Michael Stephens is the new Vice President of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at Aptum, bringing with him almost three decades of experience in sales and partner strategy. Stephens joins Aptum from Rackspace Technology where he was the Global Partner Channel Chief, responsible for worldwide channel sales, operations and relationships. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Channels for CenturyLink, responsible for inside sales, pre-sales engineering and customer success. At Aptum he will lead the company’s global partner strategy and introduce programs with trusted ISVs, SaaS, technology distributors and digital native to accelerate growth.
He shared his experience of engaging with the partner advisory council to seek feedback and improve operations, emphasizing the value of their feedback and how it helped him build strong relationships and find mentors within the council. He also discussed the importance of aligning with suppliers to enhance sales education and build trust within the partner ecosystem. Julian and Michael also engaged in a detailed discussion about the evolution of channel leadership, emphasizing the necessity of understanding the segmentation within the channel to create tailored programs.
