John Atkinson is a seasoned sales leader with an impressive background in managing, building and developing organizations for start-ups and evolving businesses. With extensive experience in channel, sales and business development strategy, he has demonstrated exceptional skills in driving growth, value selling and consultative selling. John's technical background, coupled with cloud and security experience, has equipped him with a unique set of skills to excel in IT strategy, service automation, data center architecture and operations.

A graduate of the University of California, Davis where he studied Bachelor of Arts in Public Service, Political Science, John also earned a Master of Business Administration from the New York Institute of Technology. Over his career, John held various leadership positions such as VP of Strategic Alliances and Channels at WhiteHat Security, Sales Director at PowWow Mobile, Director of North America Channel Sales and Technical Director of Strategic Alliances at Sumo Logic. He also worked at BMC Software where he served as Advisory Consultant of Strategic Accounts Practice Lead and Manager of Pre-Sales Consulting, Northwest US. Additionally, John worked at Motorola, Inc. where he was the Data Center and Operations Architect; Amgen, Inc. where he was the Associate Director of IT Operations, and Robert Half Technologies where he was an IT Management Consultant.

John Atkinson is currently serving as the Global VP of Partnerships at Planet, where he provides strategic leadership for the global partner ecosystem. His extensive expertise in cloud computing, virtualization strategy, SaaS, and ITIL v3 Foundation Certification has helped him achieve great success in all his roles.