Channel Executive Council is managed by a member advisory board. The board helps structure the activity and development of the Council.
The advisory board members are:
Larissa Crandall
Vice President of Worldwide Channel and Alliances – Veeam
Larissa Crandall is the Vice President of Global Channel and Alliances at Veeam. Crandall has over 20 years of experience transforming global high-tech sales and channel teams, she has led the organizations through transformation to channel first models and driving alliances resulting in record growth. She has been selected by CRN for the Women of the Channel, Channel Chief, Power 100 – Topmost Powerful Women of the Channel and People You Don’t Know but Should. She is also on the Advisory Board for our very own Channel Executive Council.
Micheal McCollough
Global VP of Strategic Growth – Imperva
As Global Vice President of Strategic Growth at Imperva, Micheal is responsible for leading the development of Imperva’s Global Partner Ecosystem into a high-growth, partner-led organization. Together with their Direct Reseller, Distributor, MSSP, CSP and GSI partners, Micheal and his team work to ensure the customer is always top-of-mind and partners are enabled to deliver the cybersecurity products and services that provide the best protection and business value for Imperva’s customers.
Micheal has been leading global organizations for more than 20 years on four continents. His experience includes building partner enablement frameworks, creating go-to-market strategy, driving sales and P&L, leading matrixed teams, and consulting on network infrastructure and data center operations in the Americas, EMEA, and APJ. Micheal is a former professional baseball player for the Texas Rangers, and uses his time in professional sports to inform his approach to teamwork and discipline as a business leader.
Before joining Imperva, Micheal served as Global Vice President, Channels & Alliances at Akamai where he built the enablement framework and go-to-market strategy for Akamai’s partner ecosystem, driving a 66% increase in channel-led sales revenue. Micheal previously led the Akamai Strategic Alliances and Channel Organization in APJ. With Dell, Micheal led regional service delivery programs in EMEA (based in Paris), and APJ (based in Singapore) to greater profitability. Micheal also held senior leadership roles with Schlumberger across sub-Saharan Africa.
Originally from Texas, Micheal calls Boston, MA home. Micheal has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston, and earned his Global Executive MBA from Duke University. Micheal serves on the Minority Alumni Advisory Board for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and is active in their student mentoring programs. Micheal enjoys contributing to his community by coaching youth sports and being active in his church – but most important is time with his family.
Specialties: Indirect Sales • Vendor Management • Partner Management • Global Experience Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and APJ • Multi-Country Leadership • Strategic Planning • Corporate Change Programs • Continual P&L Improvement • Infrastructure Consulting • Leadership of Matrix Teams (over 1200 Resources) • Network & Datacenter Ops • ITIL ver 3 certified • Six Sigma IT Managed Services • Consultant • Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion • Building Revenue-driving Programs • Bilingual French and English
Taylor Macdonald
Founder – RDBDG
SaaS sales and channel executive with global experience in sales, indirect channels and executive management at growing software/technology companies. Extensive experience with building channels with leading CPA firms. Own the relationship with AICPA and CPA.com. Led the channel team at Intacct from 0% to over 50% of the new revenue while growing at 35% compounded and creating over $300 million dollars in enterprise value. Culminated in purchase of Intacct by Sage for $850 million in 2017.
Channel chief at Intacct, Deltek and Sage Software. Prior experience as founder and president of Macdonald Consulting Group – leading worldwide ERP VAR for Sage Software (formerly State of the Art) and Great Plains Software (now part of Microsoft). Passed CPA exam. Named to the Top 100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Industry list 17 times.
Frequent and top rated keynote speaker at Channel Focus (10+ years in a row), AICPA Tech Conference (24 years in a row), Information Technology Alliance (ITA), channel and industry events. Topics include: Selling to SMB market, SaaS trends, Cloud ERP, consulting practice profitability, channel development and business building.
Specialties: Channel architecture, channel leader, sales & field sales, Cloud ERP, SaaS business transformation, business development, channel marketing, channel strategy, worldwide channel partner recruitment and development, channel program creation, implementation and execution. SMB expertise. Deep expertise in the financial and accounting software applications market. Channel 3.0.
Craig Schlagbaum
SVP and Channel Chief – Comcast Business
Craig Schlagbaum is the Vice President of Indirect Channels for Comcast Business. In this role, Craig manages Comcast’s indirect channel partner team and the overall indirect channel programs for Comcast Business. The program has achieved great success and was named as a top indirect channel program for the industry in both Channel Partners’ Magazine as well as Computer Reseller News (CRN) from 2011 to 2016. Prior to Comcast, Craig managed the indirect channel team for Level 3 Communications and NTT and he was a key architect of the Qwest Business Partner Program. Craig has spent over 26 years in various indirect channel roles in sales, marketing, and business development with NTT/Verio, Qwest Communications, IBM Corporation, and Sony Corporation. Craig was recently named in ’15 one of Top 10 Channel Sales Leaders in CRN and was also named as a Circle of Excellence Winner in Channel Partners Magazine in ‘16, as well as a top 10 Channel Chiefs for 8 years from 2008 to 2016. Craig holds a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Craig currently resides in Denver Colorado.
