ConnectWise has announced the formation of four Innovation Business Units led by general managers and the appointment of a new chief information security officer (CISO) to speed innovation and improve partner experience.

Historically, engineering and product management have been performed by coordinated but independent teams. With this news, ConnectWise announces four new Innovation Business Units: unified monitoring and management, business management, cybersecurity and Asio Platform. Each business unit will be led by a general manager who reports to ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee, each with its own dedicated product management and other resources. These leaders will be accountable for engineering effectiveness for their respective product lines. They will be responsible for innovative road maps and on-time delivery, as well as driving a positive experience for partners across sales, product support, services, partner success and the broader ConnectWise system.

"We recognize that rapid, meaningful product innovation requires partner proximity and centricity, impeccable product management and engineering rigor, and leadership that connects all aspects of our operating model to ensure a meaningful partner experience," Magee said in his blog message to partners in reference to the new business unit structure. "This is why today I'm pleased to announce that ConnectWise is re-organizing and appointing new leadership to drive the next generation of innovation for the TSP space."

ConnectWise tapped industry leaders Jake Varghese as general manager, business management; Ameer Karim as general manager, unified monitoring & management; Raffael Marty as general manager, cybersecurity; and Jeff Bishop as general manager, Asio Platform.

The company also named cybersecurity veteran Patrick Beggs as CISO.

"Over the last three years, we've made incredible strides in hardening our environments and formalizing a compliant, best-practice oriented cybersecurity program," Magee said. "But with the rapidly changing threat landscape, we intend to innovate deeper and faster in this area as well, which is why I'm pleased to introduce someone of Patrick's caliber to our company and our partner community."

Beggs will report to CTO Steve Cochran, with former CISO Tom Greco and his team reporting to Beggs.


Leadership biographies:

Patrick Beggs, CISO: Beggs is a cybersecurity executive focused on leading global cyberoperations. He has more than 20 years of operational duties in information security spanning the commercial, federal civilian, defense, law enforcement and intelligence communities. Most recently, Beggs served as Cognizant Technology's global cyberoperations executive, where he led a team of more than 150 personnel operating across five countries. Prior to Cognizant, Beggs led cyberoperational capabilities for AIG, Booz Allen Hamilton, Amazon Web Services and Bank of America. In the public sector, he served as the first deputy director/director of operations at the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC). Beggs is a former Army Infantry Non-Commissioned Officer and holds a bachelor of science in political science from Radford University.

Jeff Bishop, general manager, Asio Platform: Bishop's previous positions include chief product officer, vice president of ecosystem and vice president of ConnectWise Control (formerly ScreenConnect). Before joining ConnectWise in 2015, he was one of the founders of ScreenConnect, a solution that allows clients' computers to be remotely controlled for fast, reliable and secure remote support. Bishop also worked for Agilent Technologies, a spin-off from Hewlett-Packard, in various roles including product management, marketing and engineering.

Ameer Karim, general manager, unified monitoring & management: Karim is a dynamic and seasoned executive who brings more than 25 years of experience working for some of the biggest brands in consumer electronics and cybersecurity. He joins ConnectWise from Absolute Software, where he was executive vice president of product management, leading the company's product vision, strategy, road map, marketing and user experiences. With more than two decades of experience in M&A, business development, engineering, product innovation, product management and marketing, Karim has delivered world-class enterprise and consumer products by focusing on product-led growth and operational excellence. He has held several general manager and executive roles with Symantec, HP and early-stage startups in Silicon Valley.

Raffael Marty, general manager, cybersecurity: Marty has been at ConnectWise for the past seven months leading cybersecurity products. He brings 20-plus years of cybersecurity industry experience across engineering, analytics, research and strategy to ConnectWise. A thread of connecting data, artificial intelligence (AI) and security has continued throughout his career. Starting at IBM, Marty next spent time as a technical analyst for Silicon Valley startups and with Splunk, a leader in data analytics. He later founded Loggly, one of the first cloud-based log management services and spent time at Sophos being responsible for security analytics. Marty held the chief research and intelligence officer position at Forcepoint, where his team was responsible for cutting-edge research in AI to understand human behavior as it relates to cyberrisk, helping detect adverse behaviors before the onset of insider crimes. He also partnered with product teams there to provide new security intelligence that helped protect customers from all types of cyberattacks.

Jake Varghese, general manager, business management: Varghese is a seasoned product executive and general manager with more than 20 years of cross-functional leadership experience. He has successfully led and delivered partner-focused innovation resulting in hypergrowth at leading companies such as ServiceNow, Microsoft and Tanium. Varghese has also previously co-founded and served as CTO for a successful startup: Optio3, an AI-powered, cloud-based operations management solution that provides visibility into connected IoT. He has deep technology and business expertise in all areas of software as a service (SaaS), with an emphasis on digital transformation and modernization of IT systems including service management, operations management and business management.

