Thursday, October 27, 2016

100 Most Visible Channel Leaders - 2016



I have written in the past about Paul Revere and the applicability to the IT/Telecom Channel. It came from a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point book. In the 'Law of the Few', Gladwell explains that a very select group of people are responsible for the "tipping" of almost all social epidemics. These people are special for their incredible abilities to communicate, teach, and persuade.

Check it out here.

Starting way back in 2009, when I moved to the U.S. from Canada, I began my fascination with how a huge global industry, with tens of millions of people across hundreds of thousands of companies, could be boiled down to about 100 influencers and superconnectors.

Back then, I collected all 16 channel magazines, attended dozens of tradeshows, studied associations, peer groups, bloggers and activity on social media and manually created a master spreadsheet. Every time I came across a keynote speaker, top industry list, writer, board member, trainer, community leader, or vendor/distributor executive, I would write their name, company and title down along with one check-mark. If I came across them again, another check-mark was given.

My hypothesis was that these connectors and influencers would be omnipresent in the industry - showing up at different shows, articles, press releases, top industry lists, communities, radio shows, and so on. A quick sort on check-marks would give me a visibility list - and what I thought was a solid influence list.

And I was mostly right.

Fast forward to today and I continue to keep track of numerous industry sources to keep the list updated. In fact, there are 36 sources that I regularly update including lists of channel leaders from leading global channel magazines, keynote speakers, various board and advisory council members, and others.

Disclaimer:  This is an objective view of the data - a scoring algorithm based on visibility across 36 different communities, importance factor, and timing recency. 

I do have another more subjective list that ranks people based on perceived influence, reach and leadership in the industry - but that is for another day.  :-)

A couple of interesting anecdotes:

1. The research tracks 2,855 people with multiple community touchpoints across 1,702 companies.
2. Social media activity is high among the top 100 - 65% of them are on Twitter, with just under half of those having 1,000+ followers. 99% of them are on Linkedin - here is looking at you Mike Cullen :-)

Anyway, here is a stack-ranked list of the top 100 IT/Telecom industry leaders by visibility:

