Interview L
auren Marsden, currently Director for Channel Sales in UK&I for Forcepoint, has held her position at Forcepoint for the past 3 years but prior to that she spent over 10 years at
systems integrator and channel partner, Arrow. Here’s what came up in the discussion.
Please could you tell us a bit more about your background within the channel? I’ve been with Forcepoint since 2018, and within the wider IT channel sector 16 years. I now serve as the EMEA Channel Director for Forcepoint, helping execute on and manage our partner programme in the region to make sure it’s as effective and sustainable for partners as it can be. We have over 12,000 partners globally, including Global Systems Integrators, specialist partners, Managed Security Service Providers and of course our distributor network. Working within the channel is a job where no two days are the same – I’m meeting with different partners and areas of the business every day, and it’s rewarding to be helping lead a team that’s out at the very front of the business, making a difference to the bottom line and helping partners and end users with the challenges they’re having in the real world.
How do you think the channel can encourage more women to pursue a career with the channel and into a top-level management role? What’s so interesting here is how the pandemic forced a change in working practices, with a silver lining of flexibility, increased empathy and different opportunities. We’re now more aware of our colleagues’ family commitments or life pressures then we might have once been – and the physical location of top talent becomes less of a challenge, now hybrid working is the norm. I do believe that employers are shiſting recruitment and retention practices, putting measures and policies in place to better support us all – whether full or part-time, parent or carer, in a single-person or multi-generational household – everyone needs support. Hybrid working has brought down some of the barriers to landing a role, but giving employees more space to manage both their personal and work lives will make careers in IT and security much more appealing to those groups who are less represented in the industry.
What inspires you about working within the channel? My current role as EMEA Director gives me the great privilege of working with people from many different countries. Learning and understanding all the different ways in which the channel functions is fascinating – and sharing best practice across those countries makes us all greater than the sum of our parts. Te breadth of people you meet with in this role is also inspiring, from young people just starting out their career in the industry where you are able to coach and mentor through new situations, to people whom have been in the industry many years and have so much knowledge and are inspirational to listen to and talk with. My joy comes from gaining so much from the wide group of people and organisations I deal with every day.
What do you think the channel needs to focus on more to ensure a culture of diversity and inclusion? To ensure a culture of diversity and inclusion, employers need to be proactively taking action around this issue, and be making policy
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“The pandemic forced a change in working practices, with a silver lining of flexibility, increased empathy and different opportunities. We’re now more aware of our colleagues’ family commitments or life pressures then we might have once been – and the physical location of top talent becomes less of a challenge, now hybrid working is the norm. I do believe that employers are shifting recruitment and retention practices, putting measures and policies in place to better support us all – whether full or part-time, parent or carer, in a single-person or multi-generational household – everyone needs support. Hybrid working has brought down some of the barriers to landing a role, but giving employees more space to manage both their personal and work lives will make careers in IT and security much more appealing to those groups who are less represented in the industry.
changes and putting measures in place to attract, recruit and retain fully diverse workforces. Tey need to instill a culture of honesty, openness and fairness. In some ways, the restrictions brought on by the pandemic, and the changes in the ways that many of us work, have humanised us. Organisations can take this further through in-depth training, dealing with a range of topics such as unconscious bias, building neuro- and personality-diverse teams, emotional IQ, among others. It’s got to be taken seriously, and not just as a tick-box or annual training exercise, which does mean it needs to be led from the top.
What is your favourite aspect about your role? Similar to my inspirations, it’s such a joy to travel across my region, getting to visit so many cities, experience new cultures and meet so many new people.
What plans do you have to drive business forward in your role? My goal is to simplify systems for our partner community with the ultimate goal of ensuring partner profitability. Our new channel partner program enables our channel to lead with their services. With our recent acquisitions, Forcepoint has achieved record revenue and new customer growth, which channel partners are able to capitalise on, that coupled with the latest enhancements to our Global Partner program ensures our partner network is equipped to drive growth and ensures our customers have the security expertise and support needed.
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