We’re excited to share that today Barracuda announced several strategic channel roles to strengthen the partner experience and help drive success within the channel ecosystem. One of these important new additions to our channel team is Maria Martinez, VP of Channels, Americas. Martinez brings more than 20 years of channel experience, including how to accelerate channel sales growth and enhance program development.
To help you get to know Maria a little better, we recently sat down with her to talk about what interested her in Barracuda, her goals for the year ahead, and what she’s looking forward to working on with the channel team and our partners.
Q&A with Maria Martinez, VP of Channels, Americas
What drew you to Barracuda?
Cybersecurity is a critical need for businesses of all sizes, and I wanted to join a channel-led organization in this space. After being approached by Barracuda, I did some research and was impressed by the fantastic awards that Barracuda has won, both for its culture and its products. Most companies say they have a great corporate culture, or they have great products, but Barracuda has the validation to back up these claims.
Looking at the quality of Barracuda’s products, the way the channel is being prioritized, and the investments the company is making, you can tell that Barracuda’s executive team have made a decision to invest in channel partnerships and driving success in the channel ecosystem. Through the hiring of Jason Beal who leads global channel ecosystems, as well as new channel SAs, it’s easy to see they’re following through. I could tell Barracuda was going to be a good fit for what I was looking for, and it’s an exciting time to be joining the team as we work on strengthening the partner experience.
What impressions have you gotten working with the team so far?
The folks here at Barracuda are team oriented and seek to help others be successful. Barracuda’s core values are think customer, drive innovation, take ownership, deliver outcomes, and succeed together. My initial impressions are that Barracuda lives by these core values, and succeed together comes through in how supportive the team members have been through the onboarding process.
What do you hope to accomplish in the coming year?
My primary goal is to continue to elevate the partner experience, increase the partner enablement from a technical perspective, and make our interactions more outcome-based for our partner community. In the channel, it’s common meet with a partner, leave, and then when you connect again in 90 days, what’s happened? My intention is to bring outcome-based interactions with our partners to help ensure that our engagement is elevated and drives outcomes.
What are you most excited to get to work on with the team?
Barracuda has not had a dedicated channel SA team previously, and I’m really excited about the investment to create this team and to weave that technical enablement into our existing structures to help support partner community.
What do you enjoy most about working with the channel?
What I love about working in the channel is that we are creating long-term relationships that drive growth. It’s not a one-time meeting to get the sale and you’re done. It’s 25-year relationships that make it so much easier to be effective through the strong relationships that you establish throughout the length of the partnership. The partner knows that they can count on you to help grow their business.
What do you like to do in your spare time? Is there anything that might surprise your colleagues and partners?
Most of my spare time is spent at the beach, on the water, or horseback riding. And I’ve even swam with sharks — although not intentionally on one snorkeling trip!
