Alliance of Channel Women, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of female leaders in the technology channel, awarded four awards to women who are “Living the Pledge” of women supporting women at a ceremony during the ACWConnect Live! Event at at Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Las Vegas.
thanks its outstanding volunteers with the fifth annual ACT Awards. Three ACW members were honored at a ceremony during the ACWConnect Live! Event today at Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Las Vegas.
Those recognized include:
- Big Impact Award – Kathy Flick, Senior Director, National Partners at Nextiva
- ACW Lifetime Achievement Award –
- The 2021 LEAD Award winners – Vivian Chavez, Senior Director, Channel Programs, Comcast Business; Kelly Danziger, General Manager, Vice President – Channel, Informa Tech; Theresa Garner, Director, North America – Cloud Partner Growth, Activation & Enablement, Avaya; Alicia Steward, Strategic Channel Manager, Zoom
- Outstanding Volunteers Award – Erin Knese, Senior Director, Channel Sales & Training, Vivial, and Member of the ACW Membership Committee; Kandi Philips, Loyalty Program Manager, Telarus, and Member of the ACW Membership and Events Committees; Michelle Young, Vice President, Sales, CrossRoad Technologies, and Co-Chair of the ACW Membership Committee
Flick was nominated by Trisha Coyle, Channel Sales Manager at MicroCorp, an AppSmart company. “[Kathy] is a natural-born leader with a sincere heart. She is all in every day, giving everything she has for her partners, co-workers and colleagues,” said Coyle. “I cannot think of a better person to open up ACW in the Charlotte market.” Read the full nomination.
Ridge was recognized for her tireless efforts in advocating for women in the technology channel.
Ridge, who is the founder and President of Ridge Innovative, was instrumental in founding ACW. Noticing a deficit of women in the tech channel, particularly in leadership, ownership or revenue-generating roles, Ridge began conversations among female channel leaders about developing a community and resource for like-minded professionals.
Soon after, in 2010, ACW was formed and became a not-for-profit organization. In the ensuing decade, ACW has become an established and respected organization dedicated to helping women in the channel succeed through education, mentoring and collaboration.
“Nancy is the epitome of leadership, as evidenced by her resolve to create a place like ACW to help others to be successful,” said ACW President Amy Bailey, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Telarus. “ACW is honoring Nancy Ridge for her dedication to empowering women to be leaders and innovators in our industry, along with her extensive personal success in the channel. She is a trusted friend and colleague, and we are privileged to have her as a pillar of our organization.”
Ridge draws from more than 20 years of success in the channel to help Ridge Innovative clients increase productivity and achieve their business outcomes through optimized technology. The company, which Ridge founded in 2019, also provides professional consulting and coaching for channel development and sales leadership. Previously, Ridge spent 14 years as Executive Vice President of Technology Source, where she built a partner program focused on helping agent partners take a strategic approach to grow their businesses.
“The LEAD Award is an honor given to women in tech who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation in the channel,” Bailey said. “All four of these women have shown outstanding leadership in the channel and ACW proudly recognizes their efforts with this award.”
LEAD Winners were selected by the ACW Board of Directors from nominations received from July 26- August 27, 2021. Nominations came from third parties or candidates themselves. All applicants were required to demonstrate leadership and innovation in the channel as well as support, advocacy and mentorship of women in the channel.
“Without the support of our member volunteers, ACW as an organization couldn’t function,” Baily said. “ACW is honoring these three women for making it possible for ACW to be successful. Erin, Kandi and Michelle have routinely gone above and beyond in supporting us, volunteering dozens, if not hundreds of hours of their time to help ACW reach its goals. We can’t thank them enough.”
ACT Award winners are selected annually by the ACW Board of Directors based on nominations from ACW Committee chairs.
ACW encourages women to go on record supporting the ACW Advocacy Pledge by signing its pledge page. In addition, the association is encouraging visitors to nominate women who are “living the pledge.”
The ACW Advocacy Pledge Program was started in 2020 by the ACW Advocacy Committee (now the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee) to encourage women to support other women. The full ACW Advocacy Pledge is “Behind Every Successful Woman is a Community of Successful Women Who Have Her Back.”
Third quarter Living the Pledge Nominees are:
- Trisha Coyle, Strategic Partner Manager, MicroCorp, an AppSmart company
- Natascha Lee, Director of Global Channel and Partner Marketing, TIBCO Software Inc.
- Maryann Pagano, CEO, BlackHawk Data
- Haley Heter, Senior Director of Cohesity Academy, Cohesity
For information about the ACW Pledge, visit: https://allianceofchannelwomen.org/acw-advocacy-pledge.
To learn more and to become a member, please visit www.allianceofchannelwomen.org.
