The 50 leaders shaping the UK technology channel
Vendor, distribution and MSP leaders, and the rising names behind them, recognized for what they’ve built this year, not for their job titles. Chosen and ranked by the VETTDD editorial team from company results, filings and announcements, September 2026.
Charlie Tunley
Channel & Partner Ecosystem Director, UKIMEA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Tunley has been HPE’s main UK channel voice through 2026. HPE restored 30-day quote validity in June and in August dropped repricing terms on deals under $1m, a change he says put it among the first vendors to act. He is now taking UK partners into a single HPE and Juniper program from 1 November, and in August HPE added Infinigate UK as a specialist networking distributor. Both moves bear directly on partner margins and routes to market.
Joachim Mason
Managing Director, Partner and Specialist Sales, UK&I, Cisco
Mason led Cisco’s UK and Ireland partners through the switch to Cisco 360, which replaced the Gold, Premier and Select tiers on 25 January 2026. He told partners Cisco would spend “the same, if not more” on them under the new program. Large partners moved fast: Cisilion says it is one of 30 UK Managed Partners with multiple Preferred designations. Mason is now steering partners toward the outcome-based services that 360 rewards.
Andy Rhodes
General Manager, UK&I, Lenovo
Rhodes took over Lenovo UK and Ireland in April 2026 after senior roles at HP and Dell. He has been open with partners about the memory crunch: Lenovo passed on price rises early, is holding 30-day quote validity, and he expects inflation to last “over the next couple of years”. With Lenovo’s infrastructure revenue up 98% to $8.5bn in its latest quarter, he is pushing PC partners to cross-sell data center products. His calls shape pricing and stock decisions for UK device resellers.
Joe Carroll
Director for Partners, UK&I, AWS
Carroll runs AWS’s partner business in the UK and Ireland at a time when AWS sales grew 37% to $42.2bn in the second quarter of 2026. He has put distributors at the center of its UK channel, arguing they are how “thousands and thousands” of smaller partners get onboarded and skilled. With AWS investing £8bn in UK data centers from 2024 to 2028, his programs shape how much of that capacity partners sell and run.
Ruth Patterson
Vice President and Managing Director, UK&I, HP Inc.
Patterson has run HP Inc. in the UK and Ireland since February 2025 and has made partner engagement her stated priority, telling Fortune in August 2026 that “their success is our success”. She is leading the UK business as HP’s net revenue rose 12.5% to $15.7bn and its Personal Systems revenue rose 18% in the quarter to July. In July she installed a new UK and Ireland channel director. Her partner-first approach sets the tone for how HP works with the UK device channel.
John Taylor
Vice President, Channels & Alliances, Europe & Israel, CrowdStrike
Taylor runs CrowdStrike’s channels and alliances across Europe and Israel. At its May 2026 Europe Partner Symposium, UK partners Softcat and BT won Europe Partner of the Year and Innovation Partner of the Year. CrowdStrike says its MSSP business has passed $1.3bn in total contract value over three years, and its annual recurring revenue grew 25% to $5.84bn in the year to July 2026. For UK MSSPs and resellers, his programs set how much of that growth they share.
Craig Robertson
Head of Partners, EMEA & LatAm, Everpure
Robertson was promoted in August 2026 to lead Everpure’s partners across EMEA and Latin America, a decade after joining as a UK channel account manager. He takes over as the former Pure Storage, renamed in February, pushes into data management: revenue rose 38% to $1.2bn in the quarter to August, and the company says its EMEA and LatAm business grew 64.9% in Q1. A UK channel leader now sets partner strategy for two regions and a channel-only vendor.
Andrew Gill
Vice President, IBM Technology Ecosystems & Select Territory Sales, UK & Ireland, IBM
Gill, IBM’s UK and Ireland ecosystem chief since August 2024, took on Select Territory sales as well by February 2026, as IBM set a goal for partners to carry 50% of its Select revenue without IBM lead-passing, according to Techaisle. SCC won IBM’s UK Technology Partner of the Year for a second year and Celerity took the Select segment award. For UK partners, IBM is offering a bigger share of accounts to a smaller, chosen group.
Lisa Roberts
Senior Director, UKI & Northern Europe Channels, SentinelOne
Roberts led SentinelOne’s UK, Irish and Northern European partners through the move to PartnerOne, which took full effect in February 2026 with about 100 partners expected at elite level. SentinelOne passed $1bn in revenue in the year to January 2026, up 22%, and in April Softcat was named its EMEA partner of the year. She sets the terms on which SentinelOne’s UK partners earn margin under the new program.
Natalie Noor
UK&I Channel and SME Director, Lenovo
Under Noor, Lenovo relaunched its LEAP rewards program for partner sales and support staff and extended its MSP pathway, which it expects to pass $100m in global revenue this year, to the UK and Ireland in April 2026. As Lenovo’s group revenue rose 43% in the quarter to June, she stood out for a plain account of where AI was and wasn’t selling. For UK resellers, her channel is Lenovo’s route from hardware sales to services margin.
Emma Westland
Head of Channel, UK&I, Zoom
Promoted to head of Zoom’s UK and Ireland channel in spring 2026, less than two years after joining as strategic partners lead, Westland takes charge as Zoom’s UK data center goes live with more than 20 services for public sector and regulated buyers. She also leads partners through the overhauled Zoom Up program, as Zoom’s enterprise revenue grew 6.5% to $2.93bn last year. For UK resellers, she brings data residency to partner-led public sector deals.
Martin Rutterford
Channel Director UK and Ireland, Check Point Software
Rutterford runs the UK and Ireland channel for a vendor that sells only through partners, more than 270 of them in the UK by his 2022 count. In March 2026 he hosted Check Point’s UK Partner Awards, where Softcat won three categories, and introduced the new Western Europe channel head. With security subscriptions up 12% in the second quarter and the vendor expanding sales capacity, UK partners are its route to customers.
Emily Masterton
Global Head of Channel, 8x8
Promoted to global head of channel at 8x8 in May 2026, Masterton launched a four-tier program for direct resellers in August that pays rebates for retaining and expanding customers, not only for new sales. It was piloted with partners including the UK’s Opus Technology. UK resellers Softcat and Wavenet were among its 2026 EMEA partner award winners. Paying for retention answers a common reseller complaint at a vendor with $735.8m (£550m) of annual revenue.