SARASOTA, Fla., May 20, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Star2Star Communications, provider of the world’s only Full Spectrum Communications Solution, announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named five Star2Star executives to its prestigious 2019 Women of the Channel list. This year’s honorees include Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer; Laura Oberle, Senior Vice President of Sales, Southern US; Diana Hite, Vice President, Midwest Channel; Chessie Huber, Strategic Channel Development Manager; and Marji Lynn, Regional Account Director, Pacific Northwest. This is a record number of honorees from Star2Star, where 32% of female employees are in management and leadership positions, solidifying its female-forward identity.
The leaders on this annual list are from all areas of the IT channel ecosystem; representing technology suppliers, distributors, solution providers, and other IT organizations. Each is recognized for her contributions to channel advocacy, channel growth, and visionary leadership.
CRN editors choose the list from a multitude of channel leadership applicants and select the final honorees based on their professional accomplishments, demonstrated expertise, and ongoing dedication to the IT channel.
Michelle Accardi
As President and Chief Revenue Officer, Michelle's mission is to inspire and maintain growth for the company and its Partners, ensuring that customers get significant value from Star2Star's products and services and that Star2Star employees are empowered to provide the best service possible. In 2018, Michelle dedicated her time to supporting team-building and transformation at Star2Star. Her channel-related efforts were dedicated to strengthening the relationships between sales teams and their Partners by spear-heading and implementing better pathways for communications. She also championed the launch of several new products and helped communicate these new offerings to Star2Star Partners.
Laura Oberle
In 2018, Laura became the Senior Vice President of Sales for the Southern US regions. She also worked to better educate Partners and train them on Star2Star’s new products including SD-WAN, 4G LTE Failover, and several products still in beta. She works closely with Partners on a daily basis, and assisted with closing many large deals over the past year. In addition, she works with the Training team to ensure that Partners’ are receiving the training support needed for successful sales.
Diana Hite
Diana focused her efforts on honing her recruiting and sales strategies for Partners in 2018. She contributed to the advancement of Star2Star’s channel business and exceeded her targets for global channel strategy and execution. Her approach was centered around the engagement of her entire team including technical, operations, and marketing colleagues, to create and execute strategies for revenue growth.
Chessie Huber
The role that Chessie plays at Star2Star changed significantly over the last two years. She has become a key champion for Star2Star’s strategic partner onboarding initiatives. Chessie dedicated 2018 to growing her team, building out the Full Service Wholesale program, and fostering new and better relationships with Partners to create more opportunities within the channel. Her efforts led to several large Partnerships that contributed significant revenues to Star2Star’s 2018 numbers.
Marji Lynn
In 2018, Marji developed an underserved territory resulting in new channel partners and business for Star2Star. Seeing the revenue potential, she offered to extend coverage to help nurture the mutual benefits for Star2Star and existing and prospective Partners interested in the venture. She also deepened the relationship with one of Star2Star’s national distributors, which resulted in more new sellers and opportunities, thus laying a foundation for success in her territories.
“CRN’s 2019 Women of the Channel list honors influential leaders who are accelerating channel growth through mutually-beneficial partnerships, incredible leadership, strategic vision, and unique contributions in their field,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “This accomplished group of leaders is driving channel success and we are proud to honor their achievements.”
“I am elated to be recognized alongside these exceptional women by CRN’s Women of the Channel and so proud of the strides we have made in the industry this past year,” said Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Star2Star. “Diana, Chessie, Marji, and Laura are forward-thinking leaders and constantly striving for excellence in everything they do. Their contributions to Star2Star’s success are integral to our growth, Partner support system, and high standards of customer service. I’d like to congratulate them again on this win! It is my privilege to work with and support them.”
The 2019 Women of the Channel list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/WOTC.
About Star2Star Communications
Founded in 2006 in Sarasota, Florida, Star2Star Communications empowers global business success with a Full Spectrum Communications Solution. With options ranging from pure to on-premises cloud, Star2Star offers unparalleled value, reliability, quality, and scalability. Star2Star unifies business communications including voice, video, fax, mobile, chat, and presence management. Merged with Blueface, the leading pan-European UCaaS provider, Star2Star possesses a global influence and customer base.
Star2Star's award-winning, patented Constellation™ Network overcomes the reliability and quality limitations of other communications technologies and enables companies to choose the deployment methodology that aligns best with their needs. For businesses who require high-quality voice, redundant networks for continuity, and ultra-reliable communications, Star2Star's StarCloud+ architecture offers the highest guaranteed SLAs in the industry at an affordable price. Businesses with less complexity, who seek the best communications capabilities for their employees and customers, can consider the StarCloud solution the optimal choice.
With a customer retention rate of 99.85%, Star2Star has been recognized by a multitude of leading analysts. Star2Star was named to the Forbes Most Promising Companies list, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 five times, and the Inc. 500|5000 seven times. The company was also named by IHS as a Top 10 Hosted Business VoIP/UC Provider and has been in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, Worldwide for the last four years.
Casey O’Loughlin
coloughlin@star2star.com