We are excited to announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named two VIAVI leaders:  Carol Ann McKeown and Maribel Ortiz, to its prestigious 2018 Women of the Channel list. The executives who comprise this annual list span the IT channel, representing vendors, distributors, solution providers and other organizations that figure prominently in the channel ecosystem. Each is recognized for her outstanding leadership, vision and unique role in driving channel growth and innovation.

CRN editors select the Women of the Channel honorees based on their professional accomplishments, demonstrated expertise and ongoing dedication to the IT channel.

Carol Ann McKeown, Director, Regional and Channel Marketing 

Since joining VIAVI in 2017, Carol Ann has focused on driving pipeline growth through VIAVI channel partners and effectively demonstrating ROI for marketing spend. She has successfully defined a framework for VIAVI and is now working globally with our partner community to drive adoption. In addition, she is focused on maturing partner marketing processes. All of this is focused on helping VIAVI partners drive more pipeline and bookings.

Carol Ann’s major focus for 2018 will be launching a marketing enablement program that will help our partners better target key audiences for both the enterprise and service provider markets. VIAVI partners have told us that our product training is very valuable to their business, so Carol Ann will expand this product training to also include marketing components in the coming year. In addition, she is working on improving overall partner experience by launching automation tools to make it easier for partners to work with VIAVI.

 

Maribel Ortiz, Channel Leader for EMEA  

Over the past year, Maribel has focused on further enhancing and developing the CRN 5-Star VIAVI Velocity Partner Program to enable our global VIAVI partners be more successful.

During the past year in EMEA, she has made a major enhancement in our channel coverage by introducing the 2-tier value-added Master Distributor model to the VIAVI Telecom Business. This model has enabled VIAVI to provide further coverage and value-added support to our resellers especially in the Middle East. In our Enterprise Business, our current Master Distributor network has successfully reached double digit growth. This past year, VIAVI EMEA partners have achieved solid growth leveraging our MDF program and enablement tools offered in the Velocity program.

Maribel has three major objectives for growing and strengthening the VIAVI channel business in 2018:

  1. Further expand our Enterprise partner network coverage in EMEA
  2. Implement the next-generation of Velocity incentives to offer a more flexible program for our partner with new benefits, rebates and more
  3. Influence and drive the best internal IT system support for Velocity so we can enable our partners and enhance their experience, boost their self-sufficiency and increase ease of doing business with VIAVI

 

“This accomplished group of leaders is steadily guiding the IT channel into a prosperous new era of services-led business models and deep, strategic partnerships,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “CRN’s 2018 Women of the Channel list honors executives who are driving channel progress through a number of achievements—exemplary partner programs, innovative product development and marketing, effective team-building, visionary leadership and accelerated sales growth—as well as advocacy for the next generation of women channel executives.”

VIAVI and its partners have truly benefited from Carol Ann and Maribel’s desire to create a successful channel partner program and we are extremely excited to see them receive this industry recognition.

The 2018 Women of the Channel list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/wotc.

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