International Women's Day: Eight channel leaders on how they made an impact in 2023

Here's what eight female channel leaders have to say about their biggest achievements of the year

As International Women's Day approaches, CRN shines a spotlight on the remarkable achievements of women in the male-dominated tech industry.

It's a well-documented phenomenon that women are less likely to promote their own achievements, which leads to less recognition at work. But we don't think it has to be that way.

From 8x8's Emily Masterton, who led a significant reorganisation ensuring partner support remained seamless to Fortinet's Anne Bourgeois, who spearheaded a transformative shift towards MSSPs, boosting the region's channel ecosystem.

Here's how eight of the channel's most influential women made an impact this past year.

Emily Masterton, director, EMEA channel sales, 8x8

"Over the last year, 8x8 carried out a massive reorganisation around channel operations. My role was ensuring people felt supported and that, externally, partners did not feel disrupted.

"I also revamped 8x8's Rules of Engagement, aligning them towards benefiting partners more, including giving them more protection in opportunities."

Jessica Kingham , director, channel & alliances UK&I, Barracuda Networks

"I played a pivotal role in key initiatives, contributing to the development and delivery of the new global partner success programme, and serving as a media spokesperson.

"I significantly enhanced the UK&I deal registration and pipeline contribution, elevating it to account for 38 per cent of the overall EMEA figure."

Anne Bourgeois, VP of channel, EMEA Fortinet

"My team and I demonstrated our ability to transform our EMEA channel ecosystem and support Partner transition from Integrator to MSSP, growing the number of MSSPs by over 30 per cent in 2023.

"It is also worth mentioning the success of our dedicated EMEA SMB programme which achieved 29 per cent growth in 2023."

Wendy Inwood, senior manager, EMEA channel, HYCU

"After the launch of R-Cloud, HYCU implemented a partner-focused capture and enablement activities to help SaaS-based solutions partners deliver data protection as a service to existing customers where no other solutions were available.

"I was instrumental in driving the EMEA effort with Atlassian partners."

Patricia Murphy, VP EMEA and LATAM ecosystems, Palo Alto

"This year we have introduced a range of programs to build our ecosystems community, including partner advisory boards, forums, events, and enablement initiatives.

"Our partners are an extension of our team and our investments in developing a joint approach with strategic partners enable larger transformational projects with our customers."

Penny Philpot, VP, EMEA partner ecosystem, Red Hat

"Since arriving at Red Hat, I've transformed the team, strategy and execution of our EMEA ecosystem business.

"Through extensive internal and external research, I established the main challenges and drivers for the business and worked with my over 200 reports to transition it toward scaled and incremental business growth."

Christina Decker, director strategic channels Europe, Trend Micro

"In the last year, I spearheaded aligning with the global team to establish a ground-breaking partner programme. I played a crucial role in building and leading a dynamic European channel team, executing a comprehensive strategy.

"Collaboratively aligning with country channel leaders, I fostered a cohesive and strategic approach to channel development."

Michelle Saw, VP of GTM shared services, JAPAC, Palo Alto

"We have given JAPAC a voice on the corporate level, giving a 360 view of the JAPAC business to the global Palo Alto Networks team.

"The regional partner programme has shifted from tactical to more strategic partnerships. I have restructured the JAPAC channel business function for better efficiency and coverage."