Speakers

Fil Ionata

Master Trainer, Dale Carnegie

Fil Ionata is a Master Trainer for Dale Carnegie & Associates. She delivers quality training, working directly with clients’ needs by adding value, and maximizing their ROI. Ionata’s experience in training ranges from communications, presentation skills, executive leadership and management. Since 2001, her expertise has been utilized by small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies, as well as global, national and regional corporations.

Karine Elsen

Director, Global Partner Marketing, Cisco

Karine Elsen joined Cisco's US channel marketing team as Senior Manager supporting architectural and vertical demand creation in June 2005. During the first 5 years, her team was responsible for building out the program infrastructure in Partner Marketing Central and evolving the demand generation model from stand-alone activities to fully integrated campaigns across all architectures. In March 2010, Elsen took over the distribution marketing team, leveraging her extensive experience in distribution. Two years later, Elsen became director of US partner marketing, where she provided leadership and hands-on management to define and execute all marketing related plans for Cisco's top partner community. Elsen moved to the global marketing team in 2016 as director of global partner marketing programs.

Today, she leads the strategic partner marketing and ecosystem acceleration team responsible for building global marketing plans with strategic partners and scaling marketing campaigns with and through Cisco's ecosystem partners. Before joining Cisco, Elsen worked for Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft (Business Software Alliance) and Ingram Micro. Elsen has a bachelor's degree in English/French translation from the University of Leuven, and a master's degree in Marketing Administration (MMA) from ICHEC, Belgium.

Michelle Tillis Leaderman

CSP, PCC

Michelle Tillis Lederman, named one of Forbes Top 25 Networking Experts, is the author of The 11 Laws of Likability, Heroes Get Hired, and Nail The Interview - Land The Job. Her next book, The Connectors Club will be released late 2018. Michelle is the founder and CEO of Executive Essentials, which provides customized communications and leadership coaching and training programs. Michelle believes real relationships lead to real results and specializes in teaching people how to communicate with confidence, clarity, and connection.

Her clients include JPMorgan, J&J, Deutsche Bank, Target, MetLife, Sony, Ernst & Young, and Madison Square Garden. Passionate about education, Michelle served as an Adjunct Professor at NYU, on the faculty of the American Management Association, Lehigh Executive Education, and Rutgers Executive Education and the advisory board of Kean’s Global Business School.

A regular in the media, Michelle has appeared on or been quoted by CBS, NBC, Fox, NPR, CNBC, the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Working Mother, US News & World Report, MSNBC, Forbes and USA Today among many others.

Michelle spent a decade in finance with positions in audit, M&A, financial consulting, VC, and hedge fund investing. She received her BS from Lehigh University, her MBA from Columbia Business School, and her coaching certification from iPec and holds the PCC certification from the International Coaching Federation. Executive Essentials is a certified Women Business Enterprise.

Kim Carlton

Director of Channel Marketing, Intel

As a director of channel marketing for Intel, Kim Carlton is responsible for the development and execution of the channel sales and marketing strategy.

In 2000, when Carlton joined Intel in Portland, Ore., she led a vertical industry marketing team in America's marketing group. Four years later, she moved to Chicago to take the role of the global market manager for Motorola where she was responsible for all sales and marketing aspects of Intel's global Motorola business. She worked with Motorola to develop and launch the first Intel-based phone. Carlton then held the role of strategic account manager for targeted embedded customers and was responsible for achieving sales objectives by driving sales strategy and execution at top accounts. She also managed Intel's external sales force calling on customers in the Great Lakes Region.

Before joining Intel, Carlton worked at GTE, now Verizon, in Dallas where she led a team that managed multiple channels of distribution. Prior to GTE, Carlton worked at AT&T Wireless as a corporate account executive and helped AT&T launch wireless service in Chicagoland and Target where she managed Target stores in the Midwest. Carlton obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in retail management with a concentration on business administration. She has been an active member of Intel's Women at Intel Network organization, where she has spent 3 years on the board and chaired the speaker, events and member action committee for the organization. She also serves as part of a fundraising committee for the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Foundation as well as an active volunteer for her local Chicago school district.

