What Will Happen with AWS Channel Leadership in 2023?

The channel chief role at any company is notorious for high turnover. Depending on which analyst you ask, a channel chief lasts in the same job for an average of 18 months to 4.2 years. Of course, the longevity hinges on a variety of factors including executive support, company strategy, channel program leadership teams, personal ability to handle stress and even qualities such as likability.

Over at AWS, Ruba Borno has served at the channel helm since December 2021. By all accounts, she is highly liked and a strong leader. But even she is not immune from corporate pressures. In 2023, Borno “has a massive challenge in front of her to align field sales and partner organizations as a single team,” Mactores’ Heroor opined to us.

Borno’s been tackling that initiative since 2022, but “her effort has yet to yield any outcome fruit,” Heroor said.

Keep an eye on Borno’s progress on this front in 2023. Other cloud providers, not just AWS, are bringing together field and partner groups, too, and this is no easy feat. Borno is likely up against common obstacles such as pushback over compensation fears and lack of desire among insider staff and partners to cooperate, if she hasn’t encountered any of that already.

Even so, corporate executives and investors are not patient people. Now that Borno has had a full year to start executing on a single-team vision, 2023 is likely the year leaders will expect results.

And if those don’t emerge as quickly as hoped, Mactores’ Heroor warns AWS against resorting to typical corporate responses — like booting a smart, resourceful, respected channel chief.

“Taking [Borno] off the channel leadership would be very harmful to AWS to remain competitive against Microsoft, which has excellent channel partnership relationships,” he said.

And as Microsoft Azure gains significant traction against AWS, AWS will want to do everything possible to blunt its biggest competitor’s growth.