Jonathan Howes, Michael King, Wasabi

Jonathan Howes, VP and GM of EMEA in Wasabi, has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry, leading companies across EMEA. He has a strong background in scaling EMEA indirect go-to-market models for technology companies, having previously held senior sales and channel positions in EMEA for Juniper Networks, Infovista, and Oracle.

He most recently served as WW GTM Strategy Lead at Juniper Networks, where he led the Session Smart Router GTM strategy globally. Jonathan has expertise in creating and scaling service offers with managed service providers, having successfully launched managed routing & SDWAN, application prioritisation, and security offers with MSPs worldwide.

Wasabi takes a channel-first approach in EMEA and has established partnerships with Exclusive Networks, Ebertlang, Veeam, Equinix, and more, most recently skill partner.

Jon's role prioritises building on Wasabi's channel presence that is already in place, along with scaling its partner and customer base, and strategically increasing Wasabi's headcount in key European markets, specifically the UK, France, and Germany.

Jon has undergraduate qualifications from Coventry University, UK and post graduate business qualifications from Northwestern University, USA.

In 2019 Jon was named a Channel Chief by CRN.

Number of years in current role:

1

Number of years in current company:

1

Number of years involved in indirect sales:

20

Reporting to:

Marty Falaro, executive VP and COO

What percentage of your sales come through the channel?

60 per cent.

Describe your personal channel philosophy.

Successful partnering depends on both parties' ability to create a compelling business case for the partnership. A business case that delivers for all stakeholder and their needs. The creation and then successful delivery of that business case is at the heart of my channel philosophy.

What were your and organisation's biggest channel accomplishments over the past year?

Jon spearheaded several channel partnerships. At the VAD level, TD Synnex was onboarded as a broadliner. At the SI, VAR level, Jon drove a program focused on recruiting and enabling some of Europe's largest partners. From over 80 targets, over 30 have started transacting with Wasabi in 2023.

This year we achieved:

Onboarding 30+ of Europe's largest partners to the Wasabi Partner Programme

Driving over 100 per cent increases in deal registrations and sales certifications in the channel Expanding Wasabi's VAD presence in Europe to cover all key markets

How are you and your company working to build equity and inclusion in the channel?

Firstly, I express a strong commitment to equity and inclusion which is communicated clearly through policies, statements, and my personal actions.

I strive to ensure equal opportunities for all across professional development, mentorship, and advancement. I try to create open channels for communication, feedback, and reporting of discrimination or bias, ensuring that all employees feel safe reporting incidents without fear of retaliation.

Finally, I ensure my leadership team are trained and coached to be inclusive and empathetic recognising that inclusive leadership fosters a culture where everyone feels valued and heard.

Wasabi is working to build equity and inclusion in the channel by offering to collaborate and partner with our channels who share our commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in the industry.

We invite our channel partners to join us in this journey towards improved equity and inclusion for all. We welcome their feedback, ideas and contributions to help us create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable industry for everyone.

How is your organisation's market development strategy (MDF) changing this year?

Wasabi has increased our MDF funds year over year to support the continued growth of our reseller and MSP community and has added MDF programmes to support international expansion. We use these market development funds to drive activation, and innovation in solutions development by our channels. We do this by leveraging marketing strategies that are already working for our partners and by introducing new innovative marketing programmes that drive the adoption of Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage.

What are your top channel goals for 2024?

Increase overall percentage of company revenue that comes through the channel, improve partner sales skills and ramp up partner sales of a newly launched product/service.

What were the key partner investments made over the past year?

Increased investments in joint marketing programmes with our technology alliance partners to benefit our joint channels with new leads and opportunities for revenue.

Invested aggressively in improvements of the Wasabi Partner Programme to enhance education tracks, our marketing campaigns in a box and our customizable channel marketing tools.

Invested in hiring more channel sales and marketing resources to recruit and activate more channels.