Why I'm backing Dell's Rob Tomlin for Channel Chief of the Year

Dell's recently appointed channel boss deserves to lift the Channel Chief trophy on 14 November, according to synapse 360's Steve Douglas

On behalf of our business Synapse 360 I would like to put forward Rob Tomlin from Dell Technologies as Channel Chief of the Year. We have known Rob for some time both through his role at Tech Data and more recently as head of the channel at our key vendor Dell Technologies.

In his current role Rob has had the preverbal big shoes to fill following on from Sarah Shields who put in place the building blocks for what we now consider to be the best channel model in the business.

What Rob immediately brought was his own style of humility and humour mixed with extensive channel understanding that has enabled him to quickly build a channel community that extends from Dell Technologies into the metal partners together supporting genuine business growth.

Rob has delivered a level of natural trust between key Platinum partners such as ourselves and Dell technologies that has enabled our business extend our relationship not just in the channel team, but across the entire UK&I sales organisation.

This is delivering tangible results for Synapse 360 this year as we continue to generate and close new logo business together with revenue growth of over 20 per cent plus. Dell Technologies remains our key vendor going forward and Rob is absolutely key to that relationship and the vendor investment in our business.

It is refreshing to see vendors investing in people like Rob, and it demonstrates how important channel is for their business, and as a partner, we would be proud to see Rob honoured for his contribution.

Steve Douglas is sales director at synapse 360

Rob Tomlin has been shortlisted for CRN Channel Chief of the year along with HP's Neil Sawyer and Pure Storage's Gary Matson. The winner will be announced at the CRN Channel Awards on 15 November.

As the only 'people's choice' award at the Channel Awards, the winner will be selected by our audience. If you work for a partner company of any of the three finalists, please email [email protected] and [email protected] and tell us who you think deserves to win.