Ecosystems Management Team
DON JONES
Don Jones currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Ecosystems for Palo Alto Networks. In this capacity, Don oversees all indirect routes to market, including Value Added Resellers, Systems Integrators, Service Providers, Product Partnerships and the industry-leading Nextwave Partner Program. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Don held numerous senior executive positions at Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, HCL and Capgemini Consulting.
KARL SODERLUND
Karl Soderlund is Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channels at Palo Alto Networks, where he is responsible for global channel strategy and sales, ensuring the company's mission is aligned with the award-winning NextWave Program.
Soderlund has over 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles in networking & security. Karl has been recognized as a Channel Chief by CRN eight times, including the last three years at Palo Alto, while also being named to CRN’s Exclusive list of 50 most influential Channel Chiefs in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Karl has also been named to Channel Futures’ exclusive lineup of 50 Channel Influencers for 2022.
Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Soderlund held senior executive roles at Aruba, Cisco, Fortinet and other industry leaders.
STEVE CURTIS
Steve Curtis is the Senior Vice President of Ecosystems for Prisma Cloud and Cortex A.I. Security at Palo Alto Networks. In this role, Steve is responsible for channel execution and sales, service-led plays with partners, and driving convenient access to Prisma and Cortex security software along with cloud service providers around the world. Steve believes all business conversations should be about providing value to customers, foremost. With over 22 years of experience in consulting and security, Steve has experienced the security industry's growth and helped enable clients around the world to secure their organizations, build better security offers and partnerships that enable customers and inspire teams to solve complex security challenges.
Previously, Steve led the Communications, Technology, Media and Aerospace (CMT) vertical for Accenture’s global cybersecurity team, with ~1,800 people supporting clients worldwide. He has particularly enjoyed working with clients in the United States, U.K., Japan, Italy, France, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia. His favorite security topics include DevSecOps, cloud security, security automation and product security. Steve has also held executive roles at PwC, Identropy and Rencana. Steve is a small investor in security, cloud, A.I. and data management startups, which he enjoys primarily for the ability to build better technology solutions to challenging problems. He has been awarded an MBA from UCLA Anderson and a BBA, concentrating in Computer Science, from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
EMMA CARPENTER
Emma Carpenter is the Global Service Provider Leader at Palo Alto Networks. Emma is responsible for leading and developing partnerships with service providers throughout North America. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks in 2020, Emma ran the Networks teams, mobility, optical and datacentre teams for Cisco selling into Verizon. Emma was responsible for over $700M of network product business, and her team was driving transformational company firsts. Prior to joining Cisco, Emma was responsible for Global Service Provider and System Integrator sales for Avaya. Her team drove all sales to and through the complex Service Provider and System Integrator customer base, securing hundreds of millions of dollars selling leading-edge service, cloud and solution sales.
PREM IYER
Prem Iyer is the Vice President of Business Development at Palo Alto Networks, leading business development with Global System Integrator partners. He regularly briefs C-level executives and board members around cyber challenges and solutions to mitigate business risk.
In his early career, Prem built an information security practice that grew 400% to $72M in its first year. He forged major alliances with McAfee, Blue Coat, Forescout, Cisco, NitroSecurity, and Juniper, where he won Federal Partner of the Year awards for multiple years. At RedSeal Networks, he built North American channels for the company’s security threat analytics platform, resulting in more than 500% growth in channel business within two quarters.
Prem held a DOD TS clearance, was a CISSP and PMP and studied Information Systems at the University of Maryland. He also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
JAMES BEASLEY
James Beasley is Vice President, Cloud Engagement, AWS, leading a team of business development, alliance managers and solution architects focused on developing and growing the Palo Alto Networks business with AWS. Prior to this role, James was Sr. Director, Strategic Technology Partnerships, where he was invaluable in bringing technology integrations to life with Palo Alto Networks top cloud service providers. James joined Palo Alto Networks through the acquisition of Aporeto, where he led business development.
James spent three years as Sr. Director, Strategic Cloud Security Products & Alliances at McAfee, where he led McAfee's corporate products and alliances teams in the transformation of the company’s enterprise security solutions portfolio to cloud security solutions. In that role, James worked closely with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle on the co-development of security solutions focused on enterprise cloud workloads.
Prior to joining McAfee, James was Managing Director, Strategic Software Program Office, at Intel, working closely with Oracle on the co-development of cloud and enterprise software solutions. James, a 15-year veteran of Intel, held several senior positions, including strategy development across the enterprise software portfolio, business development, marketing and sales.
James joined Intel from Micro, leading its global logistics services, focusing on online fulfillment operations.
James received his MBA from the University of California. He also studied at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan and Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands during his undergraduate and graduate studies.
CHRISTIANA “TANA” ROSENBLATT
Tana Rosenblatt is the Vice President of Network Security Technology Partnerships at Palo Alto Networks. She is responsible for building and driving strategic and high-value product integrations with third-party providers and building the company’s Technology Partner Program. She is a noted innovator and thought leader in cultivating business ecosystems, specializing in creating and managing cross-company tech partnerships to deliver sustainable competitive advantage and value creation.