Nina Vaca

Chairman, CEO, Pinnacle Group

Since founding Pinnacle Group in her mid-20s, Nina Vaca has strategically developed it into the dynamic powerhouse that it is today, providing information technology services and workforce solutions to iconic global brands. Under her leadership, Pinnacle Group has been ranked among the Inc. 500/5000 fastest growing companies in the country for the last decade. In 2018 and 2015, it was named fastest-growing women-owned/led company in the nation by the Women Presidents’ Organization, as well being named among the top two in 2016 and 2017. Vaca serves as a director of Kohl’s Corporation, Cinemark Holdings, and Comerica, Inc. Throughout her two decades in business, Vaca has also served as a dedicated civic leader and philanthropist, working relentlessly to expand opportunities for Hispanics and women in business, and most recently to expand opportunities in STEM fields for women and girls. Pinnacle Group was among the first cohort of industry partners to support the Pathways to Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) program through the Dallas Independent School District. Through this program, Pinnacle Group serves as an industry partner to Thomas Jefferson P-TECH Early College High School, a predominantly Hispanic school located near Pinnacle’s headquarters. Students

in this program graduate in four years with a high school degree, and an associates degree in one of three pathways from Brookhaven Community College. Ninety-seven percent of the students in the Early College High School are minorities and the vast majority will be the first in their families to attend college. Since experiencing firsthand, the power of entrepreneurship and business, Vaca has dedicated herself to advocating for women in business at home and abroad. In 2014, she was selected by President Barack Obama as one of the inaugural members of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship program and in that capacity, has traveled extensively to inspire entrepreneurs worldwide. This past August, Vaca traveled to Amman, Jordan as a guest of the U.S. Embassy to share her message of prosperity through entrepreneurship with local entrepreneurs, business leaders, and government agencies. Never satisfied with being one of the first or one of the only women or Latinas serving on corporate boards or in the c-suite, Vaca founded At the Table: Women in

Business and Leadership to help more women find a pathway to the board table or to the c-suite. This program specifically focuses on empowering Latina entrepreneurs as the strong economic force that they are through training, guidance, and networking opportunities, helping to strengthen local communities from coast to coast. At the Table is housed at the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) Foundation. In 2017, Vaca was named a Woman of Distinction by the

Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and honored as a Trailblazing Woman in Labor and Business by the National Women’s History Project. Vaca has been recognized as one of the top 100 most influential and notable Hispanic Professionals in the Information Technology Industry by the Hispanic IT Executive Council. Last year, Vaca graced the cover of Latino Leaders Magazine as one of 2017’s 101 Most Influential Latinos in America, a list she has been included in for the past decade. She was honored as Woman of the Year by Solo Mujeres Magazine in Houston at the 11th annual Tribute to the Hispanic Woman, which honors the accomplishments of women who have blazed trails, become entrepreneurs, committed themselves to the community and set the course for future generations to come.

Jenn McDonald

Senior Director, Service Provider and Cloud Marketing, Fortinet

Jenn McDonald is an accomplished senior marketing professional known for her visionary thinking and ability to deliver outstanding and measurable business results. In her role as Fortinet's Senior Director of Cloud and Service Provider Field Marketing, McDonald is responsible for developing and executing strategic programs targeting cloud and service providers to stimulate sales, build advocacy, and demonstrate thought leadership. During her two decades working in the IT industry, McDonald's roles have included strategic planning, direct and indirect sales, global alliance development, and worldwide channel marketing. Before joining Fortinet, McDonald held positions across multiple disciplines within global technology companies including Cisco, Lucent Technologies and Dimension Data She earned her undergraduate degree from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and was on the NCAA Division 3 softball team.

Margaret-Ann Bolton

Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing, Red Hat

Margaret-Ann Bolton serves as Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing at Red Hat and is responsible for marketing programs to grow Red Hat’s OpenSource business through an ecosystem of partners. She has over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry encompassing strategic planning, direct and indirect sales, alliance development, worldwide partner and channel marketing and go-to-market execution.

Ms. Bolton joined Red Hat in 2011 as Senior Director of Integrated Field Marketing. In the five years she has been at Red Hat, she has unified global partner marketing into a high-performing organization delivering marketing and sales programs for Red Hat’s expanding partner ecosystem. Driving 70% of Red Hat's revenue, these partners include ISVs, OEMs, systems integrators, solutions providers, distributors and cloud service providers. Her areas of expertise are OpenSource business models, solutions design and marketing, co-branded demand generation programs and delivering scalable partner programs and tools. A passionate advocate for partners and OpenSource technologies, Ms. Bolton recently championed the redesign and relaunch of Red Hat's partner portal to enable a more capable and productive partner ecosystem extending reach and relevancy for Red Hat's complete portfolio.

Prior to Red Hat Ms. Bolton held executive positions across multiple disciplines including direct and indirect sales, engineering, services, product management, and product marketing with global technology companies including EMC, HP, and Sun Microsystems. She has been recognized as a CRN Woman of the Channel in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and as a CRN Channel Chief in 2014, and 2015 which acknowledges top channel leaders for their accomplishments and impact on the technology industry.

Ms. Bolton earned her undergraduate degree from Union College in Schenectady, New York and her master’s degree in business administration from the University of New Hampshire. She is married with two children and an avid runner and outsdoorsman.

