CRN DEI 2022 - Issue 1412

SPECIAL ISSUE 1412 • JULY 2022

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CONFRONTING BIAS

Companies should focus on ‘cultureadd’ instead of ‘culture-fit’ PAGE 18

ILLUMINATING 10 DEI TRENDS Here’s what needs to be top of mind PAGE 20

DEI: A Call To Action

Companies across the channel are taking steps to ensure that their efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion do more than just check the right boxes. PAGE 6

CELEBRATING 100 RISING STARS Today’s high achievers are poised to be tomorrow’s channel leaders PAGE 10

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CRN Diversity, Equity And Inclusion SPECIAL ISSUE

DEI: A Call To Action

Diversity and representation among employees and leadership are increasing among businesses that want to ensure they’re providing an inclusive environment for all, but there’s still work to be done. Here’s what businesses across the channel can do—and are doing—to effect change.

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A Letter From The Editor

Rising Stars

DEI Trends To Watch

The 100 women on our annual Rising Female Stars list share many of the same attributes—can-do attitudes, tireless work ethics and an ability to put their company’s partners in the best position to thrive.

Getting On The Same Page Equity In Job Descriptions How To Be An Ally

‘Culture-Add’

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Many companies feel a responsibility to identify and confront any biases that may exist in their business, whether that bias is unconscious or not. Now is the time to focus on ‘culture-add’—not ‘culturefit’—so that all employees feel a sense of belonging and can be their authentic selves.

A Letter From The Editor Welcome to the first special issue of CRN devoted exclusively to the discussion of diversity, equity and inclusion in the channel. During the past two years, we’ve used this spot in our editorial calendar to showcase up-and-coming women in the channel. This year we’re broadening our scope to include a look at how the channel is celebrating differences, ensuring fair opportunities for all and creating a sense of belonging in the workplace.

DEI is a topic that’s come to the forefront for many businesses, especially in the technology sector. Study after study proves that having a diverse workforce across multiple spectrums—such as race, gender identity, age, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and physical ability, to name a few—leads to increased employee engagement, more innovation and better financial results. Those are all good reasons why so many in the channel are taking their DEI efforts seriously.

In our cover story on p. 6, Associate Editor C.J. Fairfield, Senior Editor Gina Narcisi and Assistant News Editor Mark Haranas take a look at how executives at solution providers, technology vendors and distributors are issuing a call to action and taking steps to help bring more diversity, equity and inclusion to the channel. From training and development programs for executive leaders to funding for Black-owned solution providers, channel executives across the industry are working to make a difference.

Our third-annual Rising Female Stars project, starting on p. 10, continues to spotlight some of the channel’s women who are having a big impact on their solution provider partners today and are poised to be tomorrow’s leaders. The honorees in large part were selected based on recommendations from channel chiefs and other channel management executives across the industry, and it’s easy to see why this accomplished group is earning accolades.

With so much discussion going on right now about DEI, it can be hard to figure out where to concentrate your energies. On p. 20 we call out the 10 trends channel executives should focus on. Then Cass McMann, leader of The Channel Company’s Inclusive Leadership Network, provides a helpful look at the importance of language in tackling bias on p. 24, while on p. 26 we examine ways channel leaders can serve as allies.

I hope you find something inspirational in this issue to help you build a more inclusive environment at your workplace.

Best regards,

Jennifer Follett Executive Editor jfollett@thechannelcompany.com

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COVER STORY

DEI: A Call To Action

BY C.J. FAIRFIELD, GINA NARCISI & MARK HARANAS

Network Solutions Provider CEO Phillip Walker arrived at his hotel during a business trip several years ago and was checking in with his team. After a long day of travel, the leader of the Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based MSP just wanted to get to his room as quickly as possible.

But Walker soon realized that the hotel receptionist had made an assumption and a mistake: She had given his suite to one of his white employees.

“She was being really nice to him, which made him uncomfortable,” Walker recalled. “The rooms were booked in my name. I’m the guy.”

Walker, who is Black, stepped away to make a phone call. When he returned to the front desk, the receptionist dismissed him and said she was helping “a very important guest.”

“And my whole group’s hearts stopped,” he said, adding that there was a collective gasp among the team. “They were like, ‘There it is.’ She had no idea what she just did, and she was firm about it.”

One of Walker’s sales representatives then corrected the receptionist, pointed to the CEO and said, “He’s Mr. Walker.”

“Face change,” Walker said, describing the receptionist’s reaction. “A super deep gasp and then, ‘Oh, Mr. Walker, I am so sorry.’ But that bias was so far out there—you can’t walk it back.”

Unconscious bias is natural, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be tempered. The human brain is faced with 11 million bits of information at any given time but can only process about 40, so the brain creates shortcuts to help make decisions faster and conserve energy, according to Dr. Rebecca Baumgartner, vice president of human resources for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, who spoke at the Women of the Channel West Leadership Summit, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company,

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in May on the topic of unconscious bias.

The good news? More companies are taking steps to make sure that biases are acknowledged and checked.

Diversity and representation among employees and leadership are increasing among businesses that want to ensure they’re providing an inclusive environment for all.

But there’s still plenty of work to be done.

“It’s like [the movie] ‘Pretty Woman,’” Walker said. “She walks in the store, and they treat her differently based on her appearance. That’s bias. But everybody feels her pain because she was socially and economically judged. Here she is, she has the money, but because she’s not a part of their elite club they don’t help her.”

Awareness Of The Issue Is The First Step Many business leaders now recognize that diversifying the workforce needs to be high on the list of priorities when building a financially sound organization.

It’s the mark of a business that is in touch with the desires of its current and prospective employees and end customers. And it’s not just about checking boxes for the sake of compliance, according to a 2022 study conducted by The Channel Company on the state of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the channel.

The Channel Company’s 2022 survey included 382 respondents, the majority of whom—about 76 percent— were C-level executives. The survey found that although there’s high interest from solution providers in developing or formalizing a DEI program, those efforts are still primarily led by vendor organizations, which are only beginning to carve out leadership roles for DEI. On the other hand, the majority of channel organizations in 2021 didn’t have formal DEI programs in place, but many

AHEAD DEI: A CALL OF THE TO CURVE ACTION

indicated they were starting to put plans into motion. In 2022, while many of these companies still don’t have established programs, about 70 percent of the channel organizations surveyed said they had efforts in place that went further than meeting compliance requirements.

Beyond compliance, many channel organizations want to prioritize DEI because it helps boost employee retention and attract new talent, especially in light of current trends such as the Great Resignation and the talent gap.

“These equity and inclusion programs do so much for organizations really looking to retain their workforce so that they can have that work-life rhythm that so many of us desire. It just bodes well for us as an ecosystem to continue on that trajectory,” said Cass McMann, MHR, The Channel Company’s DEI community leader.

Stacey Gordon, CEO and chief diversity strategist of Rework Work, a company that specializes in helping businesses develop clear DEI initiatives, said that the first step is awareness. Skipping that step to move on to action will doom companies, which will have to start their DEI strategies all over when they don’t work, she said.

“We really have to get the awareness piece down because we can’t address things that we don’t see happening,” she said. “This step is important because if we keep skipping over the beginning part, we’re going to keep repeating the middle part.”

And that process can lead to “diversity fatigue,” which in turn can be repeated a year, five years or 10 years down the road, she warned.

Representation At The Leadership Level Is Key Susan O’Sullivan has been with Irvine, Calif.based distributor Ingram Micro since 1990. She started her current role in June as vice president of DEI, a new position for the company.

“DEI has always been in the fabric of Ingram, and we’ve always had these basic principles,” she said. “I think [the distributor] realized that now more than ever we need to make this a serious commitment. We have to take action. We have to show sustainable and ongoing action, and I think we [need] to have someone own it.”

Ingram Micro has always had an “amazing platform” for ensuring hiring managers are seeing diverse candidates, she said. When it comes to reaching a diverse pool of candidates, O’Sullivan said Ingram Micro has been on the journey for quite a while.

Going forward, Ingram Micro will continue to build upon its DEI-first culture by boosting its employee-led resource groups in areas such as pride, modern family, multicultural and women’s resource groups, she said.

“One of the things I want to do is to continue to elevate them,” she said. “I want to make sure that our voices are heard from a recruiting standpoint all the way through on-boarding. It’s that inclusion piece and making sure that that message is getting across to our entire organization.”

