MSP SUMMIT/CHANNEL PARTNERS LEADERSHIP SUMMIT — The Alliance of Channel Women on Wednesday night recognized winners in three categories at its ACW Connect Live event. The handing out of leadership awards went down at the MSP Summit/Channel Partners Leadership Summit in Orlando.

The ACW LEAD Award is an annual honor. It celebrates women who represent the three C’s: courageous, creative, collaborative, connected and confident in advancing channel careers. They also inspire other channel women to follow their example.

Michelle Kadlacek is chair of the ACW awards committee and VP of channel partners sales, Spectrum Enterprise.

“The LEAD Award recognizes influential women leaders in the tech channel,” said Kadlacek. “We celebrate these outstanding women with the LEAD Award for their inspiring leadership example within their companies, the channel and the community at large.”

And the LEAD winners are: Gizzelle Akin, partner account manager for Equinix; MeiLee Langley, senior director of global channel marketing, LiveVox; and Raquel Wiley, VP of marketing for NetFortris, a Sangoma company.

The ACW board of directors selected the honorees from nominees received from online applications.

Leadership Achievement Award

Meantime, ACW recognized Angie Tocco, co-founder and past president of Telecom for Change, with its inaugural ACW Leadership Achievement Award. The nonprofit Telecom for Change has brought the technology channel together to raise more than $1.2 million for grassroots community groups.

Tocco has been in the industry for 35 years, known well for founding LanYap Networks, which Upstack acquired last year.

“ACW is honoring Angie Tocco for her dedication and leadership in bringing the channel together to champion unsung local heroes and make a real impact in our communities,” said ACW president Cassie Jeppson, director of North America channel programs, Lenovo. “What’s more, she led this effort while growing a top-performing telecom agency to a successful sale. Angie is an inspiring channel leader both in business and philanthropy. Her commitment to making the world a better place legacy worth recognizing and supporting.”

ACT Awards

But the ACW wasn’t done with its evening of awards. It honored five ACW members with ACT awards for their outstanding volunteer work to the organization.

They are:

The Alliance of Channel Women is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of female channel leaders.