Danna Lewis

COO, The Athena Alliance

Danna Lewis, a three-time Amazon bestselling author, has worked in industries and businesses of all sizes from Fortune 500 to startup, including investment banking, healthcare fitness and wellness. Lewis joined Athena Alliance in 2018 bringing along more than 20 years of experience in strategic operations with a keen focus on stakeholder experience. She has led cross-functional teams from finance to sales, marketing and product development. She has served in key -operational leadership positions for Citigroup and Bar Method, where she led high-impact teams through periods of rapid expansion and transformation. Lewis draws on her extensive leadership experience to deliver workshops and presentations on modern leadership, and to consult with executives and their teams on branding and operations best practices. In addition, Lewis hosts a weekly conscious leadership radio talk show, sharing her expertise with listeners worldwide.

Sandy Butler Buchanon

National Sales Director, ACC Business/AT&T

Sandy Butler Buchanon, National Sales Director, ACC Business/AT&T. Passionate about servant leadership and she supports a team of technology professionals in a revenue growth YOY, including Technical Sales, Pricing & Contracting functions, SP Contracting & Commissions, along with a top notch Sales Team.

Fun fact about Sandy: She is a published poet.

Bertina Ceccarelli

CEO, NPower

Bertina Ceccarelli joined NPower as Chief Executive Officer in May, 2016. NPower is a national nonprofit dedicated to creating pathways to economic prosperity by launching digital careers for military veterans and young adults from underserved communities. NPower empowers tech futures by teaching the digital and professional skills demanded by the marketplace. Ceccarelli is an engineer by training and began her career in technology as a Systems Analyst for Procter & Gamble before moving into marketing for the company. After P&G, she joined the National Broadcasting Company, where she served in several executive roles, including Senior Vice President for NBC’s online ventures. After a successful career in the corporate sector, Ms. Ceccarelli transitioned her skills to the nonprofit sector. Growing up in a working-class family and the first to graduate from high school, she was drawn to a community that once supported her own educational endeavors. In 2001, Ms. Ceccarelli joined United Way of New York City as Senior VP of Institutional Advancement. Bertina holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the UC Berkeley. Bertina lives in Brooklyn with her husband and teenage son.

Michelle Pas

Director of Channel Marketing & Global Programs, RSA

Michelle Pas is Director of Channel Marketing & Global Programs with RSA, a Dell Technologies business. She has 25 years of experience in channel storage, information security, networking, and the telecommunications industries. Pas leads the strategic vision for channel marketing and programs at RSA. Her channel experience includes working with high tech leaders at Arrow, Safenet, Motorola and Sun Microsystems (StorageTek).

Alison Levine

First American Women's Everest Expedition Team Captain, Author

Alison Levine is no stranger to punishing environments. She has survived sub-zero temperatures, hurricane force winds, sudden avalanches and a career on Wall Street. Levine has climbed the highest peak on every continent, served as the team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, and skied across the Arctic Circle to the geographic North Pole. In January 2008, she made history as the first American to follow a remote route across west Antarctica for 600 miles to the South Pole. She completed this arduous journey on skis while hauling 150 pounds of her gear and supplies in a sled harnessed to her waist. Levine's success in extreme environments is noteworthy given she had three heart surgeries and also suffers from a neurological disease that causes the arteries that feed her fingers and toes to collapse in cold weather, leaving her at extreme risk for frostbite.

Levine spent four years as an adjunct professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point where she focused on the topic of leading teams in extreme environments. She is the author of the New York Times best-seller On the Edge, which is a compilation of lessons she learned during her various expeditions, and she’s here today to share some of those lessons with us. Please welcome, Alison Levine.

Colleen Hatala

Director, Global Partner Sales, Broadcom

Colleen Hatala is the Director of Global Partner Sales at Broadcom, she has over 25 years of channel management experience. Since joining CA Technologies, now Broadcom, Inc, in 2014, Hatala has led the North American Channel Sales team driving incremental partner revenue, strategic partnerships and partner programs across the entire solutions portfolio.

Prior to joining CA/Broadcom, Hatala led channel sales at Good Technology. During her 12-year tenure she held various management positions within the channel, carrier and direct sales organizations. Her key roles and responsibilities were to drive channel revenue, define the channel sales program, create the partner ecosystem and manage the sales teams and revenue across all routes to market. She launched two-tier distribution while at Good Technology and successfully negotiated many multi-million-dollar partnership agreements with global carrier, direct market reseller and solution provider partners. Hatala was also the corporate sponsor for the Verizon Enterprise Solutions partnership. Prior to working at Good Technology, she held sales leadership roles at Flash Networks, Merrill Lynch, Tech-Xtend and CSC.

