The Best Team for Outsourced Business Development
Granada Partners has assembled a global team of experts that bring a successful track record in both Fortune 100 and technology startup environments.
Managing Partner
- William R. (Butch) Winters – Silicon Valley, California, United States
Partners
- Kevin M. Green – London, England
- Jim A. Dillard – Silicon Valley, California, United States
- David L. Hilton – Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States
- Curtis R. John – Silicon Valley, California, United States
- Jennifer L. Kula – Silicon Valley, California, United States
- Larry J. Lozon – Dallas, Texas, United States
- Alan W. Probert – Silicon Valley, California, United States
Interns
- Billy Winters – Silicon Valley, California, United States
Granada Partners' Team Members
William R. (Butch) Winters
Managing Partner
Silicon Valley, California, United States
Contact via email
With a 25-year successful track record in both Fortune 100 and startup environments, Butch Winters brings deep operating experience to assist emerging companies navigate growth in strategic positioning, client acquisition and partner alliances. Winters has become a bankable partner to the world’s most respected venture firms by delivering investor return through M&A exits in his last four companies; including transactions with Oracle, Motorola and Critical Path.
After the sale of Active Reasoning to Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) in September 2007, Winters has focused on building his Granada Partners consultancy. At Active Reasoning, Winters built a global client base by selling products in 59 countries on six continents to make Active Reasoning the leading provider of IT Controls Automation Software for IT Governance. The Active Reasoning platform operationalizes standards such as ITIL & COBIT, detecting, validating and reporting unauthorized changes and out-of-policy actions on the IT infrastructure. The software helps Fortune 500 clients meet SLAs, mitigate operational risk and reduce expenses.
Previously, Butch Winters served at Siebel Systems where he was the Vice President & General Manager of Alliances and was responsible for worldwide alliances, and partnership and channel strategy. Under his direction, the alliances organization sourced more than one-third of Siebel's worldwide revenues across four continents through targeted, go-to-market strategies with Accenture, Bearingpoint, Capgemini, Deloitte, EDS, HP, Intel, IBM, Infosys, Microsoft, Sun, Tata & Wipro. He led partner integration as key member of the core team that drove the acquisition of Siebel by Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) in 2006.
Prior to joining Siebel, Butch Winters spent five years in the venture-backed startup sector. As Chairman & CEO at Fabrik Communications, he built this email application gateway service provider into a leader that addressed the reliability, scalability and functionality demands of the corporate market. After ramping the business to over 250,000 subscribers, Winters generated a positive return for management and shareholders through the sale to Critical Path (NASDAQ: CPTH) in 1999.
Next, as Chairman & CEO at Neomar Inc., Winters built the company into a leading developer of systems management, application delivery and mobile device software for wireless network providers and Fortune 1000 enterprises. Winters built a channel of distribution that included 724 Solutions, Aether Systems, Bell Mobility, Cingular Wireless, EarthLink, MDSI Mobile Data Solutions, Motient, Palm, Nextel, Research In Motion, Sprint & T-Mobile. Winters generated a solid gain through the acquisition of the Neomar Enterprise Server by Motorola (NYSE: MOT).
Winters spent eleven years building three business units that delivered more than $3 billion in sales for Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), serving most recently as Division President of its Internet & Electronic Commerce business. Prior to EDS, Winters spent four years as Western Region Sales Manager at Cable & Wireless, PLC.
Butch Winters holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University with continuing studies at Stanford University and University Of Chicago.
Jim A. Dillard
Senior Director, Inside Sales
Silicon Valley, California, United States
Contact via email
Jim Dillard has 10 years experience in both business development and enterprise software sales. While at Zend Jim managed the IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, and Adobe relationships. The IBM relationship entailed working with multiple divisions, the hardware and software groups, at multiple levels, GM and CTO down to execution levels, in multiple functions including sales, marketing, R&D, ISV, product development and support. Revenue was generated via OEM and direct sales.
For the Oracle, Microsoft, and Adobe relationships Jim developed and executed partner programs that leverages the brands, financial resources, and expertise of these partners. Prior to that Jim Dillard worked in sales capacities at various enterprise software companies that offered both demand & supply side solutions.
Jim graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A., Communication Studies and a Minor in Business Economics.