1.  Rob Rae, Vice President of Business Development , Datto   Points: 57
2.  Janet Schijns, Vice President Global Channels, Verizon   Points: 50
3.  Dave Sobel, Senior Director of Partner Community, Solarwinds MSP   Points: 49
4.  Len DiCostanzo, SVP, Community and Business Development, Autotask   Points: 48
5.  Arnie Bellini, CEO, ConnectWise   Points: 48
6.  MJ Shoer, Chief Technology Officer, Internet & Telephone   Points: 44
7.  Vince Tinnirello, CEO, Anchor Network Solutions   Points: 41
8.  Craig Schlagbaum, VP, Indirect Channel Sales, Comcast   Points: 40
9.  Brooks McCorcle, President, Partner Solutions, AT&T   Points: 38
10.  Scott Barlow, VP, Global MSP, Sales & Marketing   Points: 37
11.  Ted Roller, Owner, GetChanneled   Points: 36
12.  Gary Pica, Owner, TruMethods   Points: 34
13.  Arlin Sorensen, CEO & Founder, HTG Peer Groups   Points: 34
14.  Renee Bergeron, Vice President, Cloud Computing, Ingram Micro Inc.   Points: 31
15.  Larry Walsh, CEO and Chief Analyst, The 2112 Group   Points: 30
16.  Jason Bystrak, Executive Director - The Americas, Ingram Micro   Points: 30
17.  Mary Ellen Grom, VP US Marketing, Synnex   Points: 29
18.  Dave Seibert, President, SMB TechFest   Points: 29
19.  Wendy Bahr, SVP Global Partner Organization, Cisco Systems   Points: 28
20.  Dina Moskowitz, CEO, SaaSMAX Corp.   Points: 28
21.  Shannon Mayer, Vice President of Channel Development, ASCII   Points: 28
22.  Neal Bradbury, Co-founder & VP of Channel Development, Intronis Inc.   Points: 28
23.  David Graffia, VP Sales, dinCloud   Points: 28
24.  Mike Cullen, VP of Sales, Solarwinds MSP   Points: 28
25.  Tiffani Bova, Global, Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist, Salesforce   Points: 27
26.  Stuart Crawford, CEO, Ulistic   Points: 27
27.  Karl Palachuk, Owner, Small Biz Thoughts   Points: 27
28.  Ted Hulsy, VP of Marketing, eFolder   Points: 27
29.  Ed Correia, CEO, Sagacent Technologies   Points: 27
30.  Stuart Selbst, President, Infratactix   Points: 26
31.  Nancy Hammervik, Senior Vice President Industry Relations, CompTIA   Points: 26
32.  Toni Clayton-Hine, VP, Global Marketing & Value Proposition, Xerox   Points: 26
33.  Darrin Swan, CEO, CloudRunner   Points: 25
34.  Cheryl Cook, Vice President, Global Channels & Alliances, Dell   Points: 24
35.  Meredith Caram, Executive Director - AT&T Partner Solutions, AT&T   Points: 24
36.  Jamison West, Founder & CEO, Arterian   Points: 24
37.  Carmen Sorice, SVP, Global Channel Sales and Programs, Sungard AS   Points: 24
38.  Shannon Sbar, VP Channels North America, APC by Schneider Electric   Points: 24
39.  Leslie Bois, Vice President Channel Sales-North America , Kaspersky Lab   Points: 24
40.  Michelle Accardi, Chief Operating Officer, Star2Star Communications   Points: 24
41.  Brooke Cunningham, AVP, Global Partner Programs & Operations, Splunk   Points: 23
42.  Jeannine Edwards, Sr Director, Platform Strategy, ConnectWise   Points: 23
43.  Luis Alvarez, President & CEO, Alvarez Technology Group   Points: 23
44.  Dan Wensley, President, Passportal   Points: 23
45.  Alessandra Brambilla, Vice President WW, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise   Points: 23
46.  Curtiz Gangi, Vice President, US Channels, Datacenter Segment, Eaton   Points: 23
47.  Frank Vitagliano, VP North American Partner Sales, Dell   Points: 23
48.  Bob Gault, EVP Worldwide Sales Services Channels, Extreme Networks   Points: 23
49.  Scott Dunsire, VP GM Americas Channels, Hewlett Packard Enterprise   Points: 23
50.  Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA   Points: 22
51.  Bill Lipsin, VP Worldwide Channels, NetApp   Points: 22
52.  Amy Babinchak, Owner, ThirdTier   Points: 22
53.  Theresa Caragol, Founder & Consultant, Theresa Caragol Consulting   Points: 22
54.  Kevin Royalty, Managing Partner, Total Care Computer Consulting   Points: 22
55.  Susan Bradley, Partner, TSHB   Points: 22
56.  Justin Crotty, Senior Vice President Channel Sales and Marketing, NetEnrich   Points: 21
57.  Tracy Pound, Managing Director, Maximity Limited   Points: 21
58.  Carolyn April, Senior Director of Industry Research, CompTIA   Points: 21
59.  Barbara Spicek, VP Worldwide Channel Sales, Gigamon   Points: 21
60.  Colleen Kapase, VP Partner GTM, Incentives and Programs, VMWare   Points: 21
61.  Donna Grothjan, VP WW Channel Distribution, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise   Points: 21
62.  Kendra Krause, VP Channels, Sophos   Points: 21
63.  Cindy Bates, Vice President US SMB, Microsoft   Points: 20
64.  Kimberly Martin, VP, Worldwide Partner Strategy & Sales, Citrix Systems   Points: 20
65.  Erick Simpson, Co-Founder, Senior Vice President and CIO, SPC International   Points: 20
66.  Terry Hedden, CEO, Marketopia   Points: 20
67.  James Foxall, President, Tigerpaw Software   Points: 20
68.  Ron Culler, CTO, Secure Designs Inc.   Points: 20
69.  Carl Mazzanti, Founder and CEO, eMazzanti Technologies   Points: 20
70.  Colleen Browne, Director, NA Channel and Enterprise Sales, Viewsonic   Points: 20
71.  Linda Brotherton, General Manager, ConnectWise   Points: 20
72.  Alex Rogers, CEO, CharTec   Points: 20
73.  Mary Campbell, Vice President of Marketing, D&H Distributing   Points: 20
74.  Steven Banks, President, Banks Consulting Northwest Inc.   Points: 20
75.  Jeanne Hopkins, Senior Vice President & CMO, Continuum Managed Services   Points: 19
76.  Vincent Brissot, Head of Channel Marketing & Operations, HP   Points: 19
77.  Marie Rourke, Owner & President, WhiteFox Marketing and Communications   Points: 19
78.  Greg VanDeWalker, SVP and General Manager, GreatAmerica Leasing   Points: 19
79.  Paul Dippell, CEO, Service Leadership   Points: 19
80.  Julie Hens, Vice President, U.S./Canada Channels Distribution, Cisco Systems   Points: 19
81.  Craig West, SVP, Channel Sales, NetSuite   Points: 19
82.  Jim Lippie, Chief Advisor, Clarity Channel Advisors   Points: 19
83.  Nancy Reynolds, Vice President, Americas Channel Sales, LogRhythm   Points: 19
84.  Barry Williams, Executive Director, Indirect Channel Sales, Comcast   Points: 19
85.  Robin Robins, Owner, Technology Marketing Toolkit   Points: 18
86.  Phil Sorgen, Corporate VP - U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft   Points: 18
87.  Jed Ayres, CEO, IGEL Technology   Points: 18
88.  Jane Cage, Managing Principal, InsightFive22   Points: 18
89.  Peter Sandiford, CEO, Netsone Technologies   Points: 18
90.  Jan Spring, Vice President, Channel Development, eFolder   Points: 18
91.  Gavin Garbutt, Strategic Advisor, VIPSoftware Co.   Points: 18
92.  Jerry Koutavas, President, ASCII   Points: 18
93.  Harry Brelsford, Director of Business Development, LeadSCORZ   Points: 18
94.  Terry Wise, Vice President, WW Alliances, Channels and Ecosystem, Amazon   Points: 18
95.  Vince Bradley, CEO, WTG   Points: 18
96.  Tricia Atchison, Vice President, Global Partner Marketing, CA Technologies   Points: 17
97.  Amy Luby, Vice President Sales - US, Sinefa   Points: 17
98.  Zak Karsan, Co-Founder, SecureEDEN   Points: 17
99.  Dee Dee Acquista, Vice President, WW Channel Sales, Proofpoint   Points: 17
100.  Erin Malone, Vice President, NA Channel Sales, Sophos   Points: 17

Next time you are at an industry conference, make sure to say hi to these folks. 

Applying the law of Kevin Bacon, you will be one-degree of separation of millions of people by knowing these leaders. Also, follow them on Twitter and Linkedin - some of the best thought leadership you will find anywhere!