‘The rapid technological advancements, so much changing, so much moving exponentially quickly–that’s a big opportunity,’ Microsoft VP and Netrio Board Member Lori Borg says.
Lori Borg sees MSPs as “at a critical turning point” in the artificial intelligence era, and she’s bringing her business leadership to two sides of the channel with a recent appointment as a board member at partner heavyweight Netrio and as vice president of Americas go-to-market (GTM) strategy in Microsoft’s Global Partner Solutions (GPS) organization.
“The rapid technological advancements, so much changing, so much moving exponentially quickly–that’s a big opportunity,” Borg told CRN in an interview. “The increasing cybersecurity threats that we all hear about–another big opportunity. Talent shortage, shift to the cloud and digital transformation. That’s a little bit older, but still obviously very, very prevalent, particularly in some of our smaller IT shops.”
CRN caught up with Borg about her new roles and how AI is changing what it means to be a solution provider like McKinney, Texas-based Netrio-a memberof CRN’s 2025 MSP 500 that supports 1,000-plus customers and has about 250 employees nationwide.
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Netrio Buys Agio
Her channel bona fides include founding and leading Microsoft solution provider Northwest Cadence as CEO for about 11 years, according to her LinkedIn profile. Northwest Cadence achieved the first Microsoft Gold DevOps partner status in the U.S.
She sold the company to 10th Magnitude in 2018 and continued with the company in leadership roles. Borg then served as 10th Magnitude’s chief growth officer when the solution provider sold to Cognizant in 2020.
Borg joined Microsoft’s GPS organization in January after about four years with MCA Connect. She left the solution provider as its senior vice president of manufacturing intelligence and chief growth officer.
Her mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experience make her a fit for the board of Netrio, the board member said. Netrio’s acquisition spree continued Wednesday with the purchase of Agio, a New York-based managed IT and cybersecurity provider specializing in the financial services sector. Borg’s interview with CRN happened before the acquisition was announced. In November, Netrio bought Buffalo, N.Y.-based MSP PCA Technology Group.
Here’s more of what Borg had to say, edited for space and clarity.
What brought you to Netrio?
There is an incredible opportunity in front of us as an MSP. The MSP market in general is at a critical turning point.
I believe that Netrio is so well positioned to lead this next wave of innovation in the MSP space.
The rapid technological advancements, so much changing, so much moving exponentially quickly–that’s a big opportunity.
The increasing cybersecurity threats that we all hear about–another big opportunity. Talent shortage, shift to the cloud and digital transformation. That’s a little bit older, but still obviously very, very prevalent, particularly in some of our smaller IT shops.
There’s so much opportunity for us to serve our customers better. And MSPs are uniquely qualified to be able to do that. And Netrio specifically is … well positioned to lead in this next wave.
I got connected through Netrio with some of my friends and connections in the community. I got to know Netrio, actually, last year.
Over the course of a lot of conversations and getting to know the board and the executive team over time, I think the stars aligned. My background being very specific in go-to-market strategy, operational excellence, organizational growth–having built and built and grown and transacted a couple of companies–and then, having spent most of my professional life in the in the partner ecosystem, I think all of the background that I have helps fill a seat on the Netrio board as Netrio is going through some pretty transformative things
As a board director at Netrio, I feel very privileged to be able to tap into the areas where I’ve spent so much of my time and help them bring strategy and perspective and guidance and ideas around those areas.
What lessons should other partners take away from Netrio?
I’ve worked with a lot of executive teams over the years, and I’m so impressed with the team at Netrio.
One of the things that the team has done is created such a clear vision on where we’re going as a company.
Netrio has a very unique focus on meeting the needs of small and medium sized enterprises.
I talk a lot about the importance of embracing your superpowers as a Microsoft partner, and Netrio has done an incredible job of saying, ‘This is very specifically the market that we know that we can serve really, really well in a very unique and differentiated way.’
So having that clarity of focus as well as just the vision, I think, is very special and unique and important for any executive team to have.
I like the folks at Netrio a lot. So, you know, we all like to work with people who we like and trust. That likability and that trust element are super important to me, and that’s something that I really connected on with Netrio very early on as I built some of those relationships with the executive team and the board.
What are some past roles that have helped prepare you for this board work?
I have both sides of the coin when it comes to board work, having built a company, sold it, built the next one, sold it.
I have gone through a lot of strategy, planning, execution and transaction, working closely with boards who were involved in private equity backing for firms that I owned or was helping grow.
I have a lot of board experience from that side, as the business operator. And I also have served on nonprofit boards as a board member.
It’s a unique seat for me to be in, not as an operator of the business, but as a board member helping serve and work with the operators of Netrio to build their business.
What are some of the biggest opportunities for the channel looking ahead?
The emerging technologies. AI is a big part of it, but there is so much new opportunity that’s in front of every corporation.
For businesses of all sizes to be able to optimize and automate and streamline how they’re running their businesses–and to be able to spend more time on what they do best, not on running the backend infrastructure and IT systems for their business–is critical.
It just provides an incredible opportunity for companies to serve their customers differently. And because it’s providing that incredible opportunity for companies, it also provides an incredible opportunity for all those partners that are serving those companies.
That’s the whole ripple effect of the technological advancements in the era of AI and how it’s impacting all of us in that really positive way.
On the other side of that point, there’s some of the risk that comes with that, which is why companies need to be cautious.
But also that’s why there’s opportunity for Microsoft partners and for MSPs, specifically, with some of the cybersecurity concerns and the regulatory landscapes.
There’s a lot to manage and protect and govern. And it’s moving so quickly. While there’s great opportunity, there’s some increased, new challenges that everybody needs to be really aware of.
Does having an industry expertise rather than just being a general-purpose MSP become more important in the AI era?
There’s great value in being really good at that niche market that you’re serving, and whether that niche market is a particular industry or two or a particular persona that you’re serving–in the case of Netrio, again, it’s the very particular needs of small and medium sized enterprises.
With everything going on in our world and all of the technological advancements, making sure that we’re really good at what we’re delivering as a partner is critical rather than trying to do everything and be all things to all people and peanut butter it across.
Because that’s where you run into problems, and that’s where risk is exposed.
Has the economic environment been a hindrance to digital investment?
My hope is that every corporation out there is using this point in time to consider how they might leverage the technological advancements to serve their customers better.
Not every company is going to invest. Many will, to stay competitive and to remain relevant.
We are at a very unique point in time in market history where there’s so much opportunity and a lot of opportunity for transformation, as well as maturing businesses.
