Channel Glitterati Unite to Help Shape Global, Regional and Industry Channel Agendas

By PRNewswire On May 28, 2020

Impartner, the world’s fastest-growing, most award-winning pure play Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and channel management platform provider, today announced a new Channel Chief Advisory Board (CCAB) of top channel strategists focused on sharing best channel practices worldwide. The global group is curated from powerhouse players in the channel who are conversation setters: those who generate headlines, present keynotes at top channel forums, curate leading channel events, and are trusted channel advisors for top corporations worldwide.

“Like CRM, PRM and channel management technologies are systems of record that companies use to manage their entire channel ecosystem, which represent 75 percent or more of revenue for most corporations,” said Impartner CMO Kerry Desberg. “Our customers and prospects are making big decisions about how to best run their channel and they look to Impartner and this collective group for a continual stream of best practices and thought leadership before, during and after the sales process. We could not be more excited to have the power of this amazing assembly of channel thought leaders join Impartner in being a beacon for best practices — something the market is hungrier for now more than ever given the impact of COVID-19.”

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As a part of the CCAB, members will contribute regular content in the form of podcasts, webinars, blog posts, surveys that highlight key directional trends in the market, presentations and 1:1s at ImpartnerCON, the company’s showcase customer channel management summit, which is now set for April 2021.

Kicking off content from the CCAB is a webinar, “The Inverse Channel, The Rise of Partner Power,” featuring CEO Glenn Robertson of Purechannels, a UK-based channel marketing and PR firm recently named best agency by CRN Magazine, and hosted by Desberg. In the webinar, Robertson addresses how the world’s recent events have made vendor partner programs that “drip onto partners” a thing of the past. In the new world order, the most successful programs will be built “from the partner up.”

“Given the revenue driven by the indirect channel, the pressure for Channel Chiefs to get it right is tremendous,” said Robertson. “We’re thrilled to join Impartner and this amazing group of channel thought leaders in continuing to elevate the conversation around best practices in the channel to not only survive, but thrive and prosper as the market begins its path to recovery.”

Below is a list of the CCAB members, which is also available here on Impartner’s website — along with schedule of upcoming CCAB content:

Rod Baptie, President and Founder, Baptie & Co.

Rod Baptie is President and Founder of Baptie & Co., the world’s leading provider of Channel best practice and how-to information for executives in the technology and telecom industries. Baptie’s communities and events, including their flagship Channel Focus event and their Cloud Services Community, provide invaluable insights through peer-to-peer interaction. Involved with the technology industry since the early 1980s, Baptie was Managing Director at WBN, a leading high-tech agency where Baptie was responsible for the successful launch of over 20 major technology companies into the European market. Baptie is also a popular speaker at conferences and seminars worldwide and is widely recognized as one of the leading thinkers in the IT/Telcom channels industry.

Gina Batali-Brooks, President, Is Inspired

Gina Batali-Brooks is President of Is Inspired, a leading technology implementation firm that helps companies choose and implement solutions that accelerate the performance of their channel. With over 30 years of experience, Batali-Brooks has extensive channel technology leadership experience in channel strategy development, recruiting, ramping and retaining channel partners and channel team building and managing, and has held channel leadership roles with LeftHand Networks and HP.

Theresa Caragol, Founder and CEO, AchieveUnite

Theresa Caragol is Founder and CEO, AchieveUnite Inc., a strategic consulting and education company helping global companies generate maximum results from their channel and strategic alliance partner organizations. Clients include Poly, SES, Ciena, Big Commerce and Accedian. Caragol has more than 20 years’ experience building and managing multimillion-dollar indirect channel teams and strategic alliance programs from inception to sales success with top corporations including Ciena. Caragol is the recipient of numerous channel accolades, including CRN’s Top 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs, and is a regular keynote at top channel forums globally.

Cassandra Gholston, CEO, PartnerTap

Cassandra Gholston is the Co-founder and CEO of PartnerTap, an ecosystem sales platform that directly connects thousands of sales reps across companies so they can uncover new opportunities and close more deals with partner insights. Prior to founding PartnerTap, Gholston spent her 15-year career in sales as a top sales leader in numerous SaaS and technology companies such as Concur and ADP and consulted with domestic and international organizations that were in their hyper-growth phase.

