Intel Security appoints Richard Steranka to lead global partner efforts

Intel Security has appointed Richard Steranka to lead worldwide channels at Intel Security, heightening the company's commitment to bring proactive, connected security to its partners and their mutual customers. Steranka will report directly to Scott Lovett, senior vice president of Global Sales, Intel Security, and lead the global team responsible for Intel Security's ecosystem of distributors, value-added resellers, managed service providers, alliances and embedded OEMs.

"Security has become one of the main topics in today's boardrooms and is a major area of investment for Intel. We see a need to redefine the industry by providing better security outcomes that not only protect, but also enable our partners to help customers detect when they are compromised and quickly correct to a known good state," said Lovett. "Richard brings a deep understanding of the complex challenges the world's enterprises face today. His ability to cultivate strong relationships, strategic and collaborative leadership style, as well as vast knowledge of worldwide markets will be key to our partner community."

With more than 25 years of experience in strategic sales and channel leadership roles, Steranka is known as a versatile business leader, demonstrating a forward-thinking outlook and inspiring teams to think bigger. He joins Intel Security from Avaya where he successfully transformed the Avaya Connect Partner program from a volume-based to a value-based incentive structure. Most recently he led Avaya's go-to-market strategy driving growth through strategic relationships with value added resellers, distributors and partners.

"Security is perhaps the most rapidly evolving field within IT, with new threats and technologies coming to market every day," said Steranka. "Staying relevant and on the offense is imperative so that our partners can not only reach their own profitability goals, but also better protect our mutual customers from next-generation cyber threats."

At Intel Security, Steranka will be responsible for the continued development of the partner ecosystem, stressing the value for partners of building-out integrated security capabilities with fewer vendors, but with richer services and deeper expertise to best protect customers.

Prior to joining Avaya, Steranka held numerous leadership positions at Cisco in sales, channels, marketing and operations.