A veteran of companies including ServiceNow and Zendesk, Francey tells CRN that the cybersecurity vendor’s AI growth strategy will continue to include greater investments across its partner base—including MSPs—with ‘tremendous opportunity’ for partners in working with Netskope going forward.
Carrie Francey, a former channel business leader at companies including ServiceNow and Zendesk, has been hired by Netskope as its new global channel chief, she said in an exclusive interview with CRN.
The hire comes amid a massive push at Netskope, a top vendor in SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), to accelerate its growth around enabling secure AI adoption with the help of partners, according to Francey and Netskope CRO Raphaël Bousquet.
[Related: Netskope CEO Sanjay Beri: Rogue Agents Make An AI ‘Kill Switch’ Mandatory]
“There’s a tremendous opportunity for us to go do that—and do more of that—to really help build and grow Netskope to the next level,” said Francey, whose title at Netskope is senior vice president of global channel sales.
Francey’s arrival comes as Netskope continues to increase its investment in partners following its initial public offering just over a year ago, Bousquet told CRN.
In the wake of the IPO in September 2025, “we have accelerated our investment in every dimension in channel—which means that now we can do more and we can do better [with partners],” he said.
Francey’s hire follows the departure of Netskope channel leader Christina Pulley in July.
Longtime Channel Exec
Francey most recently served as senior vice president for partner sales at Zendesk, a role she had held since 2024.
Prior to that, she spent five years at ServiceNow, ultimately serving as its global vice president for partnerships and channels.
Earlier roles included three years as vice president of global sales at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and more than a decade at Microsoft, including as a general manager in channel sales and marketing.
MSP Opportunity
Netskope has been placing an elevated emphasis on working with MSPs over the past year, particularly since June with the launch of the company’s Partner Orchestrator tool and revamped Catalyst MSP/SP Program.
The Netskope Partner Orchestrator aims to enable MSPs to rapidly provision tenants, apply entitlements and get customers running, according to the company.
As a result, at MSSP partner Configure, “we’re now able to do [the provisioning] in less than 15 minutes and have that ready to go,” said Bryan Hodges, vice president of operations at Configure, in a previous interview.
Meanwhile, the vendor also announced its new Netskope Catalyst MSP/SP Program, which is designed to accelerate growth with MSPs for the vendor’s AI-powered SASE platform.
Without a doubt, Netskope is seeking to boost enablement for MSPs and MSSPs amid growing demand for managed services around security and AI, according to Francey.
Going forward, the MSP segment “is an area that I see as a tremendous opportunity for us to grow and build,” Francey said.
AI Surge
At the same time, it’s increasingly clear that businesses need help from partners deploying enhanced visibility and controls to protect against unwanted activities by their own AI systems—including the potential for “rogue” AI agents, Netskope co-founder and CEO Sanjay Beri told CRN in October.
Crucially, there’s no question that partners have a major role to play in helping businesses deploy and manage those protections, Beri said during an episode of CRN’s Security or Else! video series.
When it comes to customers, “they need help. They need advice. They need consulting,” he said. “And if you can be that trusted advisor who’s an expert, you have a golden role for the next decade in front of you.”
Ultimately, AI security presents a huge opportunity for Netskope to help empower the shift in the channel toward greater services businesses, according to Francey.
“I think the next step is helping them drive adoption and build strong practices—and really build offerings that allow them to go out and service their customers,” she said. “AI is at the core—it’s foundational to all of that.”
What follows is more of CRN’s interview with Francey.
What prompted the move to Netskope?
I’ve worked across the channel pretty much my whole career. I’ve worked in go-to-market, I’ve worked in sales, I’ve [had experience] working with technology alliances—but also the broader channel as well. When I started speaking with [CRO] Raphaël [Bousquet], and I had an opportunity to speak with [CEO] Sanjay [Beri] as well, really the conversation about bringing together a global channel was very compelling. I’ve been a builder at heart, and I love building partner ecosystems and channels. So this really gave me the right opportunity to come and do that with Netskope.
How would you describe the channel philosophy you’re bringing to the role?
From a philosophy standpoint, [while] a lot of organizations have channels, I think what Netskope brings is a channel-first approach. I really believe that when organizations are building channels, it is so important for channel and the ecosystem to be part of one of the strategic pillars. And that is something that I really saw as well [at Netskope]—it’s part of the strategy. It’s part of the board discussions. It’s part of how the company goes to market. [Netskope] has a mindset of working with the ecosystem, and I think that’s imperative.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities with MSPs?
The market is really driven towards the MSP business. There are a lot of partners out there, whether they’re traditional GSIs or resellers, that are really moving into the managed services space as well. So I think the opportunity is significant. Netskope has done some of that already, and has been working with the MSPs quite actively. But that is an area that I see as a tremendous opportunity for us to grow and build—not just with our sales organization, but as importantly, with our product organization. So that tight integration between product and sales in the channel, I think, is really important. We don’t want to lose sight of some of the regional partners as well, some of the regional integrators, because I do think that there’s a different need based on geography.
I think what’s evolving with advisory—it’s not just building a practice, it’s also making sure that they’re building a practice where they’re driving adoption, they’re driving consumption of the technology as well. And I really think that there’s a tremendous opportunity for us to go do that—and do more of that—to really help build and grow Netskope to the next level.
How did Netskope’s position in AI factor into your decision to join the company as channel chief?
AI as a whole is disrupting the go-to-market journey [starting at] the beginning of the sales cycle. Customers are now looking to buy AI in a very different way [from prior technologies]. And I think that’s something that we could be bringing to our partner ecosystem as well—working with them in terms of acquisition, but also not just acquiring customers, but also driving implementation and delivery. One of the things that we do well at Netskope today is working with our partners from a technology perspective and enabling them. But I think the next step is helping them drive adoption and build strong practices—and really build offerings that allow them to go out and service their customers. But absolutely, AI is at the core—it’s foundational to all of that.
All in all, what are your initial priorities as channel chief at Netskope?
First of all, [it’s about] just coming in and really understanding the culture of Netskope, but then also [getting to know] the partners that we’re working with today. So I think a lot of it is coming and listening and understanding where the great things are and where there are areas that we need to continue to develop.
[Additionally] we just need to make sure that we have the right opportunities available to our partners—to make sure that they have the right technical enablement, make sure that we have the right programs, make sure that we’re really building the things that are going to help our partners serve our customers in the best way. Those are some of the top priorities coming in. We’re all-in with partners.