In support of its growing efforts, Ingram Micro has

developed a global DEI curriculum, with its executive leadership team leading the first of many listening sessions, according to Scott Sherman, executive vice president of human resources for the distributor.

‘DEI for Ingram Micro means an environment where each of us can bring our true and authentic selves to work each and every day and be appreciated for who we are and what we contribute. That’s Ingram Micro’s true north for DEI.’ SCOTT SHERMAN, EVP, HUMAN RESOURCES, INGRAM MICRO

“Without question over the last few years DEI has become more important globally and to our colleagues,” Sherman said. “We’ve seen this increased importance and activism as a reason for us to do more as an organization globally. DEI for Ingram Micro means an environment where each of us can bring our true and authentic selves to work each and every day and be appreciated for who we are and what we contribute,” he added. “That is Ingram Micro’s true north for DEI.” As the female CEO of her company, Dawn Sizer aims to lead with empathy. She heads 3rd Element Consulting, a Camp Hill, Pa.-based MSP. “Women leaders tend to do that a little bit more, and we see things a little differently,” she said. “That’s both a strength and a detriment at times. Sharing some of the leadership [roles] with some of the guys, they see things that I don’t, but I think there’s a good balance.”

Sizer also has changed the descriptions in her job postings. Now, in each post, she lays out what the company does “tactically, and what we do for accountability.”

“We know that we have to look in different places,” she said. “We know that our job descriptions need to change a little bit, and we started to make those changes already.”

Sizer sends her female teammates to hiring fairs as well.

“We sent women, and we got women,” she said. “When you have the ability to say, ‘There are people like you here,’ it makes a difference.”

She also looks differently at those applying for a job with 3rd Element. “I don’t look at names anymore when I’m looking at a resume,” she said. “I’m looking at what they can do.”

And it’s not just an internal effort—it’s external, too.

Sizer said many MSPs collaborate to share ideas on DEI practices and resources. But more importantly, they create an “allyship.” “It’s about how can we best support women, how can we best support brown, Black and LGBTQ+

SPECIAL ISSUE 2022

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COVER STORY

lose focus on or it’s easy to put to the side. But I truly believe that if people in the company can look up to leadership and see themselves, that is a hugely powerful symbol.”

Glass, who came on as CEO in October 2021, said she’s focusing on diversity to enhance workplace culture.

“It’s always been a focus at Syncro to have a community of belonging,” she said. “It’s also a motivator to help everyone feel like they belong and feel like they can achieve their goals.”

Syncro requires all its new hires to participate in a racial healing and leadership development course so that everyone has a “baseline of acceptance and a common language.”

“We spend a lot of time establishing those norms together,” she said. “We believe that it’s about the whole person, and we want people to bring their ideas to the table, and they have to feel safe in doing that.”

Glass said the racial healing course covers the history of white supremacy and racism in America, common language to use and how to talk to people about those terms and the history of racism.

“There’s a lot of journaling and self-reflection of where you’re at in that journey,” she said. “Everybody goes through a monthlong training on that. It’s these tangible changes that you can implement that really have the cascading effect on generations. In this course, our employees are in it, but then they talk to their [partners] or their kids or grandparents, and it just propagates from there.”

Growth Initiative (BPGI), which will provide resources, programs and tools to help partners capture opportunities throughout its ecosystem and across the globe with a goal of elevating Black-owned technology companies.

The program provides Black-owned businesses that become Microsoft partners with access to information, resources and capital to fuel business growth.

Since June 2020, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said it has increased the number of self-identified Black and African American-owned partners in BPGI by more than 150 percent.

Michael Slater, head of sales for channel marketplace at Sherweb, a Quebec, Canada-based cloud distributor, is an executive sponsor for the program. Sherweb is just one of many of the Microsoft partners helping deliver these programs to Black-owned businesses.

“It’s a new program, so we’re kind of building the infrastructure as we go,” Slater said. “We’re just trying to get it launched and effective to start helping people sooner rather than later. The idea here is that if we wait until everything’s perfect, then you’ll never launch anything.”

Black partners can access a $50 million partner fund developed to provide working capital to all the partners in the ecosystem, he said.

“Our goal is to create a special on-boarding process,” Slater said. “You can opt into the program, and then you’re going to get a special on-boarding based on the program itself. No matter what program you’re utilizing, it’s difficult sometimes to understand. There’s always a translator, and we have done that part historically.”

Partners in the program team up with Sherweb through a Microsoft referral, he said. Sherweb will make sure they’re getting all of the benefits, including presales support, consultation hours, access to funds allocated for the program as well as money back in their pocket.

“We are going to make sure that as a business, you’re set up and you have access to all the resources possible that every other partner has, plus awareness of what this BPGI program offers,” he said. “We want to educate, enable and offer people the tools that they need to be successful. That’s the goal here.”

Slater said through this program, a community of Black-owned businesses is being built, which leads to allyship and mentorship. Sherweb received about 55 indirect and 13 direct Microsoft accounts to help through the program in its first 12 days.

“This is just one of the first of many programs,” he said. “We’re going to do the same things for other underrepresented groups as well.”

Investments Are Tangible Efforts Microsoft in 2020 made a five-year commitment to address racial injustice and inequity, starting with a $150 million investment to double the number of U.S. Black, Hispanic and Latinx managers, senior individual contributors and senior leaders by 2025. In June, the company also launched the Microsoft Black Partner

Every Individual’s Career Success Matters The Channel Company’s research found that one of the biggest roadblocks to DEI for many companies was finding best practices and information to help tailor efforts in a way that is mindful of blind spots that might exist so they can establish a more formalized approach.

For Google Cloud, building products and solutions

[people],” she said. “We all speak the same geek at the end of the day.”

Emily Glass, CEO of MSP platform vendor Syncro, said DEI is a main focal point for the Seattle-based company.

“We have a really diverse leadership team, which is important to me,” Glass said. “[DEI] is one thing that you can

‘We are going to make sure that as a business, you’re set up and you have access to all the resources possible that every other partner has, plus awareness of what this BPGI program offers.’

MICHAEL SLATER, HEAD OF SALES FOR CHANNEL MARKETPLACE, SHERWEB, ON MICROSOFT’S BLACK PARTNER GROWTH INITIATIVE

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AHEAD DEI: A CALL OF THE TO CURVE ACTION

for every kind of user requires a constant commitment to inclusivity. That’s why the company is doing a lot of work behind the scenes to steadily grow a more representative workforce, to launch programs that support Google Cloud’s communities globally, and build products that will serve all—not just some—of its users, said Latonia Knox, global diversity business partner for Google Cloud.

Google’s 2022 Diversity Annual Report highlighted the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s progress and identified opportunities. “While there’s more work to be done, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen—things like the 20 percent increase in Black Googler representation and 8 percent increase in Latinx Googler representation, more than a 30 percent increase in leadership representation of Black, Latinx and Native American Googlers in the U.S.—the data shows we’re on the right track,” Knox said.

Nearly half of the Google Cloud workforce joined during the pandemic. This means most employees have never met each other or their manager in person or have never stepped foot in a Google office. Knox said it’s Google Cloud’s job to create a culture of inclusion and help everyone feel like they belong, regardless of their background.

Formal DEI programs at Google Cloud include its community-driven employee resource groups—Black@ Cloud, Women@Cloud and Hola@Cloud. On the enterprise side, the company is working to advance inclusion with its customers, Knox said.

“We’ve seen strong early results from our program to empower Black entrepreneurs and Black businesses in the financial services industry with cloud technology, helping to build financial inclusion, and we look forward to expanding to new industries,” she said.

Knox is particularly proud of the Autism Career Program that Google Cloud launched last year, the first program at Google designed to grow and strengthen its existing community of people on the autism spectrum by hiring and supporting additional talented individuals, she said.

The program has trained more than 350 Google Cloud managers and other people involved in hiring processes to ensure Google’s on-boarding is accessible and equitable for candidates with autism.

For channel partners, Google Cloud has begun rolling out DEI programs, Knox said. Google Cloud’s Partners with a Purpose group has come together to tackle social initiatives and DEI issues. The program is structured into two pillars: a DEI Alliance and social impact projects. “In order for us to grow responsibly as a company—and as an industry—we recognize that we must invest in the career success of everyone—especially future generations,” she said.

At Network Solutions Provider, Walker makes it a point to implement DEI practices and talk about unconscious bias among his team “because it sets the tone that you’re

open to making people—regardless of background— successful.”

“It sends the message to not only the people that I’m interviewing but to my employees that there is no bias here,” he said. “Employees need fairness. They need to see it.”

