Channel big hitters launch free mentoring network

Yvonne Matzk, Claire Hopkins, Hayley Roberts and Aggrey Lutta among founding members of The Channel Community, which aims to support young and up-and-coming industry talent

A newly established mentoring network for the UK IT channel has put out the call for mentees to join its ranks.

The brainchild of former CDW executive Yvonne Matzk, ‘The Channel Community' will provide free mentoring to up-and-coming industry professionals, focusing particularly on those with "solitary" roles in areas such as partner management and those starting up new companies.

Its 10 founding members include Matzk, Distology CEO Hayley Roberts, Ideal founding director Claire Hopkins and CAE's culture director Aggrey Lutta (see bottom for f ull list of founding members).

Talking to CRN, Matzk said the specialist nature of some roles in the channel mean those starting out in the industry can lack credible mentors within their organisation.

Matzk herself spent 11 years working for Kelway/CDW, including as an alliances director, a role she singled out as being particularly "solitary" in nature.

"When it was CDW I had some people I could reach out to in the US, but prior to that, where could I go for advice? There wasn't really anybody with a similar role in my organisation; it was quite unique and solitary," she said.

"But what I did find when I went to industry events was that there was a core group of us that would get together and share key challenges that were consistent, maybe across the vendor [whose event we were at]. We'd all get together at the bar and there'd be an advisory board, but that was the only time you'd talk about this stuff.

"I wanted to make it a bit more consistent by creating a little community.

"When you start your own business, that can also be quite solitary, because all of a sudden you've gone from working for a large organisation to being on your own. Sometimes it's just nice to have other people to share and bounce ideas off."

Hunting for mentors and mentees

The Channel Community is hunting for its first mentees and is also looking to add to its mentor network, which spans all tiers of the channel including vendor, distributor and reseller/IT services.

It recently created a website and closed Linkedin group, which people can apply to join, and also has a constitution and core set of values. Its goal is to "connect like-minded people across the channel who want to help support individuals reach their full potential through mentoring".

Matzk stressed that the network is designed to be inclusive of all genders, races and social backgrounds.

"I don't want to discredit men or make them think this is a woman-only initiative, because it isn't," she said.

"There are already some groups out there that dedicate themselves to just women. But if I think about my career, everyone that helped me has been a man, and I don't want it to dilute the fact that men are the biggest supporters of women."

"We want people to be involved because they hold similar values to us, not necessarily because they think it's a good thing to do," she added.

Mentoring and advice through the network will always be given for free, Matzk stressed, adding that she will continue in her day job heading up coaching business Coachere.

"People ask me ‘what's in it for you?' I want to feel like part of something and have a regular connection with people I can bounce ideas off, but I also want to provide a platform for young talent to have mentoring for free," she explained.

Full list of founding members (pictured below, clockwise from top-left)

Yvonne Matzk, founder, Coachere

Aggrey Lutta, culture director, CAE

Hayley Roberts, CEO, Distology

Claire Hopkins, director, Ideal

Caroline Lewis, sales director, Tiger

Julia Elliott, partner alliance manager, Ideal

Olivia Jaskolka, marketing director, ANS

John Shannon, partner director, Tiger

Sean Roberts, GM, Public Sector of Cloud Excellence, Ensono

Leah Stiff, head of alliances, ANS