The Alliance, the channel partner industry organization that brings together agents, VARs, managed services providers, IT consultants and cloud specialists, has announced its 2014-2015 slate of board members and officers.
Elected at the Alliance’s annual meeting in June 2014, the lineup brings a new officer to the mix, Microcorp CEO and COO Karin Fields, who will serve as secretary-treasurer. Also, the elections add both Fields and Cloud Taskforce managing director David Sebestyen to the Executive Committee.
“Our industry is standing on the brink of a huge moment,” said Bill Power, Alliance CEO. “Change and convergence are rocking partner business models—and offering huge opportunities. I couldn’t be happier with our leadership team, who I’m confident will steer the Alliance forward and provide just the guidance needed in a changing landscape.”
“I am thrilled to be on the Executive Committee as the industry kicks into growth overdrive,” Fields added. “Our industry is morphing into something new and exciting, and being a part of the Alliance allows us to share ideas that foster strength for our community and our respective businesses.”
Over the next year, the Alliance said that it will continue to aggressively grow its membership and service provider relationships, embracing next-gen hosted and cloud offerings, and the intersection between IT and traditional telecom.
“The Alliance is focused on sharing key insights, business processes, go-to-market strategies and know-how to help members build and grow the compute side of their cloud practices,” said Sebestyen. “We will drive multiple new initiatives that increase our value to both technology end-user businesses and technology suppliers, and position the Alliance as core technology advisor to businesses ranging from SMBs to the Fortune 500.”
Meanwhile, Richard Murray, president of CarrierSales and current chairman of the Alliance, has taken a special role within the organization to help maximize the diversity of the group.
“We are in a great position as a group to bring on one or two new strategic members this year,” said Murray. “No other group in the industry has the collective mind share and experience at one table to be able to offer a stabilizing voice combined with proven performance. Whether it is emerging cloud providers or industry convergence with the VAR community, the Alliance is poised—and will continue to be—a leading advocate for sales partners and customers.”
The 2014-2015 Alliance Partners Board of Directors
Jim Butler, Telechoice www.telechoice.net
Karin Fields, Microcorp www.microcorp.com
Gene Foster, Communications Management Services www.cmstelcom.com
Jon Foster, Fostar Inc. www.fostar.com
David Gardner, Advantage Communications www.oneadvantage.com
Robert Hayes, eXemplify Group www.exemplifygroup.com
Ben Humphreys, Comtel Communications www.comtelcommunications.com
Ian Kieninger, Avant Communications, Inc. www.avantcommunications.net
Richard Murray, CarrierSales www.carriersales.com
Darcee Nelan, IQ Wired, Inc. www.iqwired.net
Greg Praske, ARG www.myarg.com
Denis Raue, Telegration, Inc. www.telegration.net
David Sebestyen, Cloud Taskforce LLC www.cloudtaskforce.com
Ted Schuman, PlanetOne Communications www.planetone.net
The 2014-2015 Alliance Partners Executive Committee & Officers
Richard Murray, Chairman
David Gardner, Vice Chairman
Karin Fields, Secretary/Treasurer
Jim Butler
Ben Humphreys
Greg Praske
David Sebestyen
Bill Power, CEO
Additional Alliance members are: ABS Telecom, ECT Telecom, Global Systems Telecom and SelecTel.