He also very intentionally has representation at the leadership level, which he likens to sending out the company Christmas card.

“I would joke internally and say, ‘What does my company Christmas card say about my company?” he said. “When you see the old-school ones, it’s all the guys in power suits and the two executive assistants in long skirts and heels.

And there are no shades of color in there. What you’re telling everybody is that you shouldn’t work there.”

‘While there’s more work to be done, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen—things like the 20 percent increase in Black Googler representation and 8 percent increase in Latinx Googler representation, more than a 30 percent increase in leadership representation of Black, Latinx and Native American Googlers in the U.S.’ LATONIA KNOX, GLOBAL DIVERSITY BUSINESS PARTNER, GOOGLE CLOUD

Walker diligently works to make an impact on underserved communities as well as the channel by partnering with different minority groups and peer-topeer incubators as well.

“One of the things as an MSP is you’re not always able to hire the talent that you want,” he said. “So, you have to be good at growing talent. ... You hire the underdogs. You hire the people who have something to prove. You hire somebody who’s hungry.”

Walker also does outreach to underserved communities and educates them about the channel in hopes of attracting them to the IT industry.

“I’m always advocating the channel to minority groups as a way to get them into tech,” he said. “[Many people] have no idea about the different jobs and opportunities that are promoted within the channel. I consider myself an advocate, and I’m pushing this agenda every chance that I get because I never know the impact I can make or the doors that I can open,” he added.

Walker referred to his “Pretty Woman” analogy. When one store accepted the woman’s business, everything changed.

“All of the other stores start opening up, and the whole world becomes your oyster when you’re included,” he said. 

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M AKI N G TH E I R M AR K

RISING FEMALE STARS

BY JENNIFER FOLLETT & JANE O’BRIEN

Can-do attitudes, tireless work ethics, problem-solving skills—those are just a few of the characteristics ascribed to this year’s 100 Rising Female Stars. All of the women on our third annual list are leveraging these traits and a host of others to give their respective companies’ partners the tools and resources to grow their business.

In honoring these women we’re doing more than highlighting their achievements and the accolades from their colleagues—we’re hoping to inspire this generation and the ones to come to continue to pursue their career goals and make their own mark in a thriving industry.

Tara Palmieri

Chloe LetourneauVargas

Mayka RosalesPeterson

Manager, North America Commercial Marketing AMD

Sr. Program Manager, Managing Partner Program AppSmart by AppDirect

AMD’s channel team counts itself lucky to have the support of Letourneau-Vargas, who is playing a critical role in building marketing campaigns that are driving overall awareness of the company’s offerings as well as accelerating partner growth.

Rosales-Peterson won kudos for developing new resources and partner enablement tools.

Her vision for continuing to grow AppSmart’s partner program includes strategizing with partners to enhance their brands.

Anita Jagassar

Nicole Steele

Program Project Manager Aruba, an HPE company

Director, Channel Marketing, Enablement Aryaka Networks

Head of Strategic Initiatives, Worldwide Systems Integrators Amazon Web Services

Palmieri piloted the investment to manage global consulting partners based in North America, an idea that turned heads particularly after one was the first to win the Amazon Partner Network 2021 Industry Partner of the Year award.

When Jagassar is assigned to tackle a problem, her teammates know to expect great things. She is recognized as a creative and effective problem-solver who helps elevate and motivate the people around her and is described as someone whose love for the channel shows in all she does.

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Steele led the development of new tools to create marketing programs that aim to build pipeline and revenue for Aryaka partners. The programs were designed to provide partners with free access to resources, systems and contacts that other vendors would charge for.

Victoria Wiesner

Christy Sumner

Distribution Account Manager Arctic Wolf

Manager, Digital Operations Arrow Electronics

Wiesner has built a reputation inside and outside Arctic Wolf for her strong work ethic, which is evident in the way she consistently beats quotas while maintaining high attention to detail and driving operational excellence.

Colleagues say Sumner’s creativity knows no bounds. Her work stands out for her ability to combine a keen understanding of Arrow’s internal processes with her strong knowledge of digital technologies and trends to help the distributor continually grow.

Courtney Duff

Theresa Garner

Gina Haraway

Partner Marketing Specialist Attivo Networks, a SentinelOne Company

Director, Cloud Partner Growth, Enablement Avaya

Sr. Director, Customer Experience Avnet

Garner runs the team that on-boards Avaya partners and works step by step with them through their first cloud opportunities. She helps partners get off to a strong start while providing valuable feedback about the partner experience.

Haraway leads Avnet’s charge to map the customer journey, with a focus on OEM customers’ experience. She also runs the distributor’s women’s employee resource group and works internally and with partners to drive environmental, social and governance initiatives.

Duff’s expertise in demand generation and tireless focus on details help push Attivo’s virtual events from good to great, making a real difference to its channel partners, colleagues say. She is also lauded for her “get-it-done” attitude.

2022 RISING FEMALE STARS

Olivia Guidera

Joelle Cangelosi

Maureen Kolb

Lucy Evans

Ilse Ruiz

Channel Events Marketing Manager Axcient

Partner Enablement Team Lead Barracuda MSP

Sr. Manager, Field Marketing Bitdefender

Global Partner Program Lead BlackBerry

Sr. Sales Operations Analyst BMC

Described as someone everyone in the MSP channel should know, Guidera revamped Axcient’s approach to events in the wake of the pandemic, including developing training for the go-to-market team on best practices for working on events.

Cangelosi has cultivated a reputation as an enablement rock star with incredible multitasking skills and followup. Colleagues marvel at how much she can take on, noting that no matter how much work she has she handles it with grace and simply gets it done.

Kolb brings her vast experience in marketing management to bear as she helps mold Bitdefender’s field marketing efforts. Lauded by peers for her skills building bridges from marketing to sales to channel partners, she’s laser-focused on helping solution providers grow.

Continually striving to improve partner benefits, Evans was key to BlackBerry’s new global partner program, which opened growth opportunities through a single global price book and discounts. Evans also took on extra responsibilities around the 2021 Partner Summit.

Ruiz has raised the bar on how BMC looks at channel programs, guiding the Ecosystem Operations organization over the past four years to enact new ways of thinking and executing on reporting for programs, partner analysis and business investment ROI.

Yvonne Massey

Florence Platt

Anita Kotagiri

Candice Smith

Corinne Clouthier

Director, Partner Program, Tools Broadcom

Manager, Partner Alliance Americas Check Point Software Technologies

Director, Strategy, Planning, Chief of Staff, Global Partner Transformation Cisco Systems

National Partner Account Manager Citrix Systems

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager Cloudera

Massey’s can-do attitude came into play as she helped build Broadcom’s partner portal, dashboards and an internal partner sales resource center.

She initiated a standard format for its Partner Sales Plays and created numerous campaigns for partners worldwide.

Quismet Fernandez-Sanchez Partner Sales Director, Central Division Comcast Business and Masergy

Fernandez-Sanchez has built a strong team of partner sales managers in the Southeast who are dedicated to partner success.

Her team has sold multiple strategic logo accounts that have helped to drive revenue.

Platt’s work ethic and willingness to always jump in help drive her team, which plays an integral part in Check Point’s partner efforts by assisting with business planning, recruiting and onboarding.

Kotagiri wins praise as a thoughtful, outcome-oriented team player who has worked on projects that help partners transform with Cisco more effectively, such as structuring and launching the company’s IoT-OT reseller pilot.

Upon joining Citrix’s channel team, Smith implemented new ideas and processes to ensure each partner feels confident and comfortable about the solutions they are recommending to customers. She is said to never hesitate to do what is right for partners.

Clouthier went the extra mile to help Cloudera partners with a new certification process, walking them through how to announce it and share benefits with their customer base.

Colleagues say she has shown consistent professionalism and a positive attitude throughout.

Sophie Mascari

Shauntel Carter

Ophelia Clarke

Andrea Acosta-Rivera

Channel Operations, Enablement Specialist CommScope

Worldwide Engagement Manager Commvault

Manager, Partner Success ConnectWise

Regional Alliances Manager CrowdStrike

Mascari is viewed as a role model for CommScope employees moving from sales into channel operations. She fields inbound requests for help from partners and has walked many solution providers through the Ruckus Partner Portal and educated them on the channel program.

Carter manages Commvault’s marketing development funds allocation and approval process with field sales for partners in the Americas and Asia-Pacific Japan. She has driven a number of process improvements aimed at increasing the ROI of partner demand generation activities.

