The channel can be one of the most challenging landscapes for executives to navigate. As a leader in the channel you are expected to be a product expert, operations manager, marketing strategist, partner advocate, and field-sales supporter — all in the course of one day.

Those who rise to the top as innovative and effective Channel Chiefs aren’t just masters of this balancing act — they’re also constantly paving the way for impressive outcomes for  partners and customers.

Each year, The Channel Company evaluates the professional achievements and industry standing of these top leaders and honors the best of the best in their annual list of Channel Chiefs. We’re proud to announce that this year, our own Craig Stilwell, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partner Sales, Citrix, and Efrem Z. Stringfellow, Vice President Channels, Americas, Citrix, have been recognized on the 2019 CRN Channel Chiefs list. Congratulations to both!

We sat down with them to find out a little more about what their whirlwind year was like — and what they foresee for 2019.

Craig Stilwell, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partner Sales, Citrix

A Passion for Driving Results

With more than 24 years of technology experience, including 19 years at Citrix, Craig Stilwell has an extensive history in supporting partners, marketing, management renewal, and inside sales — as well as sales operations and field readiness. It has prepared him well: This is his second year on CRN’s Channel Chief list.

But long before his extraordinary tenure at Citrix, Stilwell recalls humble beginnings as a young kid bussing tables at the Village Inn, trying to balance his job with school and sports. It taught him early about the value of setting priorities and managing time. “It forced me to pick only the most important battles and to focus on the activities that most directly drove results.”

Stilwell’s innate knack for the endgame has served him well. Under his leadership, Stilwell’s team was honored with numerous awards in 2018, including CRN’s Software-Defined Data Center 50, Data Center 100, and a record-breaking 10 team members named to CRN’s 2018 Women of the Channel list.

“Craig has led Partner Sales for the past two years, during which time he radically simplified our programs and placed a major focus on Citrix Cloud—while also optimizing costs without disrupting our business,” says Mark Ferrer, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer, Citrix.

Overhaul of the Citrix Partner Program

If you want to drive results, first you need to remove the obstacles. Over the last two years, Stilwell has spearheaded the streamlining of the Citrix partner program, increasing process automation, as well as adding tracking capabilities. His goal: to give partners more time to work hand in hand with customers and to increase the overall transparency and consistency of the process.

The new partner program represents a major milestone in the history of channel innovation, with definitive results for partners — contributing to a 14 percent increase in partner productivity year over year since its launch.

“This simple, yet cohesive program has proven extremely profitable for partners who have made the move to cloud,” Stilwell says. “It has empowered them to sell more and focus on building business in a cloud-first era. From an IT perspective, the extremely flexible back end has allowed us to insert promotions or modify rebates without having to revamp the entire program. On our end, we’ve been able to welcome more and/or new born-in-the-cloud partners to the Citrix community. This program will help us remain flexible and agile as our offerings continue to evolve.”

Key Investments and Alliances in 2018

Last year, Stilwell increased resources around the Citrix Service Provider (CSP) program, and he points to India as a significant success story.

“In India, we made major investments, including introducing a dedicated regional team, expanding distribution, creating market-specific business conditions, and welcoming regional leadership. We’ve seen over 40 percent bookings growth in this part of the business.”

In addition, the Citrix and Microsoft relationship became even stronger in 2018, evidenced by the Cloud Alliance — a new, joint initiative which aims to help Citrix partners move their customers to the cloud. Citrix also became a Microsoft Direct Cloud Service Provider.

Channel Goals for the Year Ahead

As the industry continues to migrate to cloud, Stilwell feels the Citrix Cloud portfolio has been designed to ensure partner success, from solutions for customers to purchase and deploy digital workspaces, to networking solutions in Microsoft Azure. He feels strongly that now is the time for partners to shift their business models and is eager to recruit partners who are helping customers with digital transformation.

“Cloud is the key to partner success in 2019,” Stilwell says. “I encourage partners to start the new year with a growth mindset. Citrix has the tools, resources and training available to help partners transition to cloud as well as implement, position and maintain our newest offerings. Almost 500 partner organizations have at least one cloud certification today, and I expect that number to grow.”

Learn more on CRN or connect with Craig on LinkedIn and Twitter. Catch up on his latest blog!

Efrem Z. Stringfellow, Vice President Channels, Americas, Citrix

Originally responsible for Citrix’s Global System Integrator (GSI) business, Efrem Z. Stringfellow has been a powerhouse, creating and implementing go-to-market strategies that will add more than $100 million in incremental business across the joint business environments. In addition to being named the Americas channel leader in December 2018, his induction as a 2019 Channel Chief is testament to his outstanding leadership in promoting, defending, and executing outstanding channel partner programs.

Proudest Achievement

Over the last year, he and his team developed and implemented a global deal-registration process for all Systems Integrators and successfully integrated the GSI business into Citrix Worldwide Channels Program framework.

“Deal registration allows our Systems Integrators to identify opportunities and engage with our sales teams earlier in the process,” Stringfellow says. “As a result, we are better aligned in the customer environment with a more cohesive approach to closing business.”

In the Americas, he oversaw the rollout of new technical and sales Cloud learning paths and hosted Citrix Cloud and NetScaler Hands-On Workshops throughout North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America to bring partners up to speed on the latest Citrix Cloud offerings — and ways to attach Networking to deals.

Stringfellow also made key investments for top Systems Integrators, including Global Sales Directors, cloud marketing/promotion funding, and cloud certification training.

Removing Barriers to Success

Leading a global strategy often comes down to removing local roadblocks. For example, Stringfellow recalls one GSI who was struggling with the language barrier between their EMEA team and their Japanese headquarters team. Their quarterly business reviews (QBRs) and, more importantly, their Citrix go-to-market strategies had sometimes gone uncommunicated.

“I personally recruited a bilingual (English/Japanese) Global Sales Director to help bridge the gap between the two groups,” Stringfellow says, “including hosting joint QBRs for the teams to share information. The teams are now communicating and partnering more effectively on their solutions, both internally and with Citrix. This has led to an overall increase in revenue for both firms.”

Exciting New Initiatives

This year, Stringfellow’s team unveiled Citrix Partner KickStart in the Americas, a framework that gives partners easier access to Strategic Development Funds by simplifying the approval process, and including marketing and sales training to make demand generation efforts more successful.

“KickStart helps partners target the ‘top of the funnel,’ generating net-new demand and growing their business outside of referrals,” he says. “For Citrix, this shift increases the scale, effectiveness, execution speed, and ROI of through-partner marketing and enablement.”

Learn more on CRN or connect with Efrem on LinkedIn.

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