Channel Development Advisory Council

Kris Blackmon

Chair

Head of Channel Communities,
Zift Solutions

Kris Blackmon

Head of Channel Communities, Zift Solutions

Kris Blackmon is Head of Channel Communities at Zift Solutions, where she leads content strategies, thought leadership initiatives, and building Zift's community ecosystem. A veteran of the indirect sales channel, Kris has extensive experience in event programming, editorial and content creation, research and analysis, and developing go-to-market strategies for organizations in the indirect channel. Kris is a member of CompTIA’s Channel Development Advisory Council, producing thought leadership for vendors and partners. She sits on the board of Xposure Inclusion and Diversity Council, received the Alliance of Channel Women’s LEAD award, was honored on Channel Futures’ DEI 101 list, and was awarded the Advancing Diversity in Technology Spotlight Award from CompTIA. 

Ray Orsini

Chair

CEO,
OIT, LLC

Ray Orsini

CEO, OIT, LLC

Experienced Chief Executive Officer of OITVOIP with a demonstrated history of working in the telecommunications industry. Champion for the MSP community, Moderator of the MSP Subreddit (r/msp) with over 114k members, featured speaker on process and procedure and Expert at generating sticky VoIP revenue for IT professionals. Strong business development professional with a Masters of Engineering focused in Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications from DeVry University-Florida.

Vicky Bruns

Vice Chair

Manager of Ecosystem,
ConnectWise

Vicky Bruns

Manager of Ecosystem, ConnectWise

Vicky embarked on her career at ConnectWise in 2015, marking the beginning of her journey into the channel. Since then, she has played a crucial role in facilitating vendor partnership onboarding, sales, and operations within the ConnectWise Ecosystem. In 2020, as the pandemic unfolded, Vicky took on additional responsibilities, including helping to manage partner experience and strategy for the ConnectWise eCommerce Marketplace. Thanks to her team's guidance, the Marketplace has experienced an impressive 72% year-over-year growth in 2023, underscoring the significance of digital marketplaces as the preferred interaction method between buyers and suppliers. Presently, Vicky holds the position of Manager for the ConnectWise Marketplace Concierge and Vendor Specialist teams. Her primary focus revolves around leading customer adoption and expansion for a diverse range of third-party products and services within the global ConnectWise IT Nation community.

Tim Coach

Global Channel Chief,
Pia

Tim Coach

Global Channel Chief, Pia

Tim Coach, Pia’s Global Channel Chief, is focused on bringing new technology to MSPs to help increase the efficiency of a single employee all the way to an entire department; as well as to relieve the burden of current labor issues. He has been in IT for the last several decades and most recently in the MSP arena. Whether he has been rebuilding MSPs or as a consultant, his main focus was to help businesses achieve their overall vision.  Tim has worked in all facets of the channel from being a client, to a vendor, from helpdesk to MSP executive, to Channel Chief. He is passionate about MSPs, with his driving vision being to assist MSP owners to take their businesses to the next level.  When not speaking at channel events, you can find him curating his expansive whiskey collection or riding his motorcycle. 

Bob Coppedge

CEO,
Simplex-IT

Bob Coppedge

CEO, Simplex-IT

With over 40 years’ experience in IT, Bob has worn just about every hat there is. Developer, Network Engineer, IT Director, CIO (Chief Information Officer), Consultant and, since 2007 CEO of Simplex-IT. He created Simplex-IT, an IT Managed Services Provider (https://Simplex-IT.com) to be the “good guys” in the IT world, making IT work for businesses with or without internal IT departments. Simplifying the Complex. Simplex-IT. Bob has authored three books “A CEO’s Survival Guide to Information Technology”, “The MSP’s Survival Guide to Co-Managed IT services”, and his latest “I Don’t Want Your Job: Is Co-Managed IT services the Right fit for You?”. A sought-after speaker, Bob speaks at about 20 events annually frequently on Co-Managed IT services (or "CoMITs"), including IT Nation, MSP World, DattoCon, and more. You’ll immediately get a feel for Bob’s style of delivery. Bob is known for a no-nonsense but humorous style of delivery, getting right to the point of critical topics. He has an uncanny ability to take a complicated topic and break it down into simple components. The topic? He takes seriously. Himself? Not so much. Bob can translate the technical “geeky” side of IT to business folks and understands the needs of business.

J.B. Fowler

Chief Product Officer,
Domotz, Inc.