Clarke works tirelessly guiding the ConnectWise team on partner retention. She brings clarity to the company’s broad partner base on what the partner success team can provide to help them reach their most ambitious vision of success.

Since joining CrowdStrike in 2020, Acosta-Rivera has won accolades for consistently beating her performance goals and working on countless partnership initiatives that have resulted in increased profitability for over 50 solution provider and tech alliance partners throughout the U.S.

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2022 RISING FEMALE STARS

Shayna Jackson

Katie Bird

Tiffany Ward

Jindy Carter

Laura Espy Lippitt

Director, Channel Sales, Americas CyCognito

Director, Channel Marketing Cynet Security

Director, North America Sales Development Datto

Chief of Staff, Global Partner Marketing Dell Technologies

Jackson has quickly made a name for herself at CyCognito since joining the company in October, cultivating a reputation for being collaborative, actionoriented and having a strong understanding of her partners’ business.

Cynet’s new global partner program, partner portal and North America partner profitability programs all launched with Bird’s guidance.

She is also driving channel marketing efforts with the aim of helping partners have natural, targeted conversions at scale.

Sales Director, Professional Services, Google Business Unit D&H Distributing

Carter works collaboratively across multiple departments to create sales-related programs and collateral that support partners’ sales efforts. She helps deliver value-added resources and programs that will align with partner growth initiatives.

Espy Lippitt enabled Dell’s partner community with digital marketing and virtual selling tools, and partners saw a big impact from resources such as introductory digital marketing videos and a new digital-first partner portal experience. Now she’s playing an even bigger role.

Viviane Meirelles

Inna Norvaisiene

AnaLise Shea

Manager, Global Partner Programs Extreme Networks

Channel Account Manager Fortinet

McCall Everest McIntyre

Clair Aguirre

Sr. Sales Engineer Eaton

When Norvaisiene had to jump in to take on someone else’s role on top of her own responsibilities, she pushed through until she had it all under control. Colleagues were impressed by her attitude and proactive engagement, and she earned a promotion as a result.

Colleagues say Shea has an innate talent for channel management, which is evident in the way over the course of the past two and a half years she has transformed her territory and built meaningful and impactful relationships with partners.

Catalina Jennings

Sara Lent

Vanessa Boggs

Hannah Pirovano

Global Partner Program Sr. Manager Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Director, Global Partner, Alliance Marketing Hitachi Vantara

Southeast Regional Sales Manager HP Inc.

National Channel Account Manager HYCU

Lent works tirelessly to help drive Hitachi Vantara’s marketing collaboration with technical alliances and hyperscalers. She is zeroed in on engagement and alignment with partners, particularly around focused go-to-market plans that can be scaled globally.

A well-respected channel advocate, Boggs is a key player in driving HP’s transformation initiatives. Last year she developed an alliance with her HP Services contacts that armed her team to conduct more strategic services-led conversations with partners.

Over the past year, Pirovano quickly proved how effective she is in networking and relationship-building by working with a number of HYCU’s key North American channel partners. Co-workers say she brings an infectious enthusiasm to every assignment.

Meirelles has over 30 years of experience supporting power solution projects in data center environments. With her strong technical background and project management skills, she has been instrumental in taking Eaton partners from the Florida region to the next level of solution integration.

When colleagues think of someone who helps drive global business growth, Jennings readily comes to mind. She has a talent for reinforcing connections and has played a key role in the execution of HPE’s worldwide partner program.

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Ward helped add managed services and project services to D&H’s professional services portfolio. Her work scaled offerings to help partners meet demand for custom-configured devices to support customers’ work-from-anywhere initiatives.

Strategic Technology Partner Lead Google Cloud

When McIntyre works with traditional partners having difficulty with the transition to the cloud, she is able to bring clarity to provide a path aligned to their goals—a feat she has accomplished repeatedly.

Partner Marketing Manager HashiCorp

Aguirre has adeptly navigated joining a growing company with an expanding roster of partners. She fosters positive relationships and effectively manages a variety of internal and external stakeholders to support the success of HashiCorp’s partnerships.

Anansha Roy Choudhry Program Director, Build, Ecosystem Engagement IBM

Roy Choudhry wins praise for what colleagues describe as phenomenal work building partner engagement. She creates partner success stories, organizes quarterly business partner events and provides consistent communication.

2022 RISING FEMALE STARS

Supna Agrawal

Stacie Odrobina

Anne Matson

Keli Davis

Amy Byrd

Global Channel Marketing Sr. Manager iBoss

Global Manager, Event Marketing, Partner Communities Ingram Micro

Global Partner Sales Director Intel

VP, Strategic Partnerships Intelepeer

Partner Enablement Manager Intermedia

Odrobina’s role has been steadily expanding since joining Ingram Micro eight years ago. She now leads a team of event marketing consultants and business development managers to drive growth for top initiatives, events and partner programs.

Intel partners see Matson as someone who listens, adapts and delivers results. Because of those skills, she has nearly tripled the company’s sales enablement with solution providers globally to help address the demand spurred by the work-from-home model.

Davis took charge of a crossfunctional team tasked with building a new product and taking it to market in less than 12 months. She leveraged partner relationships and her own partner acumen to provide feedback, resulting in a product that launched early and found immediate success.

Nicole Tryon

Ankita Sethi

Kristin Powers

Jackie Dato

Kaitlin Waite

Partner Development Manager Intuit

Sr. Manager, Global Partner Programs Juniper Networks

Marketing Manager, B2B Kaspersky

Described as sharp and highly skilled, Sethi goes above and beyond to support Juniper’s partner investment initiatives.

As a result, her peers say solution providers feel confident when investing in Juniper and look to the company as a trusted partner.

Colleagues say Powers does an incredible job supporting Kaspersky’s channel marketing managers with projects, reporting, communications, incentives and more. And, they say, this marketing specialist manages to juggle all of that with enviable efficiency and an admirably positive attitude.

Director, Global Partner Marketing Lacework

Colleagues say Tryon embodies the concept of “when one wins, we all win.” She’s known for listening to partners, supporting them every step of the way and asking questions to help them find their own path to growth.

She also steps in when team members need a helping hand.

Regional Dealer Manager Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.

Jennifer Morrison

Julia Mayer

Director, Sales, Distribution, VAR Partners Lenovo

Education Marketing Manager Logitech

Morrison has built a reputation for assembling highperformance teams, leading them with integrity and empowering them with clear goals. Her 25 years at Lenovo give her the experience and gravitas to be a strong presence in the Canadian channel.

Mayer joined her team in May 2021 and wasted no time establishing herself as a rock star. Described as a go-getter who organizes training and marketing campaigns that lead to strong sales pipelines, she gives partners the tools they need to grow their business.

Agrawal last year launched the enhanced iBoss Partner Program with the aim of driving growth, innovation and partner enablement. As part of that effort, she spearheaded the execution of joint partner demand programs and coselling initiatives.

Byrd wears many hats at Intermedia, from facilitating training sessions for partners to working cross-functionally to build new training content for the sales organization to helping win the hearts and minds of partners by telling the Intermedia story.

Dato is laser-focused on Konica Minolta’s midmarket dealers, and she’s found ways to bring this often underserved community efficient and effective support. The end result is that those partners can now better grow their business.

Waite was in her element when faced with the challenge of assembling all the pieces of a new partner program. She has put her stamp on it and is now focused on spurring growth for both the program and Lacework’s partner marketing efforts.

Eva-Maria Elya

Ralon Violette

Janice Kennedy

Sr. Director, Worldwide Channel Sales Lookout

Sr. Director, Customer Success Lumen Technologies

Elya’s contributions to Lookout’s channel program have been an integral part of the company’s success. Her efforts are credited with leading to the on-boarding of many strategic resellers, including some of the most successful security solution providers in the Americas.

Violette is an inspirational leader for Lumen’s partner support team, helping them develop into strong partner and customer success advocates. She and her team are actively removing pain points and making significant, positive impacts on the partner experience.

Director, Channel Sales, North America West, Canada, Latin America Mandiant

Kennedy’s can-do spirit and positive attitude motivate the Mandiant team to go above and beyond for partners. She is said to be always willing to lend a hand and is constantly problemsolving and developing strategic solutions to address challenges.

