Women and Diversity in Channel Awards: Q&A with Alex Lloyd-Edwards, director of channel and alliances, EMEA, Trustwave
As the Women and Diversity in Channel Awards draw nearer, CRN sits down with Trustwave's Alex Lloyd-Edwards to discuss the importance of the awards and Trustwave's diversity and sustainability efforts.
In this lightning round awards Q&A, Trustwave's Alexandra Lloyd-Edwards talks about the past year at Trustwave, major diversity wins and the channel opportunities that the vendor is currently focusing on.
To read the full shortlist or find out more about the awards, click here.
CRN: Why do you think awards like the WDCAs matter? What would winning this award mean to your company?
ALE: Securing a WDCA award would serve as a testament to our company's commitment to excellence. It underscores our dedication to fostering an inclusive environment where women and diverse groups are integral to our corporate ethos and achievements. This accolade would not only validate our efforts but also inspire others to continue championing diversity as a cornerstone of their success.
CRN: What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?
ALE: Reflecting on the past year, our company's most significant source of pride stems from the incremental yet impactful changes we've implemented. At Trustwave, we take pride in challenging and evolving beyond traditional practices, as evidenced by our progressive updates to maternity and paternity care policies. Currently, our focus is directed towards enhancing our sustainability efforts. We are committed to diminishing our environmental footprint, all while maintaining the safety and trust of our clients.
In addition, security is a team sport and our commitment to the security community is a value instilled throughout Trustwave. Our dedicated research teams delve deep into security breaches to find new and unknown threats & share our findings openly for example, publishing regular blogs on the latest threats, contributing heavily to VirusTotal findings via MailMarshal & working as part of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence community. It's this collective resolve against cyber adversaries that fills me with immense pride to be a member of an organization that harnesses such exceptional talent to confront and overcome these challenges.
CRN: What have been the biggest challenges of 2024 so far and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?
ALE: One of the paramount challenges we've faced in 2024 is understanding how to help the Channel amplify its presence and influence within the cybersecurity services marketplace. Our Channel partners, being at the heart of the technological ecosystem, are uniquely positioned to add value with managed services. The Trustwave Channel Team are actively working with partners to bring their unique skills to bear, educating them on the value of a services overlay for their clients, enabling our Channel partners with the right tools and techniques to engage the client conversation and supporting continuously throughout the sales cycle.
CRN: How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?
ALE: The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving as are our Channel partner's capabilities. But with a maturing and consolidating technology market comes complexity. New service providers and technologies are flooding the market, which causes us to ask the questions, who is the right supplier, who can help elevate my customer's cyber maturity consolidation journey and who can actively and successfully support my channel organisation as a whole? With channel partners at the centre of customers' buying decisions, it's incumbent on service providers and technology organisations to be transparent not only around their capabilities but the shape of their organisation. The topics of diversity, sustainability and how easy your organisation is to work with are now driving decisions on who we have in our ecosystems and evolving our business-to-business collaboration values.
CRN: What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?
ALE: These are exciting times for the channel, especially in the realm of cybersecurity services. The shift towards service-oriented strategies represents a significant transition for the Channel market. However, with great change comes great opportunity and it's a challenge that I believe the Channel is well-equipped to embrace and lead. Trustwave is eager to spearhead this evolution, walking side by side with Channel Partners across EMEA, to further establish themselves as esteemed cybersecurity managed services trusted advisors.
Alexandra is a client-focused leader with over 20 years of global in-depth experience specializing in the managed security services industry. Leading Trustwave's channel strategy for the last three years and the alliances programme for EMEA for the past five years. Prior to Trustwave, Alexandra was the security solutions and alliances lead for Vodafone Global and the global endpoint strategy lead for HP Enterprise Security Services. Alexandra was awarded the HPE ESS EMEA partner alliance manager of the year, Trustwave channel seller of the year, and is a CRN 2023 Women in channel, diversity and inclusion finalist.