Leadership Roundup: July Adjustments to Executive Benches

We’re halfway through 2025 and the channel has seen some significant changes in leadership roles over the course of the first seven months of the year.

July is filled with new C-suite promotions and channel leadership updates. Here’s a quick review of some of the signature moves we saw:

Channel Vet Frank Rauch Joins Morphisec

Following his retirement from the channel in January 2025, industry veteran Frank Rauch has joined Morphisec as an Advisory Board Member.

The channel vet brings several decades of experience in direct sales, channel leadership, and strategy to the role.

“Morphisec’s commitment to excellence, execution, and success aligns perfectly with my passion for driving growth and building exceptional teams,” said Rauch. “From the moment JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners) introduced me to Ron Reinfeld, Morphisec CEO, I knew this was a great fit. The company’s prevention-first approach to cybersecurity and its dedication to channel partnerships are unmatched, and I am excited to join the team to help catapult its progress to the next level.”

Adding a channel vet to their advisory board coincides with Morphisec’s push to expand its channel presence, as it recently expanded its KICKSTART Channel Program.

Pipefy announces new COO and Chief Sales Officer

Process and AI-powered workflow automation platform Pipefy has made two additions to its leadership team, appointing Fabio Azevedo as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Cristiano Lamberti as Chief Sales Officer.

Azevedo was recently serving as Managing Director, Brazil for Accenture, while Lamberti comes over from Oracle Brazil, where he served as COO and Head of Global Accounts.

“We’re doubling down on the strategic partnerships already established between Pipefy and companies like Oracle and Accenture,” said Alessio Alionço, Founder and CEO of Pipefy. “Fabio and Cristiano are highly respected leaders, and their arrival from those organizations is an intentional move to accelerate our presence and relevance within these ecosystems.”

Pipefy has recently announced strategic partnerships with Accenture and Oracle, focusing on the adoption of Gen AI. Pipefy developed over 450 AI agents for Accenture that led to a 60 percent increase in process efficiency. Meanwhile, the partnership with Oracle has enabled Oracle customers to acquire Pipefy directly via the Oracle Marketplace.

Catherine Solazzo appointed new Appfire CMO

Global provider of enterprise apps connecting platforms, Appfire, has named Catherine Solazzo as its Chief Marketing Officer.

With over 20 years of global experience leading modern marketing functions, digital transformation, and channel development at companies like Syntax, TD SYNNEX, and IBM, Solazzo will work to advance Appfire’s global marketing strategy, brand expansion, go-to-market acceleration, and community engagement.

“I could not be more excited to join the Appfire team,” said Solazzo. “I look forward to leveraging my experience across partner, developer, and digital ecosystems to drive scale across our portfolio. The Appfire marketing function will become a key growth catalyst for the company by strengthening our go-to-market execution, engagement with our partner ecosystem, and deepening our commitment to the developer community.”

Solazzo will report directly to newly appointed CEO Matt Dircks.

Netrio names Dave Costa as Chief Customer Officer, Jamie Wolbeck promoted

Netrio, a full-service IT MSP, recently named Dave Costa as Chief Customer Officer, expanding its Customer Success Team.

Costa will be positioned to oversee Netrio’s team, focusing on standardizing account management programs, formalizing client touchpoints, and providing strategic advisory services and project management governance.

“At Netrio, we’re constantly evolving to enhance the customer experience and serve as a true extension of our customers’ teams,” said Costa. “We’re investing more resources in our Customer Success team because delivering exceptional service is at the heart of everything we do. Small- and medium-sized enterprises have unique technology and service requirements, and we want to assist them with the right combination of local, high-touch service and global scale.”

Additionally, Netrio announced that Jamie Wolbeck would be promoted to Senior Vice President of Strategic Advisors, focusing on expanding Netrio’s role as a trusted advisor, aligning services with business and technology goals, and ensuring customers attain maximum value with their Netrio partnership.

Coro announces Joe Sykora as new CEO

Coro, a channel-focused security vendor, recently announced that it was transitioning co-founder Guy Moskowitz into a new role as president, while promoting revenue executive Joe Sykora to CEO.

“This eventual transition is something that we talked about when I was coming aboard, and in some ways, I’ve been grooming myself for this for a long time,” said Sykora. “Still, I’m so grateful to everyone for the trust placed in me and the opportunities ahead for Coro and our partners.”