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2022 RISING FEMALE STARS

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Elma Nahm

Laura Benning

Paula Olsen Perez

Raquel Wiley

Chelsea Wood

Director, Strategy, Operations, Global Partner Solutions Microsoft

Program Manager N-able

Sr. Manager, Americas Partner Program NetApp

VP, Marketing NetFortis, A Sangoma Company

National Partner Marketing Manager Nextiva

Nahm is new to Microsoft and has hit the ground running in a key role where she drives strategy, planning and change management for the worldwide team. She leads with a growth mindset and a focus on positive partner outcomes.

Benning has created the program management framework for on-boarding and migrating large MSP installs over to the N-able product suite. This has been a tremendous asset for any new or existing partners as they now have a documented project plan along with a project team from N-able.

Lisa Harshman

Lauren McEwen

Director, Demand Generation NinjaOne

Channel Sales Manager Nutanix

Harshman has helped lead the charge around NinjaOne’s channel marketing efforts and heads up marketing initiatives for the partner program. She has been with the company for four years and is known by teammates as a demand generation maven.

McEwen is part of the team that manages one of the largest resellers in North America and is known for her strong business acumen and deep understanding of her partner. She has a strategic vision and brings innovative ideas that fuel growth in the business.

Olivia Pramas Director, Channel Marketing OpenText

Pramas is no stranger to the channel after a decade of experience helping partners with co-branded marketing campaigns and developing new tools and partner portals. She kicked off the year by joining OpenText where she is putting her expertise to good use.

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Perez brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and insight to the NetApp team and is helping the company improve programs, incentives, communications and relationships with partners in significant ways.

A 25-year veteran of the telecom industry, Wiley is known as a results-oriented technology marketer and leads direct and indirect channel marketing programs and initiatives at NetFortis.

She also is a rising voice for DEI in the telecom channel.

Colleagues can already see Wood is going to be a channel marketing force to be reckoned with. She has quickly earned the respect of the partners she has worked with and is said to embody Nextiva’s core values of “simplicity, forward thinking and caring.”

Carrie Almeida

LaLe Ozbey

Ouafae Hannaoui

Federal Partner Business Manager Nvidia

Head of Channel Nyriad

Director, Global Field, Alliances Marketing Open Systems

Almeida is known as an amazing leader who understands the unique needs of the entire federal ecosystem. Colleagues say she is one of the most articulate, professional, technical, organized and influential leaders in Nvidia’s global partner organization.

A passionate and driven leader, Ozbey is helping to build a firstclass channel program at Nyriad.

Partners are excited when they see the new opportunities and relationships afforded by working with her, as evidenced by the creation of opportunities before the company’s storage offering was launched.

Meredith Hannah

Marissa Guerrero

Lisa Hansoty

Erica Mikulsky

Sr. Channel Business Manager Palo Alto Networks

Strategic Program Manager Pax8

Global Partner Content Strategy Manager Poly

Hannah demonstrates integrity, business acumen and is acknowledged by co-workers as an integral part of the team. She develops channel business plans that drive results and is revered by her peers, extended teams and partners as a seasoned channel professional.

Pax8’s international expansion and the Pax8 Marketplace Platform were new types of launches and presented unique hurdles. Guerrero listened to regional partners to understand their needs and worked closely with global vendors to enable their successful launch.

Sales Director, North America Partner Sales, Financial Services, Insurance Pegasystems

Hansoty brings partner expertise and drive to Pegasystems’ financial services ecosystem. Her pursuit of understanding partner strategy and objectives has fostered better outcomes.

Hannaoui is a seasoned channel marketing leader with over 10 years of experience that includes outstanding leadership, channel practices and development, strategy execution, marketing and sales.

She is focused on making sure the partner’s voice is heard.

Mikulsky is known as the voice of the partner at Poly. She has developed a comprehensive partner co-branding guide, improved the global partner communications strategy and provided guidance on the development of all partner content.

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© 2022 The Channel Company, All rights reserved.

2022 RISING FEMALE STARS

Jessica Scarinci

Lauren Rodabaugh

Sr. Channel Manager Proofpoint

Director, Global Partner Marketing Pure Storage

Scarinci has strong relationships with her partners in the New York City metro territory, and those relationships have helped her build one of the most successful sales territories in the U.S. for Proofpoint. She is always relentlessly pursuing ways she can better align with partners and sales teams.

Commercial GTM Integration Director Red Hat

Charlie Coulange

Stacy Hicks

Regional Sales Director Riverbed | Aternity

Strategic Partners Sales Manager Samsung Electronics America

McCarty-Caplan has driven alignment across the company to spotlight the importance of partner-ready material. This effort will drive more alignment externally and bring clarity to the priority areas to jointly win with partner-led solutions.

Coulange has gone above and beyond to develop the business and brand in the Latin America and Southeast U.S. regions. Not only does she do a great job managing a team from afar, her work to stand up and support partners, distributors and sales teams in the Latin America region have had a huge impact.

Hicks has a strategic approach to developing new Samsung opportunities with her channel partners that leads to whitespace growth for both parties. She has increased the education business with several of her partners, taking a total solutions approach.

Marina Mariotta

Caitlin Tindle

Eileen Bishop

Jennifer Palmes

Sandeep Kaur

Partner Business Officer, Office of the CPO SAP

Partner Marketing Manager, Distribution, Alliance Scale Computing

Director, Secure Power North America Channel Marketing, Strategic Execution Schneider Electric

Director, Channel Enablement Sectigo

Account Manager Sherweb

Mariotta joined the team from SAP’s Brazilian marketing organization. In two years, she has driven SAP’s flagship partner demand generation program, Race2Revenue, to success in three continents, where it delivers significant partner pipeline.

Tindle is a true master of her craft, building innovative field experiences, creative marketing campaigns and partner experiences. She continually works with partners on their strategic marketing plans.

Bishop has advanced Schneider Electric’s channel business by continuing to develop and improve the e-commerce strategy within her accounts.

This has been and continues to be a top strategic focus area.

Palmes’ vision and ability to execute on that vision has led to success for Sectigo’s channel strategy. She has a deep background in channels and leaves no detail unturned, and teammates say that whatever gets thrown her way will be expertly executed.

Kaur advocates for her partners, works tirelessly as an extension of their team and is driven to do what it takes to make their businesses succeed. She is also very involved with the channel and loves nothing more than meeting MSPs so she can learn from them and hopefully help them in some way.

Kimberley Winfield

Michelle Silver

Danielle Dacey

Emillie Kushner

Terri Radulski

Channel Development Manager Skyhigh Security

Global Sales Director Snowflake

Sr. Sales Manager, Sales Support, iNSP SonicWall

Sr. Director, Sales, Partner Operations Sophos

Sr. National Partner Development Manager Spectrum

Colleagues are impressed with how Dacey is continually looking for ways to improve processes and programs to drive the overall success of SonicWall and the partner community.

Kushner is part of a massive internal project to redesign and overhaul Sophos’ back-end systems. The goal of this project is to make it easier for partners to do business with Sophos, whether it’s through transactions, quotes or deal registrations.

Radulski supports some of Spectrum’s largest technology service distributors and often receives accolades from them.

She’s always finding new and innovative ways to grow their business and believes that staying abreast of the latest technology is key to her success.

Winfield has spent her career so far immersed in cybersecurity.

She turned her attention to the channel eight years ago and hasn’t looked back. A pro at helping partners with cloudnative security solution-selling, she jumped to Skyhigh’s channel team in March.

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Rodabaugh leads a team focused on driving business with partners in all routes to market. She is laser-focused on working with key national and strategic partners on campaigns, events and enablement to drive pipeline and increase revenue.

Shannon McCartyCaplan

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Silver’s inclusive leadership style drives results and brings out the best in her team, her peers and leadership. Her strengths include seeing the big picture, setting audacious goals and developing deep relationships across the ecosystem.

2022 RISING FEMALE STARS

Shali Sobers

Ashley Swain

Global Head of Customer Success, Partner Strategy, Programs Splunk

Director, Partner Solutions Tableau

New to Splunk, Sobers has been supporting partners across a number of different organizations during her career. She is now bringing her leadership, functional expertise and customer service experience to the company.

Swain has helped create the Partner Solutions Program, which is helping Tableau’s resellers craft their expertise and offerings in a repeatable way against key customer verticals and use cases. This foundation will be a global focus across the partner organization.

Sylvie Arendt Federal Channel Manager Trellix

Arendt was key to keeping the relationship going with Carahsoft for the public sector before a colleague was brought into the role. Separate from her channel responsibilities, she stepped in to make sure the Carahsoft team had the training they needed and was the person everyone leaned on.