Kevin M. Green
General Partner
London, England, United Kingdom
Contact via email
Kevin started his career in electrical/electronics engineering, gaining qualifications in both electronic systems and IT applications. Since moving into strategic sales 20 years ago Kevin has concentrated on leading sales and alliance initiatives for Fortune 500 clients who sell software solutions for communications and mobile data.
Kevin also founded, ran and raised four rounds of funding for a wireless ISP/ASP company that subsequently issued an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. He has held non-executive board positions with early stage companies to advance their presence in Europe. Kevin’s focus for these clients included defining strategic objectives, revenue plans and the associated marketing execution.
The focus of Kevin’s partner business development has been collaboration with companies in the telecom's and mobile applications markets including Fujitsu, CSC, Unisys, Nokia & Sony Ericsson as well as strategic telecommunication vendors such as Cisco in Mobile Broadband Traffic Management and Comverse in International Roaming.
In addition, Kevin has established a Canadian mobile SaaS, Telecom Expense Management company Momentem as one of Orange-France Telecom Group’s success stories of “How to work with Orange” in their Partner Program - creating one of only 3 Partner Case Studies ever publicized by Orange. Kevin’s work with Momentem also enabled them to become one of RIM’s top 10 business applications globally through their Blackberry Application Shop.
David L. Hilton
General Partner
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States
Contact via email
David Hilton has over 26 years experience acquired at top companies in the computer services industry such as Electronic Data Systems, Capgemini, Affiliated Computer Services, T-Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Computer Sciences Corporation.
David’s successful track record spans sales, alliances, channels, marketing, and program management.
At Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) until 2011, Hilton served as Principal in developing business in the automotive and manufacturing industries. He was responsible for the strategy, tactics, partnerships and business development for this segment that represented a key part of Computer Sciences Corporations commercial business.
At T-Systems from 2007 to 2008, David Hilton was the National Director of Application Management Services responsible for the development and success of application development and support services in the United States and for coordinating these services throughout all of the Americas where the sales were driven by T-Systems capabilities in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. In addition to his role, David also led the T-Systems partnership in MexicoIT, a consortium of several Mexican IT companies (that included Neoris, Hildebrando, and Softek). He was also selected by the German Executive Sales team to act as the sales trainer for the Mexican, Brazilian, and Argentinean sales organizations.
During his Capgemini tenure, David was the firm's voice to the automotive industry and developed a very strong automotive pipeline through the use of alliance relationships and his association with advisory service companies.
Prior to Capgemini from 2000 to 2005, Hilton served as Director and Principal at Lockheed Martin (this part of Lockheed Martin was later acquired by Affiliated Computer Services) where he was responsible for commercial sales for Lockheed Martin’s System Integration Division, then later becoming the General Motors Program Manager for business services (which included Business Intelligence, Testing, Requisition to Post, and many consulting and delivery services).
At Electronic Data Systems from 1989 to 1998, David was responsible for building and running the Client Server sales and delivery organization. During the time in this position, David Hilton was able to double the size of the sales revenue. David was instrumental in building the growth of these services by defining the services, building their value propositions, and growing the relationships with the regional alliance partners required to grow the business.
Prior to Electronic Data Systems in 1989, Hilton was one of the founders of Net Tech which was recognized as one of the 25 largest LAN system integrators by LAN magazine in the first 1.5 years that they were in business. This rapid growth was largely due to key alliance building between Net Tech and their partners that was driven by David Hilton.
David holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Business Administration and History from Principia College. He has continued studies in executive management programs at Wayne State University, Stanford University, Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, Babson College, Pennsylvania State University, Notre Dame, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Auburn University, University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania. Hilton also teaches classes on outsourcing and off shoring for graduate classes at Oakland University.
Curtis R. John
General Partner
Silicon Valley, California, United States
Contact via email
Curtis John brings more than 20 years of experience to Granada Partners, providing consulting and IT services to Fortune 500 companies. During his career he has become a trusted advisor to C-Level executives, assisting with strategic planning and delivery of IT projects and systems, sales, business development, channels and marketing.