J.B. Fowler

Chief Product Officer, Domotz, Inc.

J.B. Fowler is the Chief Product Officer for Domotz, Inc., a SaaS-based company that helps managed service providers, IT departments and integrators run their business more efficiently using Remote Network Monitoring and Management. J.B. has over 20 years of experience in the Audio/Video Networking industries, including a couple of years as VP of Business Development with Luxul, several years with Control4 as a Product Manager of their Controller and Audio/Video products and more than a decade with Texas Instruments, Managing their Video Communications and VoIP Telephony Product Lines. With a wife and two young boys, free time is rare. That said, living in Utah provides J.B. with the opportunity to pursue some outdoor hobbies, including Mountain Biking in the summer, Skiing in the winter and driving his motorcycle the rest of the year.

Heather Harlos

Sr. Director of Global Partner Enablement and Program,
Proofpoint

Heather Harlos

Sr. Director of Global Partner Enablement and Program, Proofpoint

Heather has been helping companies optimize their business operations and go-to-market strategies for over 15 years. Before joining Proofpoint, she served in multiple global roles for Fortune 500 companies, helping them create live experiences, leverage modern digital platforms, build strategic partner programs, and empower their customers to thrive. In her free time, she trains hunter/jumper horses and actually could ride before she could walk.

Joshua Jones

VP of Sales,
Tevora

Joshua Jones

VP of Sales, Tevora

Cyber Security executive with 19 years experience helping to solve security challenges in large enterprise environments.

Michelle McBain

Vice President, North American Channels,
SonicWall

Michelle McBain

Vice President, North American Channels, SonicWall

Michelle Ragusa-McBain is a highly visible thought leader in the global technology channel and serves as Vice President, North America Channel Chief at SonicWall. Her mission is to enable partners to grow and profit with the boundless shift to cybersecurity.

Entrepreneur Magazine named her as one of the top 4 people to inspire women to pursue a career in Tech, SMB Magazine recognized her one of the 150 most influential people in the global IT Business Community. CRN named Ragusa-McBain amongst 2022 Women of the Channel. CompTIA named her Advancing Women in Technology Leader 2021, and Channel Futures awarded her the Circle of Excellence for Channel Leadership & Innovation and DE&I 101 award, and recipient of the prestigious Cisco Worldwide Innovation and Growth Award.

Michelle has keynoted the largest and most influential technology conferences globally including Channel Partners, CRN, CompTIA, IT Nation, and Kaseya. In her free time, she is a passionate advocate for Women, Diversity and Inclusion in Technology. Michelle serves as Chair Emeritus of Advancing Women in Technology for CompTIA, sat on the board of CRN’s Women of the Channel, is Co-Founder of Tech Worlds Half non-profit; a longstanding member of the National Women in Technology Group and most recently serves as Florida Leader for Alliance of Channel Women.

In her free time, she loves spending quality time with her husband, daughters Brooklyn and Cali, and ever growing fur kids including Husky, Auggie-Doggy, Calico Kitten, Luna-Meow and fish Strawberry and Blueberry. She loves volunteering and giving back to various organizations including American Heart Association and Ronald McDonald House. She is a passionate wanderlust who loves traveling the world with her family 90 countries to date, and all 7 continents!

Rafael Sanguily

Vice President of Strategic Alliances,
Glasshive

Rafael Sanguily

Vice President of Strategic Alliances, Glasshive

Rafael got his start in IT industry sales in 2006 where he built and managed teams that produced millions in recurring revenue. His ability to run a successful team led to teaching and consulting opportunities within the industry’s largest international brands. Through years of working with the industry's top vendors, distributors, and partners, he began to see that many IT Companies experienced the same challenges when it came to revenue growth: insufficient marketing skills.

This led Rafael to work with his brother Gio in developing TRIdigital Marketing. He filled a consultative role for IT companies and vendors while spearheading hundreds of creative projects and go-to-market strategies, generating millions in revenue. As services grew with the opportunity to provide to even more IT companies, Gio and TRIdigial Marketing envisioned and then crafted GlassHive, a sales and marketing Work OS explicitly developed for the IT industry.

To date, Rafael has helped thousands of IT companies and vendors transform their sales and marketing during his career. His expertise has helped tech companies across 29 countries generate over 100,000 leads and over $900,000,000 in new sales revenue, making him one of the most sought-after sales and marketing consultants in the IT industry.

