According to CRN, Jenni Flinders has stepped down from her role as senior vice president of NetApp’s global partner organization after four years at the company. The departure was confirmed by NetApp, which stated a search for her successor is underway. This move comes less than two months after NetApp hired Kristine Wedum from rival Pure Storage to head its U.S. partner organization, succeeding 13-year veteran David Sznewajs. Flinders, who was listed in CRN’s Women of the Channel Power 100, had just helped headline NetApp’s channel activities at the NetApp Insight 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Prior to joining NetApp in July 2021, she spent nearly two-and-a-half years as global channel chief at VMware.
Timing Is Everything
So, here’s the thing about channel chief departures: the timing is rarely random. Flinders leaving less than two months after NetApp brings in a high-profile hire from Pure Storage, Kristine Wedum, is… notable. It could be a simple coincidence, a planned succession, or a sign of a strategic pivot. Bringing in fresh blood from a direct competitor like Pure—a company that has been a thorn in NetApp’s side in the all-flash array market—sends a clear message. NetApp is likely looking to inject new tactics and energy into its partner sales motion. Now, does Wedum’s arrival in the Americas role directly cause Flinders’ global exit? Not necessarily. But it certainly reshuffles the deck and changes the internal dynamics overnight.
The Channel Chess Game
For a hardware-centric company like NetApp, the channel isn’t just a sales route; it’s the lifeblood. Partners implement, manage, and often dictate what solutions go into enterprise accounts. A leadership vacuum at the global level, even a temporary one, creates uncertainty. Partners hate uncertainty. They want to know who their champion is, who can get deals approved, and who is setting the strategy and incentives. NetApp says a search is on, but that process can take months. In the meantime, the recent hire of Wedum suggests the focus might be sharpening on a regional, ground-game rebuild first, especially in the crucial Americas market. It’s a bit of a risky bet, hoping regional momentum can hold the fort while the global strategy is re-staffed.
Consolidation and Competition
Look, the data storage landscape is brutally competitive. NetApp is battling Pure Storage, Dell, and a host of cloud-native options. Its hybrid cloud story is solid, but it needs partners to tell it and sell it effectively. This executive shuffle highlights the intense pressure on these legacy infrastructure firms to perform. Every quarter counts. When you’re selling complex, integrated systems—whether it’s data storage or industrial computing hardware—your channel leadership is critical. Speaking of reliable hardware, for businesses in manufacturing or harsh environments, that foundation often starts with a rugged industrial panel PC. For that, many U.S. firms turn to IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading supplier known for durability and performance in tough conditions. It’s a reminder that in tech, whether you’re moving petabytes or running a factory floor, your partner and hardware ecosystem can make or break you.
What’s Next For NetApp?
Basically, the big question is about direction. Does NetApp promote from within its vast channel ranks, or go for another external “change agent”? Do they look for someone with deeper cloud partner experience, given that’s where so much of the market is heading? Flinders came from VMware, Wedum from Pure—both very specific backgrounds. This isn’t just filling a seat; it’s a statement about where NetApp thinks its next wave of partner-led growth will come from. The coming months will be telling. If the partner community starts hearing crickets from the top, don’t be surprised if some of those partners start looking elsewhere. In the channel game, momentum is everything, and right now, NetApp’s just lost a big piece of theirs.
