Company Updates

Women at Dell Praised for their Work in the Channel

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For the fifth consecutive year, Dell executives have been recognized by CRN as the top Women of the Channel. CRN bestows the honor on female executives across vendor channel organizations, distributors and solution providers for their accomplishments over the past year, and the far-reaching impact they are having on the technology industry going forward. This year, we’re delighted to announce that five Dell team members were honored on the Women of the Channel list, including three who also were named to Power 100 list which recognizes a select subset of the CRN Women of the Channel based on their rank, influence, channel-savvy, and exceptional achievements.

Dell Women of the Channel - Pictured left to right: Cheryl Cook, Mary Catherine Wilson, Heather Wilcox and Christa Heath

(Pictured left to right: Cheryl Cook, Mary Catherine Wilson, Heather Wilcox and Christa Heath)

I’m excited to celebrate our female leaders with this honor, as Dell is deeply committed to increasing the number of women in technology-focused roles, and we’re working hard to expand opportunities across the IT industry more generally. Having women in leadership is critical not just to exploring new ideas and creating innovation, but it’s also had a direct effect on performance and positive impact on the bottom line at Dell, which is why we’re invested heavily in supporting women, both inside of Dell through groups such as Wise, and externally with initiatives such as the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network and partnerships with organizations such as the UN Foundation and Catalyst.

This honor is the latest in a long list of awards the Channel team has won so far this year. The award-winning PartnerDirect Program is a proud recipient of CRN’s 2015 Top Data Center Infrastructure Provider, Business Solutions magazine Best Channel Vendor 2015 in the Network Security category, 5-Star rating in CRN’s 2015 Partner Program Guide, and Dell Channel leaders, Cheryl Cook, Jim DeFoe, Frank Vitagliano and Marvin Blough all were named 2015 CRN Channel Chiefs.

Many of our team members were named to CRN’s Women of the Channel list again this year, making it at least the second consecutive year that they’ve been named:

  • Cheryl Cook, Vice President, Global Channels & Alliances – This is Cook’s second year making this list as well as named to the exclusive Power 100 list. Since assuming the position of Dell’s Channel Chief in November 2013, Cook has been focused on adding value to the PartnerDirect program and providing the technology, tools and strength of the Dell brand to make it easier for partners to bring innovative IT solutions to customers. She has dialed up training and incentives that give partners greater economic value than competitors. For instance, Dell has delivered Greenfield discounts to 45,000 North American Registered Partners and offered more front-end/back-end program credits.
  • Christa Heath, Sales Director, Global Commercial Channel – This is also Heath’s second year on the Power 100 list. Heath is focused on making it easier for the channel to work with Dell and accelerating growth of both Dell and channel partners. Heath launched a Channel Evangelism initiative to train Dell direct teams on partner capabilities and directed Dell’s investment in on-site resources at select partner sites to enhance support for those partners selling Dell solutions.
  • Mary Catherine Wilson, Director of Channel Marketing & Programs – Wilson has been with Dell for 16 years, and this is her sixth year on the Power 100 list. She has played a critical role in new programs including adding new financial incentives for Dell direct sales to work with the channel and the alignment of sales and marketing teams across direct and channel to foster deeper collaboration.
  • Heather Wilcox, Rugged Mobility Marketing Director – Wilcox has made this list several times and played a critical role in the launch of Dell’s Rugged Strategic Channel program, that led to the recruitment of  partners to expand Dell’s rugged mobility solutions and introduce distribution programs for the rugged products.

Beth VillapandoCRN also recognized another team member for the first time with the Women of the Channel honor for her breakout performance over the past year:

  • Beth Villalpando, Channel Marketing Director for Distribution – Villalpando made this list for the first time this year for her outstanding work growing the distribution team.

Additionally, CRN recognized outstanding female executives at numerous Dell channel partners. Congratulations to the outstanding women both at Dell and Dell’s channel partner companies who were honored!

About the Author: Rory Read

Rory P. Read is Chief Integration Officer of Dell, responsible for leading the combination of Dell and EMC to create the leading end-to-end technology company capable of delivering unmatched solutions to customers worldwide. In this capacity, he oversees the integration of Dell and EMC, sets the strategy and leads the cross-functional teams which are managing due diligence and integration planning. Prior to this role, Rory served as chief operating officer and president of worldwide commercial sales for Dell, where he was responsible for cross-business unit and country-level operational planning; building and leading Dell’s best-in-class sales engine; and overseeing the strategy for the company’s global channel team, system integrator partners and direct sales force. Rory has more than three decades of relevant industry experience with global technology companies. Before joining Dell, he served as chief executive officer and president at AMD, as well as a member of the company’s board of directors. During his tenure, he diversified the company’s portfolio to produce revenue from new high-growth markets, generating $2 billion in new businesses, initiated next generation Zen chip architecture, lowering costs by more than 30 percent and restructuring debt profile. Previously, Rory served as chief operating officer and president at Lenovo, where he was responsible for driving growth, execution, profitability and performance across a global 500 enterprise encompassing more than 160 countries. Additionally, Rory spent 23 years at IBM, serving in various leadership roles in the Asia-Pacific region and globally. Rory graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in information sciences from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.