Coletta Vigh, Check Point’s Head of Worldwide Channel Strategy and Growth Initiatives, was recently honored as the Woman of the Week through the Women of the Channel Leadership Network. In this edited interview excerpt, read about her career trajectory and how she’s managed to continuously reach new heights of success in the cyber security sector.
Can you please share a bit about your career path and how you ascended to your current role?
CV: …After I graduated from university, I sold my car and told my parents, “I’m moving to Japan…”
I ended up working in the hospitality industry at a beautiful Japanese resort…In that time-frame, I learned how to speak Japanese properly and how to host my guests; two skills that would serve me well later in my career.
…When I came back to America, I looked for jobs where I could utilize my Japanese. One of the jobs that popped up was in network security. They asked for someone who could speak Japanese, for someone who knew network security, and for someone who knew networking. Because they ultimately couldn’t find someone with all three skills, they ended up hiring me…
About a year or a year and a half after I started, they said, ‘why don’t you go over to Japan, and be an expat’, and they gave me an opportunity to lead tech support, to be a sales engineer and to open up that market…
I went over there. Two of us established a distribution reseller channel, through managed services (monthly billing), and we grew one of our client relationships from $5,000 to $21 million in about three years.
It was the most awesome personal and professional experience that I’ve ever had in my life. And that experience has served as a foundation for other experiences. I moved from that sales engineer role to territory sales management. I was managing the Japan-Korea business, and then I moved back to America, quit that company, and then, I had an opportunity to experience other industries…
…I worked at Microsoft in gaming. In that role, I was acquiring Japanese game content for Xbox, Windows phone and PC. And then, I realized that I really did enjoy working in the security industry. I enjoyed working for a product that’s needed in the market, and on building partnerships; helping others build their businesses as we built ours…I eventually started managing global channel programs…
Wow!
CV: Say yes to opportunities as they appear! I was open to new stuff, and I didn’t think about it too much. Had I overthought it, I might have even scared myself out of taking that first step.
Who or what inspires you?
CV: I find inspiration everywhere. I find inspiration in my teams. There’s nothing more beautiful than having individuals come into a team with a seed of an idea, and then they build within that safe environment, and then come out with an idea that’s even more magnificent than what individuals started with.
I gain inspiration from people who I mentor. I gain inspiration from people who are my mentors…they make me think, it challenges me, and it pushes me forward. The partners who I work with – when I look at the passion that they have for their businesses and see people applying really creative ideas to building business processes, it’s inspiring to me…
Watch the full interview here. Lastly, to receive more cutting-edge cyber security news, best practices and analyses, please sign up for the CyberTalk.org newsletter.
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