Gretchen O’Hara Named to CRN’s 2025 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs

We are thrilled to announce that Gretchen O’Hara, Splunk, a Cisco company’s Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances, has been named to CRN’s prestigious 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs list for 2025. This elite recognition honors her exemplary leadership, innovative strategies, and commitment to driving growth and transformation in the IT channel.

At Splunk and Cisco, our people are the foundation of our success—driving innovation, collaboration, and transformation at every level. Since joining Splunk two years ago, Gretchen has been instrumental in evolving our channel strategy to meet the needs of a distributed, hybrid, and multicloud world. Her partner-centric approach focuses on building profitable business practices and empowering partners to deliver exceptional outcomes for customers. Under her leadership, 90% of Splunk’s commercial business now runs through partners, emphasizing the value of collaboration across the customer lifecycle.

In the past year alone, Gretchen has led several groundbreaking initiatives:

• Partnerverse Transformation: A reimagined partner program that aligns incentives, skills, and resources to empower diverse partner business models while driving profitability.
• Strategic Partnerships: Launching Splunk on Azure alongside Google and AWS offerings, enabling partners to expand their cloud capabilities and meet customers where they are in their digital journeys.
• Cisco Integration: Seamlessly integrating Cisco’s AppDynamics into Splunk’s offerings to provide a unified approach to observability and security, while equipping Cisco’s partner network with the skills to meet evolving customer needs.
• Hyperscaler Growth: Driving a 93% increase in MSP partnerships and leveraging strategic relationships with cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Beyond her contributions to Splunk, a Cisco company, Gretchen’s career is marked by a legacy of transformation. Previously, she served as Vice President of AI & Sustainability and Go-To-Market for One Commercial Partner at Microsoft, where she built multi-million-dollar businesses and championed channel diversity as a co-founder of Women in Cloud.

Recognized consistently by CRN for her impact, Gretchen is not only a Channel Chief but also a passionate advocate for advancing women in STEM and leveraging technology to address critical sustainability challenges.

Please join us in congratulating Gretchen on this well-deserved honor. Her leadership continues to inspire us all to achieve new heights in innovation, collaboration, and customer success.

For more information about Splunk's Partnerverse Program and how it can help drive innovation and business success, check out Splunk's Partner Program. There, you’ll find details on partnership opportunities, resources, and how to connect with the right solutions for your needs.