Three $1bn-plus-revenue vendors have talked up their commitment to the channel after this week unveiling new partner leaders.
Fresh from being named as Leaders in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for backup, Veeam and Commvault yesterday both announced new global channel supremos.
The former has poached its new leader from the latter, with ex Commvault SVP of Global Partners and Channels Michelle Graff taking on the same role at Veeam.
Commvault, meanwhile, has hired former SentinelOne channel head Brian Lanigan as its Chief Partner Officer. He is effectively a replacement for Graff, the vendor confirmed.
Veeam said its ARR stood at $1.7bn at the time of its latest equity offering in December 2024, which it claimed valued it at $15bn. It serves 555,000 customers, including 80% of the Fortune 500, and claims to work with “more than” 35,000 partners.
Fellow data protection ace Commvault saw its ARR rise 21% to $1.12bn in its fiscal 2026.
On Graff’s appointment, Veeam CRO John Jester claimed partners are “deeply rooted in the DNA of Veeam”.
“Michelle has a proven track record of putting partners first and building high-performance ecosystems that create durable advantage for partners and customers,” he stated.
Commvault President of Customer and Field Operations, Geoff Hayden, similarly claimed “partners are central to our growth strategy”.
“Brian brings significant cybersecurity expertise to Commvault and has a proven track record of building world-class partner programs and driving measurable business results,” he stated.
As if to get in on the $1bn-plus vendor exec-appointing action, cybersecurity vendor Sophos also this week unveiled Naveed Malik as Senior Director, EMEA MSP Channel Sales.
Sophos CEO Joe Levy last September told us Sophos’ ARR now exceeds $1.5bn in the wake of its $958m acquisition of SecureWorks.
Malik’s appointment reinforces Sophos’ long-term commitment to a partner-first, MSP-driven model, it claimed.
