SonicWall Promotes Cisco Vet to Global Channel Leader

SonicWall has promoted Michelle Ragusa-McBain to vice president and global channel leader. She joined SonicWall as vice president and North America channel leader in May.

SonicWall’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain

As global channel leader, Ragusa-McBain will be responsible for driving the channel ecosystem, enabling partners to grow and profit from the outside-in shift to cybersecurity. With more than 18 years of partner experience, she has led, developed, managed and grown channel ecosystems at Cisco, Office Depot/CompuCom and JS Group.

She has led managed services, subscription/consumption models, distribution and alliances programs. She also has served on multiple boards and communities driving DE&I initiatives and developing the next generation of channel talent.

“There is a strong focus on our routes to market — today and in the future — and how we continue to recruit, enable and drive partners around the world to grow with SonicWall,” Ragusa-McBain said. “A key theme for SonicWall’s channel strategy is embracing an outside-in approach to crafting its strategy and executing with partners. What that means is we’re listening to our partners and customers more than ever before, rather than operating in a vacuum and telling you what you need.”

Global Channel Leader Focused on Ease of Doing Business

SonicWall wants to be the easiest organization to do business with in the channel, Ragusa-McBain said.

“We understand what the complex landscape looks like, incorporating the right programs, product solutions, incentives, education, training, enablement — all of it — collectively to make sure that you have what you need to be successful and protect your customers around the world,” she said. “To this end, we have created partner advisory and technical councils around the world to listen and learn, and incorporate this feedback to create the ideal products, program, education and training to elevate our businesses together, and take SonicWall and our partners to new heights. ”

Additionally, SonicWall has created a series of webinars, Cafe Tech and Cafe Biz, which will be launched in September to drive its partners business, Ragusa-McBain said.

“Also, we will be immersing ourselves on the road globally at ecosystem events, peer groups, distribution and vendor events our partners attend to continue the mission to learn and educate on why there has never been a better time to be a SonicWall partner,” she said.

Global Channel Leader’s To-Do List

At the top of Ragusa-McBain‘s to-do list in this new role is meeting with partners around the world to ensure SonicWall’s is the best channel program, with the best enablement platform, providing the best MSP portfolio to help drive partners’ success.

“[The new role] gives me a different, broader perspective,” she said. “SonicWall is a partner-first company and enabling our channel around the globe will be a key priority. SonicWall is committed to evolve on a global scale and will remain one of the unquestioned leaders in the cybersecurity space. Along with the emphasis on SonicWall’s outside-in approach, we are positioned to take our partner community to new heights in the second half of 2023, not just in North America, but globally.”

Understanding partners’ needs is vital to providing the best technology and support, Ragusa-McBain said.

“It’s one thing to share a road map and another to have our partners shape that road map,” she said. “We will provide the best channel program for our partners, we will listen more and talk less, [and] we will make our leadership available to listen and interact with our partners. In short, we see that partners want a company that’s easy to do business with. And we will provide that for them, and drive boundless success, together.”