CRN Channel Chiefs Acronis Apple AWS Brother International Rose Old Richard Wylie Stefan Jansen Julie Woodward Manager, channel business ANZ Specialist channel manager ANZ Head of channels and alliances National sales manager, B2B channel Old joined the Swiss data protection vendor to run the Despite the huge popularity of Apple technology among consumer and business Since taking over the senior partner role Woodward has a key role in helping the printer Australia & New Zealand channel in early 2014 after a customers alike, the company is still widely known for keeping the channel at arm’s at Amazon Web Services in April, Jansen manufacturer expand beyond the consumer space career that spanned Veeam, Ingram Micro and Express length. Case in point: despite nearly 20 years with Apple and five years leading its has set about bolstering its channel and branch out into Australian business sales. Brother Data. Acronis’ top partner level is platinum, and entry to Australian channel, Wylie is a lesser-known figure in the Australia channel scene base across myriad types of companies, launched its first commercial channel program in this coveted club requires partners to have competencies than the channel chiefs of many equivalent tier-one hardware vendors. from its traditional base in startups to March 2016, along with a new range of gear. “I am very across three areas: cloud; backup and disaster recovery; Apple’s partnerships with Cisco and IBM should see it expand its sales to the major players such as Datacom, Deloitte confident the implementation of our new channel focus and mobility and access connect. enterprise and hence its relevance to B2B partners. and PwC. AWS partners support “two will ensure a successful year for Brother,” she says. major cloud adoption trends” among customers, says Jansen – migrations and “highly innovative solutions” built Adobe Aruba on the cloud. CA Technologies Brent Irwin David Elliott “To support our customers, AWS will Kevin Van Gils Senior manager, partner sales & SMB ANZ channel sales director continue to invest in consulting partners Director, partners & alliances who will have the capability to offer Irwin stepped up to the top channel role in early 2015 Elliott brought impressive channel cred to the wireless migration and managed services, as A venerable name in the IT space, after a decade with Adobe. His two predecessors at the vendor when he joined in May 2014: he has also held well as solution development services.” CA Technologies has sought to company are both members of the 2016 CRN Channel leadership roles at Avaya, McAfee, EMC and Nortel. Now reinvent itself and part of that includes Chiefs: Schneider’s Muralee Kanagaratnam and NextDC’s he is part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise following its We will continue to invest in significant partner recruitment Steve Martin. Irwin says: “My role is to lead the team that 2015 acquisition. “In November 2016, HPE Aruba will ambitions led by Van Gils’ team. Its helps Adobe partners migrate, renew and grow our ever- launch an entirely new partner program focused on partners who have the capability to channel is “definitely growing”, says growing base of cloud-subscription customers.” rewarding partners for investing in skills,” says Elliott. offer migration and managed services Van Gils, who has been with CA since 2010. “CA continues to embrace and empower our partners and in the year ahead there will be new content Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Autodesk Belkin and tools to fuel growth across the Chris Downes Clare Wharrier Damian Commane ecosystem. We will, however, remain Channel sales director Channel sales senior manager ANZ Head of channel, distribution & partners consistent and predictable. Our biggest projects with partners currently are Responding to customer demands Wharrier has had a distinguished career at the 3D design Commane brought experience spanning a host of around mobility that encompass our for more flexibility, Alcatel-Lucent and engineering software company. She joined in 2004 unified communication and IT services companies DevOps, API and analytics capabilities.” Enterprise recently announced after a stint at CSC and has remained steadfast in when he joined Belkin in November 2014 – a return a “revolutionary” model for channel roles since then, being appointed to her current to the company he left in 2008 when he joined Cisco We embrace and empower our networking hardware: an opex, role in 2015. In June 2016, Dicker Data becomes the as regional sales manager. In 2013 Belkin acquired pay-per-use approach. first Autodesk distributor in Australia to offer Autodesk home networking vendor Linksys and has sought to partners with new content and tools This should help Downes hit products via a subscription model. reinvigorate the brand. to fuel growth across the ecosystem his targets in the coming year. “In 2016-17, we are increasing our channel coverage in Australia across SMB and enterprise. We are recruiting managed Autotask BMC Software Check Point service providers to take our new Adam Ross Matt Lowe Craig McGregor consumption-based