New Relic Hires Channel Veteran Larissa Crandall as Global Head of Channel

Crandall’s appointment follows a year of changes at New Relic, the surveillance platform provider that was acquired and taken private for $6.5 billion, and the appointment of a new CEO in December.

New Relic, creator of the Observability platform, today announced that it has hired channel industry veteran Larissa Crandall as Global Head of Channel.

Crandall, who has held channel leadership positions at Veeam Software, Gigamon, and Kaspersky Labs, is vice president of global alliances and channels at New Relic, reporting to Chief Revenue Officer Chris Jones.

As stated in the hiring announcement, Crandall (pictured) will be responsible for further developing the company’s partner strategy and channel programs globally.

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“New Relic is a market maker and pioneer in the observational space. I am excited to join a company that continues to innovate and lead the industry with a compelling product, business model and a team committed to customer success,” Crandall said in a statement. “With the incredible partnerships we have developed, I am excited to lead New Relic’s global channel and alliances organization as the company enters its next phase of growth.”

From December 2022 to June of this year, Crandall served as vice president of global channel sales and alliances at Veeam Software, a leading manufacturer of backup and recovery software, a role he held until June 2022, according to New Relic and Crandall’s LinkedIn page.

The New Relic announcement noted that Crandall’s experience includes building Veeam’s first global partner program, rebuilding the partner certification and support program, and accelerating partner revenue generation.

Before Veeam, she worked at Gigamon, initially as a senior channel director and then as vice president of global channels and alliances for over two years. Previous roles included senior director of global channel sales at Scalr and senior director of channel sales at Kaspersky Lab, according to LinkedIn.

Crandall has received numerous awards CRN awards and distinctions, including Channel Chiefs, Women of the Channel, The Power 100 – The Most Powerful Women of the Channel and others.

A company spokesman said Crandall’s hiring is the result of an expansion of the company’s partner sales program that will add a senior leader to the position.

“In his role, Crandall will grow the partner organization, expand many parts of the company’s alliance and partner ecosystem, and help enterprises around the world realize the benefits of New Relic to drive innovation, increase reliability, and deliver better customer experiences,” according to a company statement.

Crandall’s hiring comes after a year of big changes at New Relic. Previously a public company, New Relic was acquired and privatized by private equity firm Francisco Partners and asset manager TPG in a $6.5 billion deal. (The deal was announced in July 2023 and closed in November 2023.) The ownership group also included investors Accel and CapitalG.

In December, the company hired Ashan Willy, previously CEO of cybersecurity provider Proofpoint, as the new CEO of New Relic. He replaces Bill Staples, who had been CEO since mid-2021.

Until a year ago, New Relic’s channel programs were managed by Riya Shanmugam, who served at New Relic from November 2021 to August 2023 as group vice president, global alliances and channels, and global MSP sales. In June 2022, Shanmugam oversaw a significant overhaul and expansion of New Relic’s channel operations to support the growing number and types of channel partners the company was working with.

Shanmugam left New Relic in August 2023 to co-found Hawcx, a Bay Area-based company developing passwordless authentication technology, where she serves as CEO.

“Crandall will grow New Relic’s channel presence globally, working with global and regional partners, MSPs, GSIs, and hyperscalers to strengthen best practices and catalogs to drive observability journeys and drive growth with new partners,” the company said in its announcement of her hire. “She will also focus on strengthening the partner ecosystem with resources and tools, and continuing to simplify doing business with New Relic for partners and customers.”

“With global spending on public cloud services expected to double between 2024 and 2028 and the continued rise of artificial intelligence, the need for intelligent observation has never been greater,” said Chriss Jones, chief business officer at New Relic, in the announcement.

“As these industry trends continue to drive demand for our platform, engaging our partners on a global scale will be critical to New Relic’s continued success. Larissa joins the company at a pivotal time, and I am excited for her to lead our channel and alliances program into the next phase of growth,” said Jones.