Woburn, MA, May 19, 2017 – Kaspersky Lab North America announced today that CRN_®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Larissa Crandall, director of channel sales, and Cecilia Lessard, senior director, distribution & channel sales operations, to its prestigious 2017 Women of the Channel list. The executives who comprise this annual list span the IT channel, representing vendors, distributors, solution providers and other organizations that figure prominently in the channel ecosystem.

Each year, CRN editors select the Women of the Channel honorees based on their professional accomplishments, demonstrated expertise and ongoing dedication to the IT channel. The women that are nominated are recognized for their outstanding leadership, vision and unique roles in driving channel growth and innovation.

As the director of channel sales at Kaspersky Lab North America, Larissa Crandall has proven her success in building and directing high-performance teams. Over the past year, she has worked hard to align the sales team with the respective partners in their territories and ensure they are assisted with the training and technical certifications they need to grow their security business. In doing this, she has created successful programs with partners tailored around their business goals and strategies to help accelerate their overall security segments.

Additionally, Cecilia Lessard, senior director, distribution & channel sales operations at Kaspersky Lab North America has demonstrated her distribution experience in product marketing, logistics, strategic project leadership, technical education and partner marketing over the course of the past year. Cecilia has participated in a number of key initiatives with distributors to promote new, targeted products and focused heavily on finding and reaching resellers operating in verticals that the company hasn’t previously been exposed to.

“These extraordinary executives support every aspect of the channel ecosystem, from technical innovation to marketing to business development, working tirelessly to keep the channel moving into the future,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. “They are creating and elevating channel partner programs, developing fresh go-to-market strategies, strengthening the channel’s network of partnerships and building creative new IT solutions, among many other contributions. We congratulate all the 2017 Women of the Channel on their stellar accomplishments and look forward to their future success.”

“Larissa and Cecilia are both incredibly talented sales leaders who have achieved great success in their roles and I couldn’t be happier for them to receive this recognition from CRN,” said Michael Canavan, senior vice president, B2B sales at Kaspersky Lab North America. “I am honored to work with such talented female leaders who represent our brand and drive our company’s growth in the channel in the U.S. and Canada. I look forward to watching both Larissa and Cecilia reach their goals this year and will continue to back their innovative ideas to provide the best possible support to our partner community.”

The 2017 Women of the Channel list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/wotc.