Previously, Tana has built several Emerging Technology Partner (ETP) programs for various companies, with specialization in developing partnerships with leading VC-backed tech startup organizations around the globe to help curate rapid scale growth enablement for startup companies. With 18 years at HPE in the Strategic Alliances organization, she developed and grew the Global GTM Incubator Partner Program and built many strategic alliances, partnerships, and ecosystems, with roles ranging from partner strategy, business development, partner marketing, and partner marketing operations and alliance management. She entered the technology industry following 8 years of government service, public policy and corporate governance work. Tana lives in San Francisco, California, and is an avid equestrian and traveler.
TOM EVANS
Tom Evans is the Vice President of Worldwide Channel Sales Strategy at Palo Alto Networks, where he is responsible for partner programs, partner sales enablement and global channel strategy. Prior to his current role, Evans led the Channel Cloud and Strategic Initiatives teams for the Americas.
Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Evans was the Vice President of Global Channels at K2, where he significantly grew the channel team, developed and launched a program and grew the business by 250% Y/Y. He also spent 10 years at F5 Networks, where he led channel sales and distribution for the Americas, growing the business to over $1B.
RICHARD STERANKA
Richard Steranka is the Vice President of Strata Ecosystems at Palo Alto Networks. Richard is responsible for developing our end-to-end partner ecosystems strategy, plans and targets for the Strata business, focusing on NGFW, Cloud Delivered Security Subscriptions and SASE. Richard brings more than two decades of experience in cybersecurity, networking and telecommunications.
He joins us from Riverbed, where he ran JAPAC sales. Before that, he was the Global Channel leader at McAfee and Avaya, where he led and grew successful channel teams and programs. He spent many productive years at Cisco in sales, channels, marketing and operations roles, including driving Cisco's SMB business and accelerating its Smart + Connected Communities IoT efforts.
TOM BARSI
Tom Barsi is the Vice President of Ecosystems at Palo Alto Networks focused on worldwide Cortex Ecosystems. He leads the team responsible for building, developing and managing worldwide routes to market for Cortex, including NextWave channel resellers/distributors, global systems integrators, service providers, cloud service providers and managed services.
Tom joined Palo Alto Networks via the acquisition of Xpanse, the world’s leading attack surface management platform. Tom joined Xpanse from VMware, where he joined via the acquisition of Carbon Black. He oversaw business development and strategic partnerships as Senior Vice President of Business and Corporate Development of Carbon Black. He has also held Vice President roles at numerous other organizations, such as Proofpoint, where he led as EVP of Business Development and Global Channels and Verisign as Vice President of Business Development.
Tom has over 20 years of experience in channels and business development roles in cybersecurity for both public and private organizations building world class ecosystem technical alliance partners (ISVs) and strategic go-to-market partners (CSP/SI/MSSP).
ANAR DESAI
Anar Desai is Vice President for Ecosystems Americas at Palo Alto Networks. In this role, he is responsible for channel strategy, execution and revenue growth through Palo Alto Networks NextWave value-added resellers, system integrators, services partners and distributors. He is charged with accelerating Palo Alto Networks momentum in the market with its ecosystem of next-generation security innovator partners.
Anar has spent his career developing and leading high-impact teams in fast-growing organizations. He possesses extensive sales and channel experience, most recently as Senior Director of Channel Sales for Nutanix, where he built the Americas Channel Sales organization. Nutanix went from a startup to a $1B+ software company during his tenure. Prior to that, Anar spent over 12 years at NetApp in Channels, Sales, Leasing and Operations capacities.
Anar earned his B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He and his family reside in Chicago.
JOHN HARE
John Hare is Vice President for Ecosystems JAPAC at Palo Alto Networks. He is responsible for deepening our relationships with our key strategic partners, developing new partnerships and working with our Channels teams to build on their success.
John joined Palo Alto Networks in Singapore in March 2020. John brings over 20 years of experience from the government and private sectors, the last 6 years of which have focused on cybersecurity. John was a director in the financial services cyber team at EY in Sydney and joined Palo Alto Networks from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where he led the Cyber Outreach team and was responsible for articulating the bank's cyber strategy to its board and executives.
John graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Law from Cambridge University. He spent his early career at an international law firm which included spending protracted periods in Hong Kong and Japan. John was also a British diplomat for 9 years, specialising in conflicts in the Middle East, with postings across the region.
PENNY PHILPOT
Penny Philpot is the Vice President for Ecosystems EMEA at Palo Alto Networks. She is responsible for all indirect routes to market, including Channel, Distribution, SI, S.P., MSP, MSSP and CSP.
Prior to Palo Alto Networks, Penny led the $3B EMEAR Managed Services business at Cisco. At Microsoft, she was Worldwide Vice President responsible for the $5B Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner business. She also incubated and launched the strategic Emerging Market Partner Model.
Previously Penny was Worldwide, Group Vice President, Alliances and Channels at Oracle Corporation. She led a team of over 450, located across all regions, and was responsible globally for designing, operationalising and executing Oracle’s Partner Strategy. Penny started with Oracle in 1994 to develop and implement the U.K. distribution partner model. The initiative was rolled out across EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa). Then after 15 years leading EMEA's partnering business, she was asked to lead the Oracle Global team. Prior to Oracle, Penny held key sales and marketing leadership roles in several blue-chip I.T. companies.
Throughout her career, Penny has been an industry champion for promoting diversity and inclusion, protecting the rights of women’s education and mentoring women by enabling them to find their own purpose through their career and social impact.