With a strong track record in strengthening partner ecosystems, Houghton is set to play a key role in driving accelerated growth
SANTA CLARA, Calif. ‒ April 27, 2023 ‒ Druva Inc. today announced the appointment of Mike Houghton as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partners and Alliances. Bringing more than 25 years of experience leading partnership development and channel growth to Druva, Houghton, a three-time CRN Channel Chief award recipient, will focus on partner growth, expanding routes to market, and delivering market share through Druva's robust global ecosystem of partners and alliances.
As Druva’s Global Partner and Alliance Lead, Houghton will play a key role in spearheading relationships with strategic partners including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dell, CDW, SHI, and others, marshalling and expanding Druva’s Compass Partner Program, developing and implementing partnership strategies, fostering a robust partner network and ecosystem, and identifying new opportunities to drive accelerated growth.
Houghton joins Druva from Dataminr, where he was Vice President of Global Channel Sales. Prior to this role, he held executive-level roles at Cohesity, Logicalis US, and Avnet. Over the course of his career, Houghton has focused on leading go-to-market strategies and implementation for channel partners, solutions, and services providers, as well as strengthening alliances, distribution, and support.
“Channel partners are core to Druva’s success. To ensure their success, Druva focuses on providing the services, tools, and leadership they need to build thriving cloud-based businesses,” said Jaspreet Singh, Founder and CEO, Druva. “We are thrilled to have in Mike a vastly experienced leader with a proven track record in building successful partner and alliance organizations. Under his leadership, we are confident that we will mature our partner ecosystem further, drive revenue growth, and maintain our position as a global leader in the SaaS industry.”
“Partners want to work with vendors that can provide an opportunity for strong growth with predictability, and that includes choosing a vendor that does not compete with them and is 100% partner committed," said Houghton. “It's exciting to see that Druva ticks all these boxes and moreover embraces channel partners as the most critical part of its success. I’m confident that with Druva’s dedicated team, our transformative partner programs, and the continuously growing number of outstanding channel partners, we will help accelerate revenue and market share.”
Druva Compass Partner Program, introduced in 2019, has focused on bringing partners enablement assets, accreditation programs, data insights, targeted sales plays, and go-to-market resources to help their customers transition to a comprehensive cloud-based data protection solution. Through these efforts, the program aims to help partners position their own business for predictable, long-term, recurring revenue. The Compass Partner Program has shown continued growth year on year and has enabled core partners to be able to grow their business by well over 100% annually in top-line revenues. Druva’s goal is to expand the program's scale, expanding Druva’s offerings in new markets, with new programs and expanded distribution.