Julie Heeg

NA Ecosystem Project Manager, IBM

Julie Heeg leads strategic initiatives for the IBM NA Ecosystem team, including net promoter score and watson build. Prior to her current position, Heeg held a variety of direct and channel sales positions with IBM during her more than 30-year career. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Marquette University.

Nichole Wiley-Marks

Vice President, Sales Operations, Arrow Electronics

Nichole Wiley-Marks is Vice President of Sales & Operations for the Americas enterprise computing solutions segment of Arrow Electronics, Inc., leading the inside sales & operations organizations for all ECS Americas lines of business. Wiley-Marks is responsible for delivering on Arrow’s strategic initiatives, integration and data governance programs, implementing six-sigma methodology and continuous process improvement, directing supply chain management and leading the inside sales & sales support functions.

With fourteen years of IT and business operations experience at Arrow, Wiley-Marks has been the driving force for many Arrow initiatives. She began her Arrow career in 2004 as Manager of Operations, before being promoted to Director of ECS North America for program management, data integrity/systems management in 2011, a role that expanded in 2014 to include partner relationship and learning development. Most recently in 2017 her role has expanded to include Inside Sales.

Prior to Arrow Wiley-Marks held various leaderships roles within the Telecommunications industry at AT&T and Verizon Communications.

Wiley-Marks has been recently recognized as a 2018 Woman Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Magazine, Woman of the Year by the National Association of Women, CRN Magazine Channel Chief, as well as CRN Magazine Power 100 Women of The Channel, and a Technology All Star by the Women of Color STEM Conference.

Sheri Hedlund

Vice President, US Channel Sales, Dell EMC

Sheri Hedlund serves as Vice President, U.S. Channel Sales for Dell EMC’s strategic large partners. Hedlund joined Dell’s channel organization five years ago and has held multiple executive positions leading data center specialist sales, sales execution, and strategic partner aligned sales teams.

Prior to joining Dell, Hedlund served as vice president, product marketing at Tech Data Corp. where she led sales, marketing, reseller enablement, technical services and supply chain operations supporting the pan-HP solutions portfolio.

Hedlund spent 12 years in leadership positions with Compaq/Hewlett Packard as director of U.S. PSG channel business management, leading HP's commercial channel sales region, worldwide product marketing for wireless devices, and commercial programs manager focused on business development, direct and indirect sales programs and the portfolio strategy for the Americas Region.

Prior to joining Compaq, she was director of product development for Cynet, Inc. leading the integration of wireless technologies into small standardized form factors and held other sales executive roles in the telecommunications industry.

Hedlund earned her bachelor’s in psychology from Texas Lutheran University.

Jennifer Sarver

Principal, Sarver Strategies

Jenifer Sarver has nearly two decades of experience in media relations, crisis communications, speechwriting, coalition building, and media and presentation skills training. Her career has spanned the corporate, nonprofit and political worlds. Sarver launched Sarver Strategies in 2014 to focus on storytelling and training, helping clients develop a narrative that conveys their core values, and then preparing them to effectively deliver that message. She teaches public speaking, advocacy, speechwriting, storytelling and confidence in communication, among other topics. She has lectured at UT Austin, Texas Woman’s University, Concordia University, American University, UT Dallas and at the Yale Women’s Campaign School, among other institutions. She has conducted international trainings in Kenya, Tunisia, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Australia.

Sarver spent six years as chief of staff to Ambassador Karen Hughes, the Worldwide vice chair of Burson-Marsteller. She led the company’s Austin office, helping drive new business development and managing a wide variety of accounts, from corporate communications to crisis response. Sarver was the deputy director of public affairs at the U.S. Commerce Dept. in the Bush administration. She also served as the director of The Archer Center and was a senior advisor for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies. She received a Master of Public Administration degree from American University. In 2017, she was selected as a Presidential Leadership Scholar. In the 2018 Primary Election she was a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress (TX-21).

Wendy Hoey

Director of Distribution and Vendor Alliances, Optiv

Wendy Hoey is the Director of Distribution and Vendor Alliances at Optiv. Wendy is a dynamic and technically-savvy channel executive leader with demonstrated experience in channel account management, strategic channel marketing, and channel partner development within the IT Security Industry. Exemplary record of delivering and sustaining revenue and profit gains within highly competitive B2B and B2C vertical markets.