In conversation with Channel Insider, Sykora said that he will continue to champion the channel from his new CEO position and focus on a total alignment around how to meet the needs of partners while growing the network of partners leveraging Coro worldwide.

“I want to make sure all of our channel partners can consume our product the way they want to. We have a platform that can scale with MSPs and simplify security management for them and their customers,” said Sykora.

HPE names new Channel Networking Sales Lead

HPE recently named a new Channel Networking Sales Lead by appointing Gordon Mackintosh to the position.

Mackintosh will join the HPE team as Vice President, WW Channel & Partner Ecosystem Networking Sales, having previously served as head of Channel and Commercial Sales at Juniper Networks.

“I have been lucky to spend some time with Gordon recently, and we share a passion for partners and the role they play in shaping the industry and enabling growth for both HPE and Juniper,” said Simon Ewington, WW Channel and Partner Ecosystem Leader, HPE via LinkedIn. “I’m excited to see how Gordon’s compelling vision and leadership will inspire and elevate our channel networking efforts moving forward.”

Snowflake names Chris Niederman as new Channel Head

AI data cloud company, Snowflake, has named Chris Niederman as their new Senior Vice President of Alliances & Channels.

Niederman will lead Snowflake’s global channel and partner ecosystem, while driving growth and collaboration through the Snowflake AI Data Cloud.

“Throughout my career, I’ve seen how a thriving partner ecosystem and partner-led growth directly impact customer success,” said Niederman. “Snowflake’s partners are at the forefront of innovation, extending the power of the AI Data Cloud and enabling our joint customers to unlock maximum value from their data and drive business outcomes. I look forward to getting to work, meeting our partners and customers in the field, and deepening these critical relationships to accelerate our joint successes.”

Niederman brings over 30 years of technology experience, most recently spending 11 years at AWS, prior to joining Snowflake.

“Chris’s unparalleled experience pioneering partner-led growth for major industry players is a game-changer,” said Mike Gannon, CRO, Snowflake. “I’m incredibly excited to aggressively scale Snowflake’s business via this ecosystem, and  thrilled Chris’s leadership will propel our alliances and channels program to its next phase of exponential growth.”

Pegasystems finds new Global Partners Lead

Pegasystems, an enterprise AI decisioning and workflow automation company, has added industry vet, Daniel Kasun, as head of global partner ecosystem.

Kasun will lead the strategic evolution of Pega’s partner ecosystem to help clients accelerate their legacy transformation journeys through strategic partnerships. 

“The momentum of generative and agentic AI has created tremendous opportunity, particularly for modernization of legacy systems,” said Kasun. “Pega is extremely well positioned to help enterprise customers leverage those AI advancements to meet their transformation goals, and a robust, effective partner ecosystem is critical to ensuring that customer success. I’m honored to join such a great company and strong community of partners, and I look forward to revolutionizing the industry together.”

Kasun comes over from AWS, where he built and led partner organizations that delivered high-growth co-sales in the public sector and financial services industries, focusing on helping independent software vendors (ISVs). Additionally, he spent 18 years at Microsoft.

Chainguard finds new CFO & CISO

Software development and deployment, Chainguard, announced the appointment of Quincy Castro as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Eyal Bar as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Further, the organization will be promoting Grace Shell to Vice President of People.

“Quincy and Eyal are joining Chainguard at a pivotal time for the company. Organizations from the Fortune 500 to government agencies to the fastest-growing AI startups are turning to Chainguard to reduce engineering toil and security risks so they can get back to building and innovating for their customers,” said Dan Lorenc, CEO and Co-founder, Chainguard. “As we enter this next phase of growth, Quincy will help us continue to deliver trustworthy security outcomes for our customers and the broader software supply chain ecosystem, and Eyal will bring even more operational excellence and rigor across the business. Plus, they’re both awesome people and a lot of fun to work with.”

Castro will be responsible for leading Chainguard’s security strategy and posture across IT, information security, and product security. As CFO, Bar will oversee the company’s financial strategy, operations, and planning as the company accelerates its go-to-market efforts and global expansion.

“Chainguard is one of those rare companies offering a better, faster, cheaper trifecta that makes it a no-brainer for organizations at every stage of growth,” said Castro. “As AI changes how software is built and infrastructure is managed, Chainguard is even better positioned for the future as it helps secure these highly ephemeral environments.”

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