Strategic Alliance Magazine Q2 2016 - 42

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT "What gets me and my team motivated every day is that Citrix's leadership team, including our CEO, believes that our strategic partners will play a critical role in our transformation as a company toward cloud." S T E V E -Steve Blacklock, CA-AM vice president, global alliances, Citrix B L A C K L O C K Mastering global delivery and resonating with customers as an agile and responsive organization was paramount to support the EDS agility alliance strategy. To do that, technology relationships were key for all future buildout- which is how ASAP entered the picture. As Blacklock recalled, "At the time, I was building the strategic alliance with Cisco, and Cisco was very active in ASAP and a clear alliance leader in the industry. So I took their lead, signed up, and have never looked back. Since then, I've participated in many ASAP events and activities, leveraged the training and contacts available to members, and most recently in 2014/15, I served on the global advisory board of ASAP. " In 2007, Blacklock left EDS to join Cisco, his former strategic ally. As director of the HP Cisco alliance, he led cross-functional teams-including alliances, channels, marketing, and field sales-and helped navigate Cisco's entry into the server market in 2009. While at Cisco, he also led a worldwide virtual team of approximately 50 Cisco resources during a time of relationship transition while minimizing risk to the company. 42 In 2011, Blacklock joined Citrix, which is undergoing a significant change and pivoting in the market to become a cloud service company. It recently announced an expansion of its partnership with Microsoft into the cloud and mobile markets. The company expects to be working with other partners to focus in similar ways. "We just hired a new CEO at the end of January, and the focus and excitement is dramatic," Blacklock commented. Blacklock's team at Citrix involves approximately 25 people with global responsibility for key strategic alliance relationships, including large tech giants Amazon, Cisco, Google, HPE, Microsoft, Nutanix, SAP, and many others. Global SI relationships also include Cap Gemini, CSC, Fujitsu, and IBM, among others. STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | SUMMER * 2016 "What gets me and my team motivated every day is that Citrix's leadership team, including our CEO, believes that our strategic partners will play a critical role in our transformation as a company toward cloud," he said. "I don't think our business differs that much from other software companies in the industry-however, I do believe our position in the market is very unique and represents a great opportunity for us and our partners. Today's businesses are right at the crossroads of the transformation of IT into the mobile and cloud world-Citrix securely delivers the apps and data organizations needed on any network, from any cloud, using any application on any device," he added. "As Citrix helps customers make the transition to mobile and cloud, the nature of our partnerships will also transform the technology we need to integrate and deliver to the commercial and business models we develop to support our customers." Over the past five years, as the corporate world has undergone a major shift toward the cloud and other technologies, Citrix has sought to lead the way. Traditional office spaces can now be transformed to a more mobile-friendly work environment where employees can chose on which devices they wish to work. Even government agencies, such as the US Department of Defense (DoD), are increasingly dependent on the latest advances. The US Secretary of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q2 2016