Amy Abatangle
Untangle, Inc.
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Sunnyvale, CA
http://www.untangle.com
Years In Current Position: 3
Years In The Channel: 20
Highlights of the past year:
I'm a sales and marketing executive with nearly twenty years experience building direct and partner channels for top B2B and consumer brands including Apple, Oracle, Women.com and VeriSign. I currently lead sales and marketing at Untangle, a network software and appliance company. This year has been one of huge change and growth for the company and our 800+ channel partners worldwide. Within the past six months, we have completed a merger with security company Total Defense and acquired two network management companies, Cymphonix and eSoft. It's been a tremendous year pursuing this aggressive growth strategy, a new direction for the company. It comes with challenges such as integrating the channel programs, sales teams and marketing departments. While our channel partners are fiercely loyal to the products they represent, they are also wonderful when it comes to broadening their offerings with new products that fit the evolving needs of their customers. We're thrilled to have moved from having a single product offering to having a suite of offerings with more coming this year.
What do you hope to accomplish next year?
Working through issues around the M&A process has reinforced just how critical a healthy, flexible approach to channel management has been. We pride ourselves on offering a low barrier-to-entry channel program with a level playing field for VARs large and small. We understand how busy our partners are as business owners, sales people, technicians and thought leaders. While we value the traditional "relationship" model, we've found increasing demand for "self-service". We'll spend the next year expanding our focus on self-service, which currently includes selling direct-to-channel from our website, as well as offering a deal registry, sales tools and more.
What programs/initiatives does your company offer to support women in the workplace?
Untangle places high value on having a diverse workforce that shares the company's values: drive, creativity and innovation. That includes hiring the best of the best, regardless of gender, age, race or even location. We have a geographically distributed team that works across time zones and oceans via VOIP, video conferencing, collaborative software and other tools. In addition to giving Untangle access to top talent, this workplace flexibility helps everyone, men and women, blend work and home life_something absolutely critical in an intense, high-growth environment.
Female role model:
Martha Stewart is an exceptional, often underrated, executive. She was smart and flexible enough to move seamlessly from modeling and student life to Wall Street to reinventing herself through her personal interests, which she parlayed into a media and lifestyle product empire. As a woman of my mother's generation, Ms. Stewart defied gender norms at a time when women were just beginning to come into their own in the workforce. I admire her fearlessness, grace, authenticity, drive and passion. She also has shown incredible tenacity and staying power, a valuable lesson today when too many corporate women are "mommy-tracked".
What advice would you give to young women aspiring to succeed in the workplace?
Never stop learning, embrace change, and don't typecast yourself. The rapid pace of change demands flexibility. While I was a 22-year old doctoral fellow in English Literature and Theory at Columbia University, I taught myself HTML, web server administration and Unix. While those were geeky interests then, I was later able to exploit those skills to land pioneering roles in e-commerce, web development and sales operations at companies including Apple, Oracle, Women.com and VeriSign. Today's women can expect to not only change jobs many times over the course of their careers, but also pivot career direction as well.
What was your first job?
My first job was bagging groceries part-time at fifteen. I quickly learned uncomfortable lessons about standing for hours, punching the clock, and paying union dues and taxes. I gained valuable skills while keeping up with demand during peak periods like the five o'clock pre-dinner rush -- how to smile and make small talk when I didn't really feel like it. I learned that people appreciated it when I didn't crush a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs -- the basics of customer service. I've taken that customer focus with me throughout my career.
What is your favorite charity and why is it meaningful to you?
My husband, son and I love being outdoors. I'm lucky enough to live in the San Francisco Bay area, which has one of the best regional park and open space systems in the country. I believe outdoor education and enjoyment is an important part of what we can teach our children. There's no better way to stay fit, reduce stress and balance all of our "screen time" than being outside. We are avid supporters of local charities like the East Bay Regional Parks and Tahoe Fund, as well as the National Park Foundation and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.