Zerto’s Jim Ortbals Named 2020 CRN Channel Chief
Boston, Mass., February 27, 2020 – Zerto, an industry leader for IT resilience, today announces that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Jim Ortbals, vice president of global cloud and channel, to its 2020 list of Channel Chiefs. This annual list recognizes the top vendor executives who continually demonstrate exemplary leadership, influence, innovation and growth for the IT channel.
Ortbals is a seasoned channel leader with nearly 20 years of experience in the technology industry, including ten years combined in the channel at VMware and Cisco. His expertise is in developing new routes to market, with strong skills in people development, partner development and partner-centric operational discipline.
Since introducing the managed service provider model in late 2012, Zerto has grown its cloud partner ecosystem to more than 450 managed service providers (MSPs). Zerto built on this momentum, enabling more hybrid partnership opportunities between Zerto’s traditional channel team—which consists of over 1,800 VARs and Systems Integrators—and the MSP teams.
In 2019, Ortbals led a strategic, global effort to localize engagements with partners by aligning channel account executives with each of the company’s sales regions across the globe. This realignment ensured each region had a dedicated channel manager to lead and drive the engagements with the channel and partner community. This new configuration has allowed for greater localized engagement with Zerto partners and proven beneficial in building stronger relationships with the partner community.
“It is my honor to be recognized as a CRN Channel Chief for the exceptional growth in Zerto’s channel program,” remarked Jim Ortbals, Zerto. “As vice president of global cloud and channel, I’m proud to have contributed to Zerto’s strong growth this year. Together, our team has implemented a strategic realignment of our MSP and Channel Partner ecosystems, unifying Zerto’s channel and cloud teams under the same leadership. This unification fostered a single, converged partner strategy that allows for maximum growth potential for all parties in the cloud-focused IT landscape.”
CRN’s 2020 Channel Chiefs list honors the distinguished leaders who have influenced the IT channel with cutting-edge strategies and partnerships. The 2020 Channel Chiefs have shown outstanding commitment, an ability to lead and a passion for progress within the channel through their partner programs. The Channel Chief honorees were chosen by the CRN editorial staff for their dedication, industry prestige and exceptional accomplishments in driving the channel agenda and evangelizing the importance of channel partnerships.
“The IT channel is undergoing constant evolution to meet customer demands and changing business environments,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “CRN’s Channel Chiefs work tirelessly, leading the industry forward through superior partner programs and strategies with a focus on helping solution providers transform and grow. Our team here at The Channel Company congratulates these outstanding individuals for their dedication to the channel.”
CRN’s 2020 Channel Chiefs list will be featured in the February 2020 issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/ChannelChiefs.
About The Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com
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The Channel Company Contact:
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The Channel Company
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About Zerto
Zerto helps customers accelerate IT transformation by reducing the risk and complexity of modernization and cloud adoption. By replacing multiple legacy solutions with a single IT Resilience Platform, Zerto is changing the way disaster recovery, data protection and cloud are managed. With enterprise scale, Zerto’s software platform delivers continuous availability for an always-on customer experience while simplifying workload mobility to protect, recover and move applications freely across hybrid and multi-clouds. Zerto is trusted globally by over 7,000 customers, works with more than 1,100 partners and is powering resiliency offerings for 450 managed services providers. Learn more at Zerto.com.
Media Contact
Touchdown PR
Derrick Shannon
512-373-8500
Zerto@touchdownpr.com