Ron Huddleston - Twilio's chief partners officer and former CVP of One Commercial Partner, Microsoft
After stepping away from the leadership of Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner (OCP) business in December last year on what the vendor said was “indefinite family leave”, Ron Huddleston has stepped back into the spotlight as Twilio’s new chief partners officer.
The San Francisco-based cloud communications platform vendor announced on 12 February that Huddleston would join the company, with his new role set to see him draw upon his background and experience in building partner programs to help bolster the vendor’s developer-first approach.
“As the leading communications platform for developers, we believe Twilio has unmatched potential to be the heart of an ecosystem for ISVs, SIs, and resellers in a massive market opportunity," Twilio COO, George Hu, said.
"Ron's experience is unparalleled when it comes to building a thriving partner ecosystem and I look forward to him accelerating Twilio's momentum across all partner business models, geographies, and the enterprise opportunity. We are thrilled to welcome Ron to the team,” he said.
For Huddleston, the new role represents an opportunity to build Twilio’s partner network and be a part of an organisation that has the potential to “revolutionise the communications industry in the same way cloud computing redefined the software industry”.
“This is a massive opportunity for all types of partners to build new fast-growing businesses and continue to innovate for their customers across every industry,” Huddleston said.
“As we build out the Twilio partner organisation, our number one focus is to ensure that any partner who works with Twilio is wildly successful delivering on their vision,” he said.
Huddleston’s return to the partner landscape comes almost exactly two months after Microsoft confirmed that Huddleston had stepped away from his role as its One Commercial Partner business’s corporate vice president, and was on family leave indefinitely.
Microsoft’s global commercial partner channels and programs corporate vice president, Gavriella Schuster, stepped in to lead the vendor’s One Commercial Partner (OCP) business following Huddleston’s unexpected departure.
Prior to helping create and head up Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner business, Huddleston held the role of internet of things (IoT) cloud senior vice president at Salesforce, a role he took up after several years as the vendor’s AppExchange senior vice president.
Huddleston has been widely credited with playing a major role in building the AppExchange marketplace at Salesforce, alongside launching the software giant’s cloud-based channel, OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and ISV programs.
He also spent several years at Oracle, where he held various top-tier roles, including vice president, senior director and director of business development and channels.
