsibilities: Manages and oversees high-value partnerships with Ingram Micro and other large manufacturers and distributors in North America.
Previous Experience: QuickOffice, SEA
Key Accomplishment: Spearheaded the development and implementation of an end-to-end strategy that lets Intermedia partners market to key verticals – medical, legal and finance.
What Makes Him a Leader: He excels at closing long, complex and technical deals.
Name: Jim Regan
Job Title: Channel chief at Vonage
Tenure in Role: One year, Eleven months
Responsibilities: Oversees channel program and works closely with the company’s network of technology solutions brokerages, subagents, ISVs, VARs and other resellers to help them meet the full range of cloud communications needs for their customers.
Previous Experience: More than a decade at Vonage; Aptela
Key Accomplishment: Redesigned channel partner program and established a new partner experience portal, part of Vonage’s strategic channel growth initiative.
What Makes Him a Leader: A jack of all trades, he holds extensive knowledge in managed services, SaaS, cloud computing and telecommunications.
Name: Marc Stein*
Job Title: Former global vice president of channel sales at Nextiva
Tenure in Role: One year, seven months
Responsibilities: Drives growth and scale for Nextiva’s 4,000 partners.
Previous Experience: Splunk, Intuit, Adobe, McAfee
Key Accomplishment: Recently launched and modernized the company’s new partner program.
What Makes Him a Leader: His utilization of data-driven approaches to cultivate positive change among his staff.
*Stein left Nextiva earlier this fall but left a legacy of influence and leadership at the company.
Name: Todd Surdey
Job Title: Head of global channels and business development at Zoom
Tenure in Role: Five months
Responsibilities: New to the role, Surdey is defining the position.
Previous Experience: Google, Palo Alto Networks, VMware
Key Accomplishment: A history of cultivating alliances between indirect and direct sales programs.
What Makes Him a Leader: His ability to embrace complex, culture changing and transformational initiatives that generate solid results for large organizations.
Name: Todd Surdey
Job Title: Head of global channels and business development at Zoom
Tenure in Role: Five months
Responsibilities: New to the role, Surdey is defining the position.
Previous Experience: Google, Palo Alto Networks, VMware
Key Accomplishment: A history of cultivating alliances between indirect and direct sales programs.
What Makes Him a Leader: His ability to embrace complex, culture changing and transformational initiatives that generate solid results for large organizations.
Remote work has forever changed the face of business. These 20 communications and collaboration leaders are stepping up to move the channel forward.
This is the fourth in a series of Channel Futures Channel Leaders of the Year lists. We are unveiling them one-by-one until the end of the year. They include senior partner executives in cloud, security, networking and connectivity, EMEA, managed services, distribution and cloud.
These leaders have earned a reputation as partner-friendly, customer-focused and future-minded. Some of them have been putting their mark on the industry for decades; others are rising stars. These leaders will determine the future of the channel as they redefine the partner-supplier relationship.
We’ve chosen these leaders based on their company’s market share, growth potential, strength of partner network, scope of partner program and the individual’s impact on the partner ecosystem. Partner feedback played a key role, with special attention on how these individuals supported and advocated for their agent, VAR and MSP partners.
These leaders will be eligible for our 2023 Channel Futures Influencer of the Year Award, as well as the Channel Futures/Channel Partners Circle of Excellence Award.
See the slideshow above for our list of 20 communications and collaboration channel leaders of the year for 2022. They are listed in alphabetical order.
Then, check out our other 2022 Channel Leaders lists:
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