communications Director, APAC Senior partner manager Director, channel sales and networking infrastructure (LAN/ WLAN) services to market.” Ross has been with the managed service software Lowe joined BMC in 2012, coming across as part of the software McGregor boasts a particularly rich channel resumé, vendor since 2011, first in London and now in Sydney. He automation vendor’s acquisition of Numara Software. BMC develops a having also led channel teams at Symantec, Adobe, tells CRN: “We believe in transforming business process range of products and is well‑known among managed services providers for Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. “Check Point has a In 2016-17, we are increasing through the use of operational technology and business its service management and IT operations software, particularly its flagship very well established and loyal partner ecosystem in intelligence, enabling organisations to execute with Remedy IT management suite. The vendor, whose Australian headquarters is Australia and our intent is to continue to work towards our channel coverage in Australia greater effectiveness, profitability while keeping an acute in Sydney, employs about 6000 staff globally. Local partners include the likes making that a profitable and rewarding experience for across SMB and enterprise focus on end-user experience.” of Redcore, which was recently acquired by Accenture. our partners,” says McGregor. APC by Schneider Electric Avaya Brocade Citrix Muralee Kanagaratnam Peter Chidiac Paul Barge Belinda Jurisic General manager, channel & alliances, Pacific Managing director ANZ ANZ manager of channels/alliances Channel sales manager ANZ Past Adobe channel chief Kanagaratnam joined the Chidiac took over the top job at Avaya in August 2016 Barge stepped into the channel chief role at networking It has been a year of major channel changes for Citrix, critical infrastructure vendor early in 2015. The company after several years of personnel changes across the infrastructure vendor Brocade after a career that including adding new training regimes and certifications, reshuffled its distributors in 2016 and also announced collaboration vendor’s Australian leadership and partner included stints at NEC, Cisco and Red Hat in Australia, as launching a new rewards program and helping partners award wins by its top partners, which include Data#3, team. “Avaya has undergone a major transition, and well as about 15 years at Microsoft in his native UK. “The forge joint opportunities with Microsoft. Jurisic says she Dicker Data and Powerfirm. Kanagaratnam says: “Our our goal is to work closely with our partners to enable strength of our program is that we have a very close is “committed to advancing the role of women in IT – strategy is channel first and it is a significant percentage them to help their own customers achieve digital relationship with each of our partners,” he says. “We offer including the channel – and how the sector can become of our overall business in Pacific.” transformation as well,” says Chidiac. a lot of enablement.” a more attractive career option for younger women”. 32 October 2016 www.crn.com.au www.crn.com.au October 2016 33 032-046_OCT16_354_CHANNEL CHIEFS INDEX_V3.indd 32 9/30/16 5:02 PM 032-046_OCT16_354_CHANNEL CHIEFS INDEX_V3.indd 33 9/30/16 5:02 PM CRN Channel Chiefs Sponsored by Veritas Technologies Cisco Datto Jason Brouwers James Bergl Director, partner business group ANZ Sales director ANZ Brouwers leads the partner strategy for Bergl was the first Australian employee of backup and one of the IT channel’s most important disaster recover vendor Datto when it landed in-country vendors. Cisco is traditionally seen as in 2015, and Datto has since brought on more than 100 second only to Microsoft and – before transacting partners. Bergl says: “Our goal is to grow Channel Chief view its separation – HP in terms of number market share by bringing on newly trans acting MSPs of resellers. Having worked for the that quickly identify the cost-savings and additional networking giant since 2000, Brouwers revenue opportunities selling Datto can deliver.” took leadership of the partner business group in 2013. Janet Docherty, Director of Channels at Veritas, tells us Brouwers wants to foster partner-to- Dell EMC partner connections, telling CRN in 2014 what the information management vendor looks for in a partner that “even some of the most embryonic Mark Fioretto (top left) small partner relationships we have are General manager service providers, Please tell us about your partner program? What kinds of partners is your organisation extremely exciting, because that could systems integrators & alliances The Veritas Partner Force program is structured in a way to looking for? represent an opportunity for one of our maximise partners’ information management opportunities Partners that are focused on a particular technology Geoff Wright (bottom left) large, important partners”. while helping them stay ahead of the overall market. Some area and have a deep understanding of the issues and General manager ANZ channels of the key benefi ts are: technology involved.