In other news, Service Leadership Inc. has announced an expanded partnership with Sea-Level Operations, a leading education firm that provides world-class coaching, education and resources, and a Pax8 company, to offer Service Leadership-certified business coaching to help ConnectWise partners mature and grow their businesses.

Under the agreement, Sea-Level will offer its clients an elevated consulting offering called Value Creation Coaching (VCC) to enable clients to reach their value-creation goal more quickly and with less risk. VCC adds two additional Service Leadership products to Sea-Level's tool kit: the Service Leadership Index (S-L Index) Service Executive Quarterly Benchmark Report Book (SE QBRB) and the Operational Maturity Level diagnostic and acceleration tool, SLIQ.

With VCC, Sea-Level becomes the first Service Leadership-certified coaching firm in the industry. Service Leadership strategically selected Sea-Level as its first certified MSP industry consultant due to its long relationship and desire to deliver the premium VCC service to clients. For Sea-Level, the extended agreement strengthens its ability to deliver value and results for MSP firms. The partnership also provides Sea-Level's consulting staff the opportunity to enhance their professional skills to drive more significant outcomes for clients.

This step also marks the launch of Service Leadership's certification program for MSP industry consultants, coaches and peer group operators. Already the most broadly used solution provider benchmarking and best practices tool set in the industry, Service Leadership now offers industry experts worldwide the ability to enhance and differentiate its value propositions and scale its client or membership base more quickly and safely. Those interested can contact Service leadership at info@service-leadership.com or find out more at www.service-leadership.com/solution-providers/certified-coaching.

"Sea-Level Operations is the largest MSP consulting company in the industry, which has been greatly enhanced by the five-year partnership with Sea-Level leveraging our S-L Index Owner Quarterly Benchmark Report Book (Owner QBRB)," said Paul Dippell, founder and former CEO, Service Leadership Inc., and vice president of ecosystem evangelism, ConnectWise. "We are excited to extend the partnership for another five years, adding the SE QBRB and SLIQ. Rex Frank and his team have a remarkable track record of helping their MSP clients achieve successful growth, becoming the industry's largest consulting firm as a result."

"Our partnership with Service Leadership and its innovative tools have helped our clients grow and mature their businesses," said Rex Frank, founder, Sea-Level Operations, and vice president, Pax8 Academy. "As the industry evolves, incorporating new and advanced solutions into our offerings will increase the value we provide. We are excited to continue partnering with Service Leadership to provide our services, including the VCC program, continuing to drive MSP growth."

Sea-Level's coaches were trained, tested and certified in five skill areas: Owner QBRB, SE QBRB, SLIQ OML Assessments, SLIQ Value Creation Planner, and SLIQ OML Diagnostic and Prescription.

In other news, ConnectWise has announced that CRN has named five members of the ConnectWise team to its 2022 Channel Chiefs list: Geoffrey Willison, COO; Craig Fulton, chief customer officer; Jay Ryerse, vice president of cybersecurity initiatives; Nathan Fullington, associate vice president of customer success; and Vicky Bruns, marketplace manager.

CRN's annual Channel Chiefs project identifies top IT channel vendor executives who continually demonstrate expertise, influence and innovation in channel leadership.

A panel of CRN editors selected the honorees for their channel dedication, industry stature and accomplishments as channel advocates. The 2022 Channel Chiefs are influential leaders who continue to shape the IT channel with innovative strategies, programs and partnerships.

All five individuals honored played a crucial role at ConnectWise last year. Bruns was instrumental in improving ConnectWise's partner experience by onboarding an eCommerce Marketplace Concierge team to help support transactions for third party solutions that ConnectWise resells. Ryerse assisted with the development, implementation and launch of the ConnectWise Partner Program (CPP) for cybersecurity. Willison helped increase focus on partner satisfaction, resulting in more than 20,000 partner surveys completed. And Fullington continuously provided his team with updates on partner health to help identify risks and enable proactive engagement.

"The ConnectWise team is incredibly grateful to have such accomplished and talented people working with the company," Magee said. "Geoffrey, Jay, Craig, Nathan and Vicky are trailblazers within the industry and at ConnectWise, consistently using their skills and expertise to amaze our partners. All five individuals have made a positive and lasting impact on our partners and their fellow colleagues. Collectively, their efforts play a vital role in helping ConnectWise deliver more innovation faster, invest in partner growth and deliver a seamless partner experience."

"CRN's 2022 Channel Chiefs recognition is given exclusively to the foremost channel executives who consistently design, promote, and execute effective partner programs and strategies," said Blaine Raddon, CEO, The Channel Company. "We're thrilled to recognize the tireless work and unwavering commitment these honorees put into fostering outstanding business innovation and building strong partner programs to drive channel engagement and success."