Women in the Channel Honors Deborah Ward As LIPSTICK Award Winner

Sep 14, 2015

debward2nd Annual Honor Recognizes Female Channel Leadership

Sept. 15, 2015 – Boston –Women in the Channel (WiC), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of female channel leaders in technology, presented its second annual LIPSTICK Award to Deborah Ward, CEO of Televergence Solutions Inc. (TSI), tonight at its 10th Women in the Channel Networking Event at the Cloud Partners event in Boston.

The WiC LIPSTICK award recognizes a woman who upholds WiC values, such as leadership, integrity and passion, in their work and personal lives. The winner is selected by the WiC board of directors from nominations by the WiC membership. This year’s winner, Deborah Ward, is a seasoned and respected telecom industry veteran. Since the early 1980s, Ward has been providing leadership and strategic direction to various companies and is well versed in all aspects of the business — from sales and marketing to network and product development. In 1999, she founded TSI, a facilities-based VoIP and TDM carrier providing long distance, international and toll-free services to carriers, resellers, agents and retail end users.

Ward is a regular contributor to groups devoted to the promotion of females in executive leadership positions. She also holds the distinction of being the first woman to be chosen as chairwoman for COMPTEL, the leading industry association representing competitive communications service providers and their supplier partners in Washington DC. She was unanimously re-elected as chairwoman based on her results during the first term.

“Deborah Ward is an inspiration to women in telecom/IT and business,” said WIC President Nancy Ridge, vice president of Telecom Brokers. “Not only is she one of the few female CEOs in the male-dominated and highly competitive telecom industry, she is a respected leader among her peers. Deb epitomizes the values held by Women in the Channel. She is a loving mother, a community leader, a hard-working ranch owner and the brave wife of a bull-riding cowboy! As one of Deb’s longtime friends and admirers, I couldn’t be more pleased to name her our LIPSTICK Award winner for 2015.”

Ward is the second annual LIPSTICK Award winner. In 2014, WiC presented its first LIPSTICK Award to Bita Milanian, senior vice president of marketing communication at GENBAND, a developer of multimedia and cloud communications solutions. Milanian is a founding member and current board member for WiC.

About Women in the Channel (WiC)
Established in 2010, Women in the Channel’s mission is collaboration through Identity and Relationships to grow business. WiC is a grassroots organization made up of women who are in leadership, ownership and revenue generating roles in the alternate sales channel sector of the telecommunications industry. Month after month, these women are responsible for generating sales for their companies and creating wealth for their families. WiC members are wives and mothers and sisters, and a high percentage of us are the main breadwinners in our families. WiC brings together this group because in an industry that is growing, expanding and changing the number of women at such levels is not matching that growth. To learn more and to become a member, please visit www.womeninthechannel.com

BITA MILANIAN
bita.milanian@genband.com
310.210.3582
KHALI HENDERSON
khenderson@buzztheorystrategies.com
480.999.5297