Lisa MacKenzie

Partner, Executive Vice President, The Channel Company

Lisa MacKenzie is a seasoned executive with expertise in marketing, sales, product management and operations. Lisa was instrumental in The Channel Company's evolution from providing traditional media to offering a full portfolio of solutions and services. She brings her proven expertise to The Channel Company's extensive events portfolio - helping ensure that our events meet the evolving needs of our customers. Thanks to Lisa's leadership, The Channel Company attracts record audiences and receives high customer satisfaction scores. Lisa also repositioned our consulting, research and education offerings, resulting in increased profitability and new product launches.

Tiffani Bova

Global, Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist, Salesforce

Tiffani Bova is the Global, Customer Growth, Sales and Innovation Evangelist. Her focus will be helping companies reimagine how they can not only grow bigger but grow better with innovative business models and technology. Bova considers herself a ‘recovering sales rep’, spending time meeting with sales leaders from some of the largest and most successful sales organizations in the world who are using Salesforce technology, to improve performance and enhance customer experience, in order to uncover best practices and insights which can be shared more broadly. Prior to joining Salesforce, Bova was with Gartner as a VP, Distinguished Analyst and Research Fellow covering Sales Strategies and Channel Innovation.

Deborah Nevin

Vice President, Global Finance, Channels North America, IBM

Deborah Nevin is the Vice President of IGF Channels for North America. Nevin is responsible for both managing the financial services executives supporting all alternate routes in North America, as well as the growth with Core IBM business and business partners, as well as OEM and new manufacturer relationships. Prior to this current position, Nevin was Director of Storage and Software Defined Systems, Channels North America and Director for STG Channels for the east region. She has held numerous channel roles in power, SP1 relationships, systems integrators and the BP client rep teams. Nevin joined IBM in Bethesda, Maryland in 200l as an RS/6000 specialist. Before joining IBM she was a client representative for Continental Resources in Silver Spring, Maryland. Nevin received her Bachelor of Arts degree from East Carolina University.

Kathryn Sattler

Sr. Director of Marketing, Heritage, Anheuser-Busch Inc.

Kathryn Sattler is a 23-year beer business veteran, with a long and varied career with Anheuser-Busch and its parent company ABInBev. Sattler has experience working across all aspects of the business, including managing wholesaler, retailer and agency relationships, sales, category management, innovation and global brand marketing.

As the senior director of heritage at Anheuser-Busch, Sattler is responsible for the marketing and communications for some of the most iconic assets in the company’s corporate portfolio: The historic Anheuser-Busch brewery, tour center and Biergarten in St. Louis, the world-renowned Budweiser Clydesdales and Grant’s Farm. Sattler oversees all marketing efforts for Anheuser-Busch’s breweries and tour centers, including brewery open houses and special events.

Sattler has led global marketing efforts for some of the company’s – and the world’s – most iconic brands, including supporting Budweiser and Corona Extra FIFA World Cup sponsorships, where she guided the in-stadium consumer experiences for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Sattler has also managed international launches of Budweiser and select variants and innovations in Brazil, Ukraine, Canada, China, India and Russia. She has been instrumental in the launch of several new products, including the development and launch of Bud and Bud Light Chelada in partnership with Clamato, as well as the 2015 launch of Best Damn Root Beer, Cherry Cola, Cream Soda and Apple Ale.

From Super Bowl spots to music festivals, connecting Anheuser-Busch brands with popular culture has been a focus for Sattler throughout her career. In 2018, she supported the creation of Budweiser’s “Stand By You” Super Bowl spot, highlighting the company’s philanthropic canned water donation initiative. She has also led music collaborations with Vice Media to develop a content series featuring artists from the 2013 Made in America Music Festival and in 2014 she launched the inaugural Corona SunSets Music Festival, a global festival that combined music with beach clean-ups at every stop. In addition to music partnerships, Sattler helped to create the first-ever Love Beer Fest in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., in 2018, to give all beer lovers the opportunity to experience new craft brews and fan favorite Anheuser-Busch beers complete with local food pairings, authentic brand experiences and live music.

Sattler earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Michigan State University and her master’s in international business from St. Louis University.

Kim Rivera

Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel, HP Inc.

Kim M. Rivera, Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for HP Inc., manages the worldwide legal organization, including all aspects of legal and government affairs, brand security, compliance and ethics.

A graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law, Rivera has more than 20 years of experience advising Fortune 500 companies on significant corporate transactions, governance, compliance, risk management, audit and litigation matters.

Most recently, Rivera served as the chief legal officer and corporate secretary for DaVita HealthCare Partners, a global Fortune 250 healthcare services company. Previously, Rivera was the chief compliance officer and head of international legal services at The Clorox Co. where she also oversaw labor and employment counseling and litigation. Before joining Clorox, Rivera served as chief litigation counsel for Rockwell Automation as well as general counsel for its automation controls and information group

Rivera is passionate about giving back to the community and has served on numerous non-profit boards including the California Latino Community Foundation and the Denver Metro Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She is a frequent speaker on diversity and inclusion in corporations and the legal profession, with emphasis on women in leadership.

