Top Gun 51 On Target: The Channel’s Up-and-Comers List

Five9’s Jake Butterbaugh

“Jake Butterbaugh is in his first vice president of channels role after serving many channels roles at Cisco Systems previous to Five9.  He was also at Accenture before that. His background in consulting and analytics, then sales and then channels gives him a well-rounded view and enables him to bridge the gap between Five9’s sellers and partner sellers.” — Andy Dignan, Five9

8x8’s Gwen Reynolds

“Gwen Reynolds is the national partner manager for 8x8, supporting Telarus. She is an exceptional brand ambassador for her company, has deep personal relationships with channel partners all over the country and would bleed for the people she supports. She is also exceptional with events and social media strategies. I wish I could hire her!” — Mason Miles, CommandLink

MicroCorp’s Chris Shubert

“Chris Shubert was recently named the senior vice president of sales at MicroCorp. He is a channel leader who always puts his partners first and is never above rolling up his sleeves to help support a partner (including hopping on the phones for a day of cold calling). He made doing business with CNSG much more seamless, and I am excited to see what he will bring to the table at MicroCorp.” — MeiLee Langley, Nextiva

Gigamon’s Larissa Crandall

Pax8’s Klaus Dimmler

“It isn’t only because he holds the patent for AC power line surge protectors or his ability to start digging and digging to develop a new high-tech product. What makes me think of Klaus Dimmler, CTO at Pax8, is that — on top of everything else — he has the persistence of a genius and the skills of a seasoned engineer to develop new cloud solutions easy to market and easy to use. He's the mastermind behind new cloud distribution models to make life easier for MSSPs and MSPs. He’s a true technology disruptive genius for the channel!” — Juan Perez, IBM

Channel Maven’s Jenn Reed

“Jenn Reed is COO of Channel Maven Consulting. We’ve been working with Jenn and the rest of the Channel Maven team now for over a year and she does an incredible job managing and communicating. She's a rock star!”  — David Portnowitz, Star2Star

Bitdefender’s Jason Eberhart

“Jason Eberhart is vice president of global MSP and cloud for Bitdefender. He’s key to the company’s MSP/cloud program and explosive growth in both areas. Jason has a balance of traditional and new channels which is paramount in today’s environment” — Joe Sykora, Bitdefender

VMware’s Amy Flanagan

“Amy Flanagan is senior director of global cloud sales acceleration for VMware. She is a recognized leader with partners and her peers and has held channel roles at IBM, Ingram and VMware. She is a channel advocate and is always three moves ahead of the competition. I have no doubt Amy will take the VMware cloud game to new heights.” — Frank Rauch, Check Point

Check Point’s Abigail Maines

“Abigail Maines is head of Americas channel sales, Check Point. Abigail is a fearless, charismatic leader who focuses on flawless execution.  In her year with Check Point, she has transformed the partner organization in the Americas while providing clear direction and motivation for both partners and her team.” — Frank Rauch, Check Point

Cytracom’s Demi Yang

“Demi Yang, a Cytracom partner account manager, focuses on building meaningful relationships within the partner community helping MSPs grow their business. She is highly engaged with partners and works closely with them to tailor a sales approach for their business. She collaborates with her partners to strategize on finding new customers and works hand-in-hand to identify ways to break through with these opportunities. Focused on strategic growth, Demi is always on the lookout for new revenue opportunities for partners. Demi also works on team engagement projects and internal process improvement.” — Meredith Caram, Cytracom