Microsoft's Rodney Clark – Channel Futures

Microsoft’s Rodney Clark

Written by Buffy Naylor
February 15, 2022

Rodney Clark
Corporate Vice President, Global Channel Sales & Channel Chief
Microsoft

“We’ve seen our customers become increasingly digital, not only with their solutions, but in their hiring. They are hiring more application developers today than they ever have, and so our partners have to actually come in with much more of a focused technical agenda in how they service and support and build with our customers.”

When Microsoft veteran Rodney Clark was tapped last year to succeed longtime channel chief Gavriella Schuster, he came to the role with three commitments to partners: strengthen Microsoft’s digital capability, deepen partners’ technical capability and streamline engagement to drive profitability.

In a Microsoft Partner Network blog earlier this year, Clark reported on the progress that had been made in meeting those commitments. From a redesigned partner center to the first-ever Certification Week and lowered marketplace transaction fees, Clark and his team are delivering on his commitments and plan to do more. That’s not the least of the reasons Microsoft was the leader in enterprise IT sales in 2021. According to Synergy Research, Microsoft earned $120 billion in enterprise sales last year, compared to $75 billion for IBM and $60 billion for Amazon.

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Buffy Naylor

Buffy Naylor is managing editor of Channel Futures. Prior to joining Informa (then VIRGO) in 2008, she was an award-winning copywriter and editor, then senior manager of corporate communications for an international leisure travel corporation and, before that, in charge of creative development and copywriting for a boutique marketing and public relations agency.