Dao Jensen

CEO, Kaizen Technology Partners LLC

Dao Jensen has been in the tech industry for over 20 years and founded Kaizen Technology Partners LLC in 2013 as the first 100% female minority owned Born in the Cloud Focused VAR in the San Francisco Bay Area, helping Fortune 500 Enterprise clients optimize, strategize, and procure data centers and cloud environments. Some of Kaizen’s marquee clients are: SAP.com, AT&T, NASDAQ, PayPal and Bed Bath and Beyond. Kaizen has also worked with many medium businesses and startups such as Zuora, Kountables, and MyMyMusic. Kaizen launched “The Office of the Cloud” in 2016 with Storm Ventures to help clients share successes and failures in their cloud projects as well as help more women have careers in the cloud economy. In Kaizen’s five years of operation, it has several awards from the IT community, including being the #1 Cloud reseller in the Nation in 2014 for Avnet technology in the first year of business. She has personally grown and bootstrapped the company to $10+ million in sales by using partners and distribution and recently hired a channel manager to help give Kaizen more visibility and funding from our current vendors. Previous to the launching of Kaizen, Dao ran sales nationally and internationally at large corporations such as Symantec and Oracle. She was brought up in Minnesota in an environment of entrepreneurial parents who immigrated to the United States from Vietnam and this has positioned her well for success to become an entrepreneur and take Kaizen from ground 0 to $10mil in 5 years. Dao is also a community activist, and mother of four. She love reading, traveling, cooking food and sharing a nice meal with friends and family. She loves helping others achieve their dreams, promote living everyday as if it was our last and foster an environment where everyone can become an entrepreneur. Since the company’s inception, Kaizen has taken one female a year and trained them on the IT industry to find a career in the IT field. Some of Dao’s most recent awards and accolades are: ranked #107 fastest growing private companies by Inc. 5000 in 2017; ranked #7 Fastest Growing Private IT Services Company in the USA by Inc. 2017; ranked by San Francisco Business Times as a Top 100 Women Bay Area Owned Company in 2017; last year’s Silver Winner of the Stevie Awards for Women In Business Nationwide for Companies Under 10; scholarship awardee for class of 2018 Harvard OPM 3-year Program; Ernst and Young-Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2017 finalist.

Louise McEvoy

Director, US Channels, Trend Micro

Louise McEvoy has been with Trend Micro for four years, most recently leading the company's cloud strategy for partners. Professionally, McEvoy has spent the majority of her career in the channel, but her personal life goal was to summit Mt. Everest.

During Trend Micro's 30th anniversary year, and after 14 years of training and climbing the world's highest mountains, McEvoy realized her goal and summitted Everest on May 16, 2018. Knowing that sometimes the hardest things in life are also the most fulfilling, McEvoy is dedicated to helping others reach their "summit" and has spoken to many groups and organizations on that topic.

Lara Spencer

Co-Anchor, ABC's Good Morning America

Lara Spencer was named co-anchor for ABC's Good Morning America in March, 2011. This is Spencer's second time at GMA. She was previously the show's National Correspondent for 5 years, from 1999 to 2004. Spencer began her broadcasting career in the NBC Page Program. Her first reporting job was at WDEF-TV in Chattanooga, TN, where she was, as she calls it, a "one-man band" shooting, reporting, and editing all of her stories. From there, she landed on her home turf when the New York native began reporting for News 12 Long Island. From 1995 to 1999, Spencer was a reporter and anchor for WABC-TV's Eyewitness News in New York City, where she covered breaking stories including the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the death of Princess Diana. But it was her nightly feature, "Life Around Here with Lara Spencer" that got her noticed by Good Morning America. She moved full time to GMA the following year, lending her infectious curiosity and writing skills to memorable stories including "50 States in 50 Weeks: In Search of America". The Emmy-nominated series featured Spencer exploring the diversity of the American states.

In 2004, Spencer launched and hosted the syndicated entertainment news magazine show, The Insider and also hosted the PBS series Antiques Roadshow (2002-2004). In 2010, she created the HGTV show Flea Market Flip of which she continues to serve as executive producer and host. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller, I Brake For Yard Sales and is currently writing her second book on decorating. Spencer graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

Mary Ann Yule

President & CEO, HP Canada Co.

Mary Ann Yule is the President and CEO of HP Canada Co., a trailblazer in innovative personal computing devices, printers, 3D printing, and related services and solutions. A leading technology company in Canada, HP is focused on creating technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere, while championing diversity, sustainability, and corporate responsibility in every community where it does business.