Mary Katherine Fisher Supervisor, Partner Enablement Manager TD Synnex

Hanna Kalmer

Sanam Sheth

Director, Global Partner Programs, North America Partner Marketing Tenable

Channel Partner Account Executive ThreatLocker

Fisher is a true thought leader who spearheaded social selling in concept and in education for team members. She has created numerous innovative demand generation campaigns and is the mastermind behind the partner enablement portal.

Kalmer is known as a partner advocate, strategic thinker and effective communicator.

Her partner relationships and leadership are driving cross-functional initiatives and alignment to improve global engagement.

Sheth is dedicated to simplifying the channel sales experience for ThreatLocker’s solution providers. She is laser-focused on expediting the sales cycle and creating a frictionless process to make it easier for partners to work with the company.

Kim Mittleman

Rosemary Casey

Jennifer Golding

Katie Royse

Director, Federal Channels Trend Micro

Sr. Alliance Manager Veeam Software

Sr. Manager, Channel Marketing Verizon Business

Partner Marketing Manager Vertiv

Golding leads the channel marketing team, accountable for marketing strategy supporting an ecosystem of 5,000-plus partners. She has made the team highly effective in elevating the channel presence across Verizon and within the industry.

Since joining Vertiv in 2020, Royse has quickly earned the respect of her Vertiv and channel partner peers, leveraging her wealth of channel knowledge and using her meticulous focus to deliver high-quality output for her accounts.

Mittleman knows everything about the federal space — from agencies to contracts to procurement vehicles. She literally speaks the language of the federal sector and is very valuable to Trend Micro’s business.

Casey is always focused on a customer-/partner-first experience and works diligently to grow and expand Veeam’s channel. In her role leading the North America HPE partnership at Veeam, she works closely with partners to identify opportunities for joint selling.

Lora Hawk-Tillman

Madison McDaniel

Diana Harter

Cherie LaBuzetta

Jane-Elizabeth Bunn

Director, Americas Multicloud, Modern Apps Channel VMware

Manager, Global Partner Programs, Operations Wasabi

Audience Marketing Manager, Managed Service Providers WatchGuard Technologies

RVP, IT Sales Xerox

Regional Alliance Manager Zscaler

Hawk-Tillman has elevated her team’s ability to have more strategic conversations regarding multi-cloud with partners and boosted VMware’s game as it pertains to driving profitable growth for MSP and cloud services partners.

With her can-do attitude, McDaniel has grown from an events role into a well-rounded channel executive who truly understands the ecosystem from distribution to MSPs and VARs to alliances. She works to help automate processes and build creative programs for partners.

Harter’s work behind the scenes lets WatchGuard better serve its diverse partner community and ultimately provide partners with customized, relevant experiences with the company.

LaBuzetta’s collaborative approach to sales enablement helped many partners stand up their apps and solution business.

Most recently, she has been instrumental in growing Xerox’s IT services portfolio in a short period of time. She is passionate about supporting colleagues and partners alike.

In a very short time, Bunn has embraced everything around Zscaler’s pipeline generation initiatives and has piloted new programs. These have led to success for partners, joint customers and the company itself.

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CONFRONTING BIAS

How To Focus On ‘Culture-Add,’ Not ‘Culture-Fit’

BY GINA NARCISI

Narine Galstian CMO, SADA Systems

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Many companies have diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in place. But simply aiming to hire a more diverse staff won’t change existing cultural dynamics within the organization or interrupt biases that may exist, said Dr. Rebecca Baumgartner, vice president of human resources for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

“That’s just maintaining the status quo and forcing new individuals to assimilate and fit into the already existing boxes,” said Baumgartner at the Women of the Channel West Leadership Summit, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company in May. Baumgartner, a woman of color, remembers a time during her career when she had to work hard to prove she fit in with her all-male team. She “covered,” or downplayed, parts of her identity in an attempt to overcome any biases that her colleagues may have had about her abilities to do her job.

“I stopped wearing heels and bright colors and stopped wearing as much makeup. I behaved more like they did— more dominant. I even slowed down my cadence and lowered the pitch of my voice so men would feel more comfortable around me and listen to me. I was ‘covering’ to fit in. Even though I had great ideas, I couldn’t express them.

I had no physiological safety, and that’s really important,” she said.

Organizations should focus on “culture-add,” not “culturefit,” Baumgartner said. In other words, employees shouldn’t feel like they have to “cover.”

Many companies feel a responsibility to identify and confront biases that may exist in their business.

SADA Systems, a solution provider that was founded by Armenian immigrants, continually looks for new ways to foster an inclusive, diverse and supportive environment for its employees, said Narine Galstian, CMO of SADA Systems.

SADA Systems regularly attends and partners with DEIfocused career fairs as part of its recruitment process. The Los Angeles-based company also uses machine learning technology to screen job descriptions for bias.

From there, DEI initiatives need to be put into practice, Galstian said. The next step is the company’s SADA University program, an intensive and immersive eight-week training and mentorship program.

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“We specifically seek out talented engineers early in their careers that represent groups that historically haven’t been well represented in tech,” she said.

The last piece, said Galstian, is culture. “We weave DEI into every facet of our culture. We ensure that everyone has a voice and, just as importantly, that everyone knows how to listen inclusively,” she said.

During its weekly Town Halls, SADA regularly recognizes various monthlong observances. The solution provider’s Town Halls often include coverage and discussion of topics such as Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month and the Armenian genocide.

“It’s easy to check a box, write a blog, and list DEI in job posts, but DEI is an integral company practice and not an assignment. The bottom line is that DEI is the right way to build an incredible company,” Galstian said.

Addressing Harder-To-Recognize Biases “If anyone thinks that they don’t have biases, they’re just not educated enough,” said Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration at San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems.

There is still “profound” bias in the workplace as it relates to race and gender, but companies also need to pay attention to biases that may be harder to recognize.

These include location and language bias and even biases against different socioeconomic levels, Patel said.

A major, less recognized bias that many people and companies have is around geography, Patel said. “You don’t usually ask someone if you’re on the phone, ‘What race are you?’ But people will ask all the time, ‘Where are you based?’ and, based on that, should I hire you or not? And that seems like a very biased way of looking at it.”

Patel said that all companies have work to do on eradicating the well-known and lesser-known biases over time, systemically.

“No one should feel like they don’t have an equal seat at the table,” he said. “We should remind people that part of every person’s job in this hybrid world is to make sure that people feel included and to create a participatory culture where they are given a space to talk.” 

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POINTING THE WAY

10 Important DEI Trends For The Channel To Keep Top Of Mind For a growing number of channel businesses, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are becoming an important, transformational component of their long-range strategies.

“Unisys has long understood its role to build and foster a compassionate, inclusive culture that drives innovation and opportunities for our people, communities and environment,” said Katie Ebrahimi, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys. “To truly have the diversity that represents society at large, we need to implement initiatives to address equity.”

According to an October 2021 report jointly prepared by research organization WBR Insights and compliance training firm Traliant, 89 percent of all companies already had a formal DEI strategy in place with the remaining 11 percent planning to implement one within 12 months. The report was based on survey results from 300 U.S. companies across all industries, including the IT industry. The survey also found that 79 percent of all companies planned to allocate more budget and/or resources to DEI in 2022.

Here’s a look at 10 key DEI trends that are impacting companies across the channel today.

1. Employees Want To Be Actively Involved Business initiatives within organizations traditionally follow a top-down approach with management setting the strategy.

While some DEI efforts have followed a similar path, the real impetus for DEI is coming from employees.

“We’re finding that what employees really want is the opportunity to actually lead those [DEI] efforts themselves,” said Sona Khosla, chief impact officer at Calgary, Albertabased Benevity, whose software is used to foster employee engagment and inclusiveness through social responsibility.

One approach to addressing employees’ desire to move DEI forward is the creation of employee groups, what some call “employee resource groups” (ERGs) or “affinity groups,” that bring together employees with similar backgrounds or interests— and employees who support them—to provide mutual support and champion change to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace, according to the Great Place to Work website.

Unisys has created nine Associate Impact Groups— voluntary, employee-led groups “that foster a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with our mission, beliefs and goals,” Ebrahimi said in a written response to CRN questions.

The Unisys AIGs represent different gender, ability, race and ethnicity communities and include the Unisys Pride AIG, the Women+ Network AIG, the BlackU AIG and the Veteran AIG.