Michelle Gunter, EVP, Partner Perspectives

Michelle Gunter is EVP of Partner Perspectives, a full-service channel consulting and enablement firm that guides companies in launching channels, expanding existing ecosystems and developing new ways to improve channel performance, with clients such as Fuze, SAS, Autodesk and Carbonite. As a global sales and business executive with over 20 years of experience, Gunter has helped hundreds of clients design, implement and deliver channel sales, success and support motions, delivering billions in annual revenue. Before joining Partner Perspectives, Gunter was the Global Channel SVP with Sales-as-a-Service company, MarketStar.

Donagh Kiernan, CEO, Tenego Partnering

Donagh Kiernan is CEO of Ireland-based Tenego Partnering and Tenego Academy, which provides international channel sales development services and online channel development training programs to growing and established software companies including sales channel planning and development, direct sales execution and sales channel execution. With over 30 years of technology development experience, Kiernan has developed, sold and delivered high-caliber software solutions to many national and international organizations.

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Peter O’Neill, Research Director, Research in Action

Peter O’Neill researches and advises on B2B Marketing at Research in Action, a leading, independent technology research and consulting company providing both forward-looking and practical advice to enterprise as well as vendor clients. O’Neill is most known for his 12 years of service at Forrester Research as an industry analyst where, most recently, he directed all Forrester’s research on B2B Marketing topics including channel marketing. Before Forrester, he was at META Group and advised many technology companies on channel marketing and prior to that, held a number of channel leadership positions at HP during his 20 years at that company.

Dan Overgaag, Managing Director, The Spur Group

Dan Overgaag is Managing Director of The Spur Group, regularly one of Inc. 500’s Fastest Growing Companies and a leading authority on go-to-market solutions, where he directs strategic initiatives and develops channel management programs for top technology firms such as Microsoft, Cisco and Google. With over 12 years of industry experience, Overgaag leads the firm’s channel management, sales transformation and business intelligence practices.

Kevin Rhone, Channel Acceleration Practice Lead, Enterprise Strategy Group

Kevin Rhone is the Channel Acceleration Practice Lead for Enterprise Strategy Group, an IT analyst, research, validation and strategy firm that provides market intelligence and actionable insight to the global IT community. Rhone helps clients strengthen their global partner-centric strategies, programs and go-to-market execution. Before joining ESG, Rhone, a 25-year IT industry executive, spent a number of years as a consultant to senior executives at Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Citrix and other companies concerning their partnering and go-to-market strategies, programs and execution.

Glenn Robertson, CEO, Purechannels

Glenn Robertson is CEO of Purechannels, a UK-based, multi-award-winning channel sales and marketing agency that supports vendors, distributors and partners and drives revenue, relationships and ROI through maximizing channel development, vendor programs and partner experience. Robertson is a CRN A-Lister, member of the Super-Brands Council, founder of Nuzoo — The Channel News Hub, and host of the “Channel Drop In.”

Patricia Rush, President, Rush to Channel

Patricia Rush is President and Founder of Rush to Channel, a channel consultancy specializing in partner go-to-market strategies across diverse channel ecosystems. Rush brings over 30 years of multi-faceted, cross-functional experience in businesses ranging from Fortune 500 to small to midsize, rapid-growth organizations in IT, security, services and related industries. Rush has led The Channel Company’s XChange conferences and consulting organizations and has led a number of channel management and sales positions with companies such as Western Digital and Maxtor Corporation.

Kristine Stewart, VP of Client Success and Marketing, Channel Impact

Kristine Stewart is VP of Client Success and Marketing for Channel Impact, a full-service channel specialty firm focusing on channel staffing, strategy, marketing and enablement solutions. Stewart guides clients in transforming their go-to-market strategies for the new cloud-based economy, including supporting XaaS and recurring revenue business models. She is an IT industry veteran in the unique position of having held numerous executive leadership roles across sales, channels, business development and marketing organizations at companies such as Cisco, Hitachi and Western Digital.

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