Since joining in 2015, Yule's proven track record of driving results continues to deliver breakthrough market outcomes across HP's portfolio. Yule is credited with establishing HP as the most sustainable technology company in Canada, as well as one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers in Canada in 2018. She is committed to spearheading inclusive best practices with more than half of her senior leadership team being female.

Prior to joining HP, Yule served as Vice President and General Manager of CDW Canada, Inc. driving business growth and national brand recognition. Under her leadership, CDW Canada ranked as the top technology solution providers in Canada, and one of Canada's Top 100 Employers.

Yule has a Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, attended Ryerson University's Business program and holds numerous professional accreditations, including Six Sigma Executive Champion. Yule currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), Canada's national information and communication technology business association, championing the development of a robust and sustainable digital economy in Canada. She is also a member of the 30% Club, an organization committed to building a strong foundation of business leaders to champion meaningful change in the gender balance of board and executive committees.

Based in Toronto, Yule is often quoted in the press and is a highly sought-after speaker on positive disruption driven by technology megatrends like 3D printing, sustainable impact, diversity and inclusion.

Joanna Raitano

Client Director, Arrow – North America, IBM Global Markets, IBM

Joanna Raitano has been a channel champion for more than 20 years. Raitano brings a dynamic approach to collaboration and has led strategic initiatives and teams across IBM channel business in both solution units and in a client relationship capacity. In her current role, Raitano leads the IBM relationship with Arrow in North America and is responsible for driving their total IBM business results. She collaborates with Arrow to bring growth through new business models and emerging technology with our partner ecosystem.

Linda Rendleman

Senior Vice President, Endpoint Solutions, Americas, Tech Data

Linda Rendleman has served as senior vice president Endpoint Solutions at Tech Data since February 2018. In her role, she leads the relationships, strategic operations and marketing of our Endpoint Solutions vendors to ensure we sustain and grow our world-class line of expert services and solutions supporting PC systems, mobility solutions, printers, scanners, peripheral accessories, and audio-visual solutions under the Maverick AV Solutions specialized brand. Rendleman works closely with the Advanced Solutions team, to ensure they manage and acquire the technologies, products and services across the entire portfolio to empower and enable the channel partners for success.

Rendleman rejoined Tech Data in November 2016 as Vice President, Client & Mobile Solutions, following more than seven years with Microsoft. She most recently served as a Director in Microsoft’s U.S. SMB organization and led a team responsible for the growth of Microsoft's business with Tech Data in the United States. Previously, Rendleman worked for Microsoft in the United Kingdom (UK) for four years, serving as UK Partner Business and Development Director and UK Distribution and Scale Reseller Director. She began her career in Sales and Customer Service at Tech Data in 1991, quickly rising through the organization and holding multiple sales leadership positions. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2009, Rendleman served as Director of Sales, National Accounts at Tech Data.

Rendleman holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Eckerd College with a concentration in International Business. This year, she was named a 2018 Channel Chief by CRN, a news outlet in the IT distribution world as well as being recognized by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as a 2018 Business Woman of the Year Honoree.

Dorothy Copeland

Vice President, North America Partner Ecosystem, IBM

Dorothy Copeland has over 20 years in technology, with experience in sales, marketing, business development and partner ecosystem leadership. She joined IBM in May 2017 to lead the North America Business Partner organization. Copeland has focused on driving partnering innovation and increasing partners’ sales engagement with the IBM field teams. By utilizing IBM’s broad technology, partners can solve any client’s business challenges and build new revenue-generating offerings for customers.

Before joining BM, Copeland led Amazon Web Services (AWS) global partner programs, including the AWS partner network, AWS channel reseller program, AWS managed service provider program, and AWS competency program. She designed one of the industry’s first cloud infrastructure channel programs, generating significant revenue across thousands of partners. Prior to AWS, Copeland was the VP of Business & Ecosystem Development for the San Francisco-based security start-up, Cloudmark, now owned by Proofpoint, and Avocent, owned by Emerson. Copeland began her career in marketing at storage provider ADIC, now owned by Quantum. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a passion for building out new partnerships and programs, and leading diverse and high-performing teams.

Lauren Leader-Chivee

Founder and CEO of All In Together and Author, All In Together and Author

Margaret Dawson

Vice President, Portfolio Product Marketing, Red Hat

A 20-year tech industry veteran, Margaret is a builder, a change agent, and a coach. She is a frequent speaker and author on technology trends, women in tech, digital marketing, and living intentionally. During her many startup gigs, Margaret’s creative leadership built bigger than reality brands that resulted in several successful acquisitions and some fantastic implosions. In leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, she used her intrapreneurship and collaborative management to drive new global initiatives, including cloud at HP, security at Microsoft, international ecommerce at Amazon, and now, integrated solutions at Red Hat. She has a passion for mentoring women and men in tech, and is unapologetic in her drive for increased equality and diversity, as well as her unique talents of snorting while laughing and swearing like a sailor.