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Solution provider CDW, meanwhile, operates what it calls Business Resource Groups, which serve as forums for employees to “make their voices heard, build awareness, celebrate their affinity area, serve their communities, bolster allyship and provide perspective on diversity and inclusion initiatives,” according to the company’s 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance report. BRGs include the Women’s Opportunity Network, the Hispanic Organization for Leadership & Achievement and Black Excellence United.

2. Management Needs To Show Leadership While rank-and-file employees are driving DEI within many companies, they expect more from high-level executives than press releases that often don’t result in real outcomes.

“Employees absolutely want their employers to be making real investments. They want them to be making more than statements and [actually] taking action,” Khosla said.

But there is clearly room for improvement in terms of top executive buy-in. Benevity research found that 80 percent of employees believe that company leadership has a responsibility to take action to address DEI issues, but 47 percent did not see management taking these steps.

The WBR Insights/Traliant survey found that only 13 percent of respondents described their CEO and/or executive management as “actively endorsing and advancing DEI.” The majority, 58 percent, said, “Though not very visible, our executives are involved in decisions about endorsing and advancing DEI.” And 29 percent said that while executives supported DEI, “they are not directly involved in endorsing or advancing it.”

3. DEI Training Is Crucial DEI training is “the easiest way to communicate what to do (and not do) in the workplace,” noted a report from i-Sight, an Ottawa, Ontario-based developer of applications for uncovering, investigating and preventing incidents, fraud and other misconduct in the workplace.

“You can model real-life scenarios for employees to help them understand their biases, learn how to step in when they see harassing behavior and see the value in diversity,” i-Sight noted.

Sixty-five percent of organizations are conducting DEI training, according to the WBR/Traliant survey. The same survey found that only 9 percent described DEI training as “very important” while 61 percent said it is “important” and 30 percent said it is “somewhat important.”

4. DEI Is Important To Prospective Employees Finding, hiring and retaining qualified employees is a major challenge for channel companies today. And there’s evidence that employee candidates—especially those of the millennial and Gen Z generations—take a company’s DEI culture into consideration when choosing where they want to work.

“We see people making different choices about the companies that they want to work for,” said Khosla.

“More than ever before, job seekers are looking for an employer that values DEI,” noted the i-Sight report. “Whether they belong to a marginalized group or not, candidates want to work for a welcoming, safe workplace.”

I-Sight recommends starting by developing “a well-crafted statement” for a company’s website and job postings that matches its branding, mission and values.

5. Look At Remote Work Through A Diversity Lens Millions of employees began working from home in the immediate wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and businesses have since adopted some form of a hybrid office-remote work model. But companies need to consider the DEI implications of the remote-office work practices they adopt.

For some employees, working from home may not be an optimal choice, noted the i-Sight report. They may live in an area that lacks a reliable internet connection or may not own all the electronic devices needed to work productively. Or they may not have a quiet, ergonomic workspace.

On the flip side, it may be difficult for employees with caregiving responsibilities or who moved away from the company office for financial reasons to return to the office.

6. Focus On Getting Women Back Into The Workforce Almost 3 million women have left the labor force since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to layoffs, the need to care for family members and other factors. A significant DEI trend this year is bringing women back into the workforce, noted the i-Sight report.

The challenge is that some women might be hesitant to return due to family considerations or discomfort with office environments. Or their life priorities or “must-haves” for jobs have changed.

The report said that to help these women re-enter the workforce, businesses must take certain steps such as providing flexible hours and remote work options to accommodate child care and family obligations. They also should offer paid sick leave, vacation and paid time off.

7. Don’t Ignore The Customer Perspective Just as potential employees are considering DEI when choosing employers, prospective customers are increasingly looking to buy from, sell to and partner with companies with strong DEI cultures.

CDW launched its business diversity program in 2007 and since then has spent more than $20 billion—including $3.4 billion in 2021—with small and diverse businesses.

That includes minority-owned, woman-owned and small disadvantaged businesses including manufacturers, distributors and service providers. CDW is part of the Billion Dollar Roundtable, a group of U.S.-based companies that procures more than $1 billion annually from such businesses.

8 Carefully Collect Employee Demographic Data “What gets measured gets done,” goes the old saying, and many businesses and organizations are doing just that to gauge their DEI progress.

CDW, for example, notes in its 2021 ESG report that its global workforce is 68 percent male and 32 percent female, and that in the U.S. the company’s workforce is 72 percent white and 28 percent “professionals of color.” The 12 members of CDW’s Executive Committee, meanwhile, are 50-50 male-female, and 58 percent white and 42 percent “professionals of color.”

“Collection and analysis of employee and applicant data is a key part of the DEI strategy,” said Unisys’ Ebrahimi.

But she noted that with increasingly comprehensive data privacy requirements and regulations being established locally, nationally and internationally, businesses must proceed carefully when collecting demographic information.

And while characteristics such as race and disability status may be easier to identify, data collection becomes more of a challenge when measuring characteristics like sexual orientation, religion, caste, personality type and socioeconomic status, the Unisys executive noted.

“As DEI practitioners gather data, they need to be clear on the purpose and the use of the data and on how to protect privacy in the process,” Ebrahimi said.

9. Donations To DEI Causes Have Dropped Benevity’s research showed that prior to the events of 2020, donations to DEI and social justice organizations accounted for about 3.3 percent of all business donations. That spiked to almost 50 percent in 2020, but in 2021 dropped back down to 5.2 percent.

Under its Social Impact program, CDW provides financial contributions, employee volunteers and technology expertise to advancing what the company calls “digital equity.”

Benefiting organizations include AllStarCode, Girls Who Code and One Million Degrees.

10. Go Beyond DEI To Include ‘Belonging’ Diversity means increasing the number of under-represented groups within an organization while equity is removing discrimination and giving employees the tools they need to succeed. Diversity and equity are achieved by establishing organizational policies, practices and procedures.

But the purpose of DEI programs isn’t just to improve diversity metrics within a workplace, noted the WBR Insights/Traliant report. Some businesses and organizations are taking inclusion to the next level and adding “belonging” to their DEI goals.

“In workplaces across all industries, employees are transitioning to a new phase from inclusion to belonging where people do not just want to feel included but want to be accepted for their authentic self,” said Ebrahim at Unisys.

“This means employees need to feel safe and comfortable in bringing their whole selves to work. There is an opportunity for organizations to create psychological safety for everyone to be themselves,” she said. Unisys uses an “Inclusion Index” to measure employee perspectives to see whether they feel they can be themselves at work. 

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21

TODAY’S WORKPLACE

Getting On The Same Page An April survey by The Channel Company as part of its Women of the Channel West Leadership Summit found that men and women think differently when it comes to a host of issues—from sacrifices made during the work-from-home movement to the existence of a gender gap to pay disparity and more. Here are some important statistics from the survey to illustrate how men and women think differently about their careers and their companies.

What sacrifices have you had to make as the workplace has evolved?

Family time/time with children

58% 51%

Healthy lifestyle 38%

Social life 25%

Career progression Following your true passion/dream Arts and cultural activities

56%

49%

35%

20% 16% 16%

23%

Men

Women

What importance do you place on professional development opportunities within your company?

(Percentage reflects the number of respondents who see each opportunity as valuable)

22

66%

Professional workshops, seminars and conferences

65%

Professional workshops, seminars and conferences

60%

Health and mental wellness perks

65%

Personal/professional networking

49%

Corporate training program

64%

Corporate training program

49%

Mentor and/or coach/ reverse mentoring

45%

Mentor and/or coach/ reverse mentoring

44%

Personal/professional networking

44%

Health and mental wellness perks

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70%

What are the greatest challenges you are facing in furthering your career?

38%

Not enough staff/overworked

39% 35%

Talent recruitment Lack of budget (management)

30% 33%

Time management

33% 29%

Technology tools support (i.e., portals, analytics, AI)

16%

27% 31% 27%

Staffing turnover

20% 25%

Lack of work boundaries Skills gaps within curent staff (i.e., channel knowlege, specific marketing skills)

63%

16%

Is there agreement on the existence of a gender gap?

Men

23%

Women

Do you believe there is pay disparity in the channel?

87%

of women believe there is still a gender gap

61%

of men believe there is still a gender gap

Men are being paid more with no improvement in the gender gap

30%

of women feel they have been passed over for advancement due to gender

Men are being paid more, but my perception is that the gap is closing

9%

of men feel they have been passed over for advancement due to gender

We have successfully achieved pay equity

5% 7%

23%

23% 70% 72%

Men

Women

What types of advancement programs has your company implemented?

