David Portnowitz Named A Channel Partners ‘Top Gun 51’ Channel Leader


SARASOTA, Fla., July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- David Portnowitz, Chief Marketing Officer of Star2Star, has been recognized as a “Top Gun 51” by the editors of Channel Partners and Channel Futures. The editors teamed with industry analysts and executives from master agencies and distributors to identify premier leaders in the indirect IT and telecom channel. 

David leads Star2Star’s creative, digital, and Partner marketing efforts as well as the Training team at Star2Star. He has spearheaded the company’s efforts to enhance Star2Star’s marketing efforts since joining the company in 2013. Under his leadership, the Star2Star Marketing team has been able to operate as an in-house agency for over 800 Partners in all verticals, delivering personalized service and customized materials for a variety of projects. The team also works with the Training & Sales departments to deliver more unified Partner enablement tools and collateral.

To compile the Top Gun 51 list, determined each year in tandem with the annual MSP 501, Channel Partners and Channel Futures editors invited those who know channel executives best — distributors, master agents and industry analysts — to nominate leaders who exemplify channel advocacy and leadership. All nominations are strictly confidential.  

A channel leader was defined as possessing integrity, knowledge and confidence, the ability to inspire others, commitment and passion. He or she must be adept at recognizing the increasing diversity of partner types, revenue models, and partner and customer journeys.

“It’s an honor to be recognized with this award,” said David Portnowitz, regarding his win. “I am incredibly proud to lead the Star2Star Marketing and Training departments, and all that we have accomplished on behalf of our partners, customers, and the channel as a whole. It’s a very exciting time to be leading channel marketing and training efforts for Star2Star, which is seeing incredible growth and making great strides with our technology offerings. Thank you to my company, my team, and the person who nominated me!”

David and the rest of this year’s #TopGun51 will be recognized in a special program during Channel Partners Virtual: Digital Events for the Modern Channel. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 situation, the Channel Partners Conference & Expo and Channel Partners Evolution have been combined into a three-day online event to be held Sept. 8-10.

“Today’s channel leaders must be futurists, accountants, technologists, marketers and crisis managers,” said Kris Blackmon, senior content director for Channel Partners and Channel Futures. “It’s important to recognize these outstanding executives on the basis of insights from within the community itself. We want to thank everyone who helped us assemble this year’s list.”

The complete 2020 Top Gun 51 list is available at Channel Partners.

About Star2Star

In an increasingly complex world, businesses need to simplify the way they communicate, collaborate, and seamlessly integrate third-party applications into their operations and processes. Star2Star meets that need with its patented cloud-native collaboration platform designed for the modern enterprise that extends the company's record of success in maintaining a 99.4% customer retention rate.

Star2Star has delivered consistently innovative solutions to enterprise communication and collaboration challenges since 2006. Throughout its history, it has demonstrated a commitment to the continuous upgrading of cutting-edge technology to anticipate and address rapidly evolving enterprise needs. The company entered the market as the only UCaaS provider with an on-premises cloud platform that combined cloud flexibility with an ultra-reliable proprietary network. Today, its suite of enterprise communication and collaboration solutions offers unparalleled value, reliability, quality, scalability, and capacity to unify people and processes within an intuitive, cloud-native environment.

Star2Star has been named to such prestigious lists as the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Inc. 500|5000, Omdia Top 10 UCaaS Service Provider, and Forbes Most Promising Companies. Recognition of its pioneering innovation in the enterprise cloud market extends to major industry analyst indicators such as inclusion in the Frost Radar North American Hosted IP Telephony and UCaaS Industry reports and the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, Worldwide.

Casey O’Loughlin
coloughlin@star2star.com