Joe Sykora
SVP WW Channels & Partner Sales – Proofpoint
Joe Sykora is a Global Sales and Channel Leader with over 20 years of experience in driving hyper sales performance. Equal parts operational leader and customer-facing executive, his expertise in managing key enterprise accounts and channel sales programs also includes negotiating complex partnerships, skillfully leading through times of change & creating Go To Market strategies that transform technology firms into competitive global businesses.
He is also a talented public speaker who constantly leverages his excellent communication skills as a trusted senior-level advisor & Board Member with the ability to present forward-thinking solutions in complex situations & lead high stakes negotiations.
A serial tech founder & CEO who has successfully led multiple startups through the merger & acquisition process from both sides of the table, Joe thrives in high risk, fast paced environments & brings an entrepreneurial approach to every situation
Joe was most recently served as VP Global Sales and Channels for Bitdefender. Bitdefender is a Global Leader in Data Center, Cloud and End Point Security Solutions. Mr. Sykora supported Sales, Channel and Distribution Strategy Globally for Bitdefender.
Joe was previously the VP of Americas Channels and Enhanced Technologies for Fortinet, Inc (FTNT) from 2010-2017. Mr. Sykora supported Channel, Distribution and Enhanced Technologies efforts for North America and South America.
Joe previously was the President/CEO of Fortress Network Security which he founded in 2001. Fortress Network Security provided managed Internet Security, Network Security, Wireless Security, Virtualization and Hosted Virtualization Solutions. Fortress Network Security has been recognized for both national and international projects, including secure wireless and comprehensive IT security deployments for organizations of all sizes.
Paul Dunne
Sr. Director – Poly
Paul is a Senior Director in the Hybrid Work Solutions Channel Organisation of HP Inc. In this role Paul directly manages Hybrid Work Solutions Distribution and sets the EMEA channel strategy for Hybrid Work Solutions.
Paul joined Plantronics (now HP) in 2003 as Country Manager – Ireland. He was promoted to various roles at Plantroncs and at Poly which was formed when Plantronics acquired Polycom 2018.
Paul has more than fifteen years of senior sales and marketing experience in Channel roles. He ran the sales and pre-sales organisations at global systems integrator RAND Worldwide as Country Manager – Ireland.
Paul is a graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology Ireland and has attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Jason Ellis
VP of Channel Sales – Sophos
Jason has over 30 years of experience in the IT channel, with over 20 years served in the Cyber Security market.
Jason is passionate about developing teams that deliver incredible results for customers and partners within a clearly defined plan.
Jason is Vice President of Channel Sales at Sophos, a network of over 25,000 specialist and MSP security partners operating in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Sophos delivers a broad portfolio of advanced products and services to secure users, networks and endpoints against ransomware, malware, exploits, phishing and a wide range of other cyberattacks. Currently, Jason and the channel team are focused on extending Sophos’s leadership in the “Security as a Service” market. Thanks to our partners, Sophos has over 15,000 customers using this service – the most extensive customer base of any vendor globally.
Before Sophos, Jason led FireEye EMEA Channel and Symantec’s $2B channel business, including EMEA leadership roles in SMB and Mid-Market segment sales, accumulating in leading their global cloud marketplace business.
Jason started his career in Distribution, where he built and led many teams over a 10-year period.
When Jason isn’t with his family, he enjoys restoring old arcade machines, helping coach an under 11 year and playing golf whenever time permits.
Greg Jones
VP Business Development – Datto Inc.
Greg is an MSP growth-hacking professional and leadership expert who delivers high-energy keynote presentations that challenge audiences to focus on what matters most when it comes to technology and business.
His presentations motivate audiences to think outside the box challenge the status quo on what can be achieved with the right technology and business processes. Audiences love these pragmatic and practical strategies that can be easily implemented and lead to big business results.
As Vice President of Business Development for Kaseya/Datto within EMEA, Greg is responsible for expanding and driving the success of Datto and Kaseya’s partner program and unique MSP ecosystem across the EMEA region, including community, events and marketing development funds.
Greg’s passions extend to the greater MSP community where he serves as Executive Council Leader for CompTIA and is chair od CompTIA’s Cyber Security Committee as well as acting as an advisor for their Advancing Women in Technology board. He is also a leader of Datto’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council and a Business Ambassador for Alder Hey Children’s Charity, whose mission is to support the young patients, families, and the staff at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in the UK.
Lorraine Twigg
Global VP of Channels – Infinera
Lorraine Twigg is currently the Global Vice President of Channels for the optical transport networking provider Infinera. In her current position she is responsible for the Sales, Strategy, and Development of partner business worldwide as well as ownership of the Partner Plus program in support of the partner business. Partners play a key role in Infinera’s reach and coverage both from a market and vertical standpoint. Prior to this Lorraine was Vice President of Partners EMEA also at Infinera
She is a strong believer in collaboration as the key to success, helping to build the best eco-systems for us all to thrive in, and is excited to be part of developing a new wave of partnerships which will play an intrinsic part of enabling open optical networks for the worlds largest customers of optical networks.
Lorraine has held various roles previously in the Telecom’s and IT industry that have seen her leading sales and business development both direct and indirect across Carrier and Enterprise sectors and have included various disciplines from Voice, Networking, Mobile, CPaaS and IoT throughout her career.
She has a Masters Degree in Business Administration and is passionate about supporting equality and diversity in the Telecoms and IT sector having spent 30 years in this industry.