Men

Women

We have formed committees and working groups with the goal of producing results

29%

41%

My company has invested dollars, leadership time and board commitment into the issue and started to make an impact

42%

41%

My company is a role model in how to advance women, implementing meaningful changes throughout the organization

49%

28%

We are building a diverse group of interviewers

24%

26%

We have formed committees and working groups that have produced positive results

35%

22%

We are monitoring compensation parity so men and women are paid equally for their contribution

33%

21% SPECIAL ISSUE 2022

23

LANGUAGE MATTERS

Equity In Hiring Starts With The Job Description

BY CASS MCMANN

Cass McMann MHR, DEI Community Leader, The Channel Company

24

The well-cited 2020 McKinsey study on equity and inclusion established that a diverse workforce can lead to higherperforming and profitable teams. Yet questions remain around how to increase diversity in the hiring pipeline.

But is there really a pipeline diversity issue? The racial and gender landscape of the U.S. is changing, with each generation becoming more and more diverse. It is estimated that by 2030, eight years from now, 21 percent of the U.S. population will be of Hispanic or Latinx descent. Women of color will eclipse the majority of all women by or before 2060.

Recruiting and hiring are key components in increasing organizational diversity and improving inclusion. However, the first step to hiring inclusively is often overlooked: the job description.

According to British International Investment’s Gender Toolkit, job descriptions are the most visible part of the hiring process, having the potential to lead into a balanced and broad range of applicants. Yet many hiring managers, recruiters and employers are unaware of implicit biases found in their job postings, thus limiting their “talent pool through the language, structure and information” included— or excluded—in job descriptions. While often unintended, outdated language has the potential to minimize the appeal for applicants originating from historically excluded employee groups. For those looking to expand their employee value proposition, understanding what terms and language are outdated is critically important to a growing global workforce.

When writing job descriptions aimed at improving the employee value proposition, here are a few guided suggestions: • Be explicit about your company commitment to hiring diverse talent and building an inclusive culture. Having a clearly defined road map for diversity, equity and inclusion is an essential part of attracting talent. However, this commitment should be woven into the framework of the organization. Start with a clear statement that is actionable and can be measured for success.

• Be clear and concise, listing only the needed requirements and limiting industry terms that are not universal. Avoid acronyms, as they narrow the pool of potential candidates. If certain skills are absolutely needed, use qualifying language such as, “an ideal applicant will have experience in …” or “we are looking for someone with a healthy mix of the following …”

• Avoid outdated language and titles. Understand that terms and definitions are always changing, thus it is equally

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important to ensure language is balanced. When describing roles and responsibilities, subtle descriptive adjectives can be gender-centered or stereotypically attached to whiteness.

For example, using terms like “competitive” and “ambitious” are stereotypes of men, whereas “compassionate” and “collaborative” are ascribed to women.

While equity in hiring can begin with the job description, it does not end there. Internally, organizations looking to gain equity in hiring are best positioned by: • Conducting internal audits bi-annually for any racial, gender, age or other biased income disparities by performing an equity audit and compensation comparison. In the U.S., the gender pay gap has gotten better but has not yet closed, with women of color earning the least when compared with white men, who are the top earners domestically as well as internationally. Organizations with a commitment to equity in hiring are best positioned to close the wage gap by enacting wage policies based on objective criteria rather than standards that can be subjective.

• Look for employee candidates who offer culture enhancement rather than ones that offer culture fit. Often organizations work to fill the space vacated when a member of the team moves to a different opportunity. However, an inclusive culture will focus on what skills are missing from the team and how can the culture be enhanced by their new hire.

By looking at the job functions of current team members and writing the job description to fill the missing components, a more diverse candidate pool can be utilized.

Simply put, finding equity in the employee pipeline to increase diversity requires examining hiring policies, practices and procedures. Organizations aiming to live out their inclusion mission will be best served by taking steps beyond the talent pool and employee pipeline. They also will be best served in eliminating bias in job descriptions, focusing on equity in wages and searching for culture-enhancing candidates. They are the future of work.  Cass McMann, MHR, is the DEI Community Leader at The Channel Company, the parent of CRN. To learn more about the Inclusive Leadership Network, scan here: Sources: McKinsey Study (2020) https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/ diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters UK Gender Tool Kit https://gendertoolkit.bii.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Gender-neutraljob-description.pdf Gender Pay Gap: https://www.americanprogress.org/ article/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/ Fortune Talent Pipeline https://fortune. com/2021/02/27/diversity-inclusion-talent-pipeline-business/

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ANYON E CAN BE AN AL LY

The Power Of Allyship: Even The Smallest Steps Make A Difference

BY GINA NARCISI

Allies in the workplace consistently advocate for minimizing bias and boosting equity to create an inclusive environment.

On a one-on-one level, an ally can speak on someone’s behalf when they’re not in the room—or haven’t been invited to the room.

Rima Olinger, managing director of North America partners for Seattle-based Amazon Web Services told an audience at the Women of the Channel Leadership Summit Rima Olinger in May that at one point she worked with an engineering Managing team that was “99.99 percent male.” She recalled a time Director, North when her then-company went through a leadership change, America Partners, which altered her working relationship with management Amazon Web for the worse.

Services “My efforts, because I was a female, were always undermined and my mistakes were overvalued,” she said. “Then, we went head-to-head when I realized that the business was in trouble if we did not shift the engineering [team] in a specific direction.” She sounded the alarm to the team leader, who dismissed her concerns.

Olinger knew she had to address the issue, so she wrote up a document outlining the problems and suggesting solutions. She had more men who tried to stop her, she said, but then her manager, a white male, stood up for her.

“He helped me in two ways,” she said. “He became my ally. He ensured the meeting took place, and he ensured that the aggression that was directed toward me was not about passion but about facts and numbers.”

The result of the meeting was that she always had a seat at the table. “If it wasn’t for my ally who stood up for me to remove the roadblocks for me, I would have not been seen as a whole for my contribution. I would have been marginalized,” she said.

26

SPECIAL ISSUE 2022

Having allies as part of your professional support system is powerful, according to technology leaders.

Sponsors are people who can use their influence within the organization and can advocate for others, typically their direct reports, on things like promotions, raises and assignments. Allies, on the other hand, build on the role of a sponsor by using their position in the company to help others and actively create an inclusive culture.

Unlike sponsors, however, anyone can be an ally, regardless of their career stage or leadership position.

Tracy Diziere, president and CEO of Phoenix-based TDZ Creative Partners, said she loves helping people find their voice and believes that unlike the title of “mentor” or “sponsor,” “ally” is an earned title that is given externally.

“For me, it’s about knowing yourself and having a commitment to that continuous improvement as a leader,” she said. “It’s not about [the ally]. It’s not a performance, so they have to be in a place where their ego takes a back seat.”

Building A Culture Of Allyship Men can get things rolling by being allies for their female counterparts, Diziere said. “I hope that men can make allyship personal so that they can make a difference, whether it’s picturing their daughters or wives—whatever they need to do to bring it close to home because I think that level of commitment is what’s important to ultimately drive largerlevel change when there are so many different competing responsibilities,” she said.

While there’s no debating that men need to be allies, women also can step up for their fellow colleagues who may be under-represented or marginalized.

Allyship means stepping outside one’s own circle or comfort zone to support someone or a group of people, which could involve risk, Diziere said.

“The hope for me is that a lot of these small steps will add up to [people] seeing results personally and then inspiring others to do the same,” she said. “Then, that just becomes contagious, and it starts to take off and becomes bigger than just you and your individual first action step.”

According to a 2021 Women in the Workplace study

by McKinsey in partnership with LeanIn.Org, more than three-quarters of white employees said that they consider themselves allies to women of color at work. When asked about specific actions, however, less than half said they’re consistently giving credit to women of color for their work and ideas. Only about 40 percent said they are actively confronting discrimination.

The good news is that since creating a healthy companywide culture of allyship starts at the individual level and branches out from there, even the smallest, or “micro” changes can impact the larger company culture, said Katie Kunker, founder and CEO of The Art Of Hustle and Heart, a mentorship and coaching firm for professional and personal development, at the Women of the Channel event.

“Making micro changes, little changes, every day [can] get you to where you want to be because whether we know it or not, if we’re not holding ourselves accountable … we’re actually creating the culture that we’re complaining about,” she said. 

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