Eleanor Beaton

Founder, Fierce Feminine Leadership

Eleanor Beaton is a women’s leadership mentor and founder of Fierce Feminine Leadership, an organization that helps ambitious professional women and business owners develop the confidence, presence, political savvy and influence they need to smash the glass ceiling and take their seats at the tables where the big deals and big decisions are made. Eleanor is also an award-winning journalist, podcast host, and keynote speaker. She has served as Chair of the Visiting Women's Executive Exchange Program at the Yale School of Management. In 2017, she won the prestigious Profiles in Diversity "Women Worth Watching" Award for her work promoting diversity and inclusion. She was also named Canada’s Leadership Coach of the Year by the 2017 Corporate Excellence Awards.

Jenni Flinders

Vice President, Worldwide Channels & Global Channel Chief, VMware

Jenni Flinders joined VMware in April 2018 and serves as VMware's worldwide channel chief responsible for developing and executing the overall VMware channel strategy and programs for their global ecosystem of solution providers, distributors, OEMs and telecommunications partners.

Flinders brings a wealth of industry expertise to VMware as a tenured leader in the IT field, focusing on the channel ecosystem. She was most recently CEO of Daarlandt Partners, a consulting practice, where she focused on advising clients on channel strategy. Previously, Flinders was VP, U.S. Partner Group at Microsoft, where she was dedicated to Microsoft's broad channel ecosystem in the U.S. and drove the evolution of the Microsoft Partner Network. Flinders helped the channel evolve to ensure Microsoft customers reaped the benefits of cloud and emerging technology opportunities. During her 15-year tenure at Microsoft, she rose from a mid-market manager in South Africa to GM, channel, worldwide partner group, where she led global channel strategy and programs. Focused on solution partners, Flinders developed and executed channel incentive programs across all channel partner segments with emphasis on gaining scale in the emerging cloud market.

Additionally, Flinders has received numerous industry awards and recognition from CRN over several consecutive years focusing on her achievements in the channel, as well as recognition of her industry leading work on diversity and inclusion. She currently serves as a board member for the Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue, Washington and the Tateuchi Center.

Michelle Curtis

Vice President, IoT and Emerging Solutions Practice, Presidio

Michelle Curtis joined Presidio in August 2018 as Vice President, IoT and Emerging Solutions. In her role, Curtis leads the strategy and execution of the internet of things solutions design and delivery practice, which includes emerging solutions such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. Additionally, she leads custom engineering services, product production, configuration and staging. Curtis comes to Presidio from Tech Data, where she spent almost 12 years in various roles and responsibilities. Most recently she was responsible for launching and leading the IoT practice for the Americas, defining their brand as a leading IoT Solutions Aggregator in the channel. Prior to that, she led the Tech Data Cisco Product Marketing, Go to Market team and Partner Technical Sales Enablement Teams for all Cisco architectures, with direct ownership of P&L, rebate programs, and product management responsibilities. Curtis currently serves on the governance board of Presidio WIT, an employee resource group (ERG) dedicated to empowering women to thrive in their careers at Presidio through development, education and networking. Curtis serves on the Board of Directors for Girls Incorporated of Pinellas, a non-profit organization focused on inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. She serves on the Channel Partners and Channel Futures Advisory Board and previously served as Vice Chair for the Microsoft IOT Partner Advisory Council. Curtis holds a B.S. in Advertising with a minor in Sports Management from the University of Florida.

Curtis has been recognized by CRN as a 2017 Women of the Channel Up-And-Comer and in CRN’s “100 People You Don’t Know But Should.” She was also recognized by Tampa Bay Tech as the 2017 Emerging Technology Leader of the Year, and in the 2016 “25 Most Influential Women in IoT” by the Internet of Things Institute. Curtis is passionate about her family, her work at Presidio and in the community, and her efforts with children in STEM.

Karen Hsu

Director, Server Channel Sales, North America, IBM

Karen Hsu is the North American Director of Server Channel Sales within IBM's Systems Group, she leads a team of power and mainframe evangelists and sales professionals who focus on the channel market penetration of the IBM infrastructure solutions. Hsu, who has held positions at the global level and in marketing, has been a part of the North America sales organization for approximately ten years. She received her Master of Science degree from Northwestern University.

Featured Speakers

About Us

Our Brands

Search form

Featured Speakers

About Us

Our Brands

Connect With Us