Mark Sondergaard

Channel Chief/VP of Sales,
EnTelegent Solutions

Mark Sondergaard

Channel Chief/VP of Sales, EnTelegent Solutions

Dynamic, entrepreneurial sales management strategist with a 30+ year record of achievement and demonstrated success driving substantial sales growth while providing award-winning sales leadership in highly competitive markets. Adept at driving growth of company revenues and improving sales-team / channel performance. Exceptional mentor and coach. Tenacious in building new business, securing customer loyalty, and forging strong relationships with external business partners.

Marnie Stockman

CEO,
Lifecycle Insights

Marnie Stockman

CEO, Lifecycle Insights

Marnie Stockman, Ed.D. started her career in Customer Success with the toughest customers of all - high school math students. Her passion for education and using data and humor to help others grow and succeed took her from the classroom to Sr. Director of Customer Success of a leading Ed Tech company - and now co-founder and former CEO of Lifecycle Insights - a vCIO/Customer Success platform for MSPs. With her default setting locked on "Smiles," she aims to create raving fans for Lifecycle Insights and help MSPs do the same for their customers. She strongly believes your clients’ success becomes your success. When she isn't Lifecycling, she can be found playing volleyball with her husband and two 20-something kids in Greensboro, MD.

David Ta

Executive Director, Marketing,
Ingram Micro

David Ta

Executive Director, Marketing, Ingram Micro

A 10-year veteran of Ingram Micro, David serves as the Executive Director, U.S. Marketing and leads the vendor marketing accounts team for Ingram Micro U.S.

Agency Ingram Micro focuses on data, digital and differentiation to bring innovative marketing services to IT manufacturers, solution providers and Ingram Micro business units. David and his team work to bring timely services, with real ROI, to help businesses grow in ways they haven't imagined.

Prior to coming to Ingram, David spent six years in the banking industry, which he attests has much to do with his success as an Account Marketing leader.

David holds a BA in Marketing Management from California State University, Los Angeles. Outside of work, David enjoys collecting sneakers, he is an avid golfer, and a devoted Lakers fan. But nothing fulfills David more than his family. David is married and has a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old daughter.

Henry Timm

CEO,
Phantom Technology Solutions

Henry Timm

CEO, Phantom Technology Solutions

Henry Timm serves as the CEO of Phantom Technology Solutions, a Managed IT Services provider formed in 2010 based in Rolling Prairie, Indiana serving partners located throughout the Midwest United States. Henry's passion for solving complex problems has led to an extensive career working in IT leadership, networking, support & software development positions. Building on his experiences previously working for both a network of hospitals and a large distribution company, he founded Phantom Technology Solutions in 2010 which has grown into one of the area's leading security centric technology service providers. In recent years, Henry has focused on heavily engaging with leading industry vendors, events, associations, and peer groups to try and take an intentionally active role in the future direction of the industry and assisting others in growing their own organizations. This led to the formation of a tech community with his peers known as The Tech Degenerates. The Tech Degenerates aims to create an agnostic and diverse community as well as industry tools focused on driving all sides of the channel onwards, upwards, together. This all follows years of philanthropy and service to his local community serving on the boards for several nonprofits, associations, and state government sponsored economic development organizations.

Henry has been nominated for or named as an awardee for several local and regional honors including the Michiana Forty Under 40 list, and recently oversaw Phantom Technology Solution's making CRN's 2022/2023/2024 MSP 500 list.

Travis Woods

CEO,
Fort Point IT

Travis Woods

CEO, Fort Point IT

Building relationships is core to Travis’ business experience. For the past 15 years, he’s fostered new and existing relationships to grow sales and build a thriving managed IT services practice (MSP). He transcends typical transactional relationships with vendors by aligning their success with his ability to deliver high-value IT service to his company’s clients.

In his quest to expand his industry knowledge and experience, he serves as Vice-Chairman of The Channel Company’s NexGen Advisory board to help to create a conference that identifies new technology and business trends essential to successful MSPs. He’s a member of the Pax8 Advisory Council, serving to help strengthen the service and relationships between the distributor, vendors, and MSP partners.

Recognized for his industry leadership and experience, Travis is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and panel discussions. The topics he’s discussed include, “MSP Branding and Marketing for the Future”, “State of Cloud Market Places”, and “Driving Revenue with Addigy Mac Management.”