Julie Sanford is now “responsible for leading the strategy and programs that power Stripe’s partner GTM motion,” according to her LinkedIn account.
Microsoft channel executive Julie Sanford has moved to Stripe and taken on the role of head of global partner marketing at a time when the payments vendor has been revamping its partner program and when channel economics in the AI era is top of mind for solution providers.
The former vice president of go-to-market, programs and operations for Microsoft’s Global Partner Solutions (GPS) organization—which serves the Redmond, Wash.-based technology giant’s 500,000-plus channel partners worldwide—updated her LinkedIn account to show her move to Stripe, which makes online and in-person payment technology.
Sanford is now “responsible for leading the strategy and programs that power Stripe’s partner GTM motion across one of the most complex partner ecosystems in tech — spanning platforms, SIs, technology partnerships, financial partners, and a fast-growing cohort of AI companies.”
“Our team’s focus is building the coherent marketing strategy, operating model, and infrastructure needed to scale Stripe’s partner business as it becomes an increasingly important driver of growth,” Sanford said on her LinkedIn account.
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Julie Sanford Leaves Microsoft For Stripe
CRN has reached out to Sanford, South San Francisco, Calif.-based Stripe and Microsoft for comment.
Manu Gopinath, president of Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based solution provider UST, told CRN in a recent interview that Microsoft and the other hyperscalers remain important partners to the company even as it pursues deeper relationships with AI startups like Anthropic.
Gopinath and his team have seen greater opportunities lately helping clients navigate the wave of agentic AI, navigating whether large language models (LLMs) are the appropriate tool for a client’s given issue and how to apply the technology to verticals ranging from health care to banking, while also navigating new business models in consulting, including outcome-based approaches.
“Customer conversations are about, ‘Hey, I don’t want to just buy talent or just seats. Can you promise an outcome at a much better cost point?’ Gopinath said. “For us, it’s moving more toward an outcome-based, a performance-based (approach). ‘Can you guarantee performance and outcome versus let me buy these software seats and try to play around with it with you guys and make it work?’ That’s starting to shift.”
Although Sanford’s new role doesn’t explicitly mention outcome-based business models, the changing economic model is one Stripe has studied, as evident in an article the vendor published in late 2025 about how solution providers can use that pricing model to get paid in new ways such as for each support ticket resolved and per hour of equipment uptime delivered.
Sanford Played Major Role In Microsoft Partner Organization
Sanford worked at Microsoft for about 20 years, ascending the ranks from group product manager for the Project desktop business to the VP roles she held for about five years. She made CRN’s Channel Chiefs list multiple times.
Stripe’s partner ecosystem includes 2026 CRN Solution Provider 500 members Accenture, Infosys, Insight, Slalom and other businesses with a variety of partner business models.
Sanford’s jump to Stripe comes as the payment technology vendor invests in its channel partner program. In April, Stripe updated its partner program with new standards covering technical expertise, business impact and customer success, raising the bar for partner participation, according to an article on Stripe’s website.
As Microsoft’s VP of GTM, programs and operations in GPS, Sanford was “responsible for the end-to-end go-to-market strategy, programs, experiences and operations across Microsoft’s commercial ecosystem, empowering partners to build and sell intelligent cloud and intelligent edge solutions at scale that help our customers achieve their business outcomes,” according to her LinkedIn account.
Sanford has been a long-time advocate for Microsoft’s channel, preaching the importance of a partner program that is evergreen, helps partners seize new opportunities and delivers added value for partners to build and extend core cloud capabilities with their own intellectual property (IP), deployment and integration services, she told CRN for its annual Channel Chiefs feature earlier this year. Sanford ranked among the “most influential” Channel Chiefs this year.
“I believe our channel partners are our only way for Microsoft to deliver on its company mission,” she said in the feature. “They help us scale to every country, every industry, and every organization on the planet.”
This year, Sanford also ranked among CRN’s Power 100 Women of the Channel. In 2024, CRN named her Woman of the Year in the vendor/distributor category.
Last year, Stripe notably hired Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Health and Public Sector Industries Tyler Bryson as its new chief revenue officer of the Americas. In June, Stripe promoted Bryson to overall CRO, according to his LinkedIn account.