Curtis has an excellent track record of preparing and delivering laser focused value propositions that result in clear, concise technology recommendations to support targeted business and business development strategies in a wide range of industries that include Financial, Insurance, Manufacturing, Health Care, Communications and Media & Entertainment.
During his 10 year tenure at Electronic Data Systems, Mr. John managed service delivery for a $500M book of business for domestic High Technology Manufacturing clients such as Palm, Maxtor, Cisco, Agilent, Fujitsu, Hyperion, Microsoft, and STK. During this time he participated on several Deal Teams, focusing on delivery as well as contract negotiation strategies.
As National Director of the Communications Practice at Price Waterhouse, he led business development and strategic planning initiatives as well as teams responsible for deployment of infrastructure systems in support of application implementation engagements. Clients included Stone Container, Hewlett Packard, Bank of America, CNA Insurance and Baxter.
Curtis attended the University of Wisconsin, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Computer Science degree from Carroll University. Continuing education credits include technology, management, leadership and business course work through companies such as EDS and IBM.
Jennifer L. Kula
General Partner
Silicon Valley, California, United States
Contact via email
Jennifer is an accomplished business development and strategic alliances professional with a passion for creating and selling differentiated solutions through partnerships. With over 15 years of experiencee in the high-tech industry, she is an avid problem solver and a start-up enthusiast with a vast understanding of multiple layers of partnering strategy including SIs, ISVs, OEMs, VAR and Distribution partners. Her contributions include developing go to market strategy, joint value proposition development, evaluating, recruiting and implementing partnerships to broaden market reach for her clients and initating and developing ecosystem relationships that extend the market opportunities and overall revenue potential of her clients.
One of Jennifer’s career highlights was working at IDC with some of Silicon Valley’s leading Fortune 100 executives. Companies such as Oracle, Symantec, NetApp, Juniper, AT&T, Accenture, Sybase and Brocade were introduce to innovative approaches to winning market mindshare through strategic partnering by Jennifer.
In addition to Jennifer’s business development, strategic alliance and sales skils, she is also a proven industry analyst, SaaS PRM board member and an active participant in Silicon Valley’s Association of Strategic Alliances as a member of the Executive Advisory Board.
Larry J. Lozon
General Partner
Dallas, Texas, United States
Contact via email
A technology and marketing corporate leader and innovative entrepreneur, Larry has over two decades of experience in both early stage and large public companies. He started his career with General Motors and managed through the acquisition of EDS where he lead numerous high profile technical and marketing programs.
His first startup was formed at the request of GM in the mid-90’s. Called GM Cyberworks, Larry’s team pioneered many web media standards still in use in digital advertising and marketing processes on the web today
Larry built his next startup in the late 90’s during the dotcom boom, funded by several high profile venture funds. Privaseek / Persona was formed to bring single signon and identity control to web users.
Early 2000s found EDS looking for a new leader to bring their $5 billion hosting portfolio into a competitive stance. Larry was named as EDS’ Global Vice President of their Hosting Portfolio. Larry lead his global team in pioneering early instances of service oriented architectures, acquiring the first cloud based hosting platform, Loudcloud for $63m, launching a global rollout of server automation using Opsware and deploying initial large scale virtual machine farms to enable mass client server estate consolidation using VMWare and other early virtualization tools.
Prior to EDS’ sale to HP, Larry left the firm to return to startup activities, forming his next venture, Ideawerx which leverages his ability to see creative and profitable uses for technology and helps clients build successful businesses that leverage these insights.
Alan W. Probert
General Partner
Silicon Valley, California, United States
Contact via email
With a successful history of working in both Europe and the USA, Alan Probert has created solutions and driven sales for a broad range of companies; from IBM to start ups. Alan's passion is enabling partner eco-systems that add value, while ensuring that the partners fully represent and promote the technology solution to their clients.
Since founding his own consultancy in 2006 Alan has been working for a number of clients to define new vertical solutions and enabling the related sales, services, and marketing necessary for rapid revenue growth. At Endeca, Alan built relationships with leading SI's and achieved selection of Endeca as a standard offering within the solution portfolios of three of the largest SI and consultancy firms.
Previously Alan worked for Active Reasoning, where he was responsible for the two largest deployments of the Active Reasoning GRC solution; these projects were for in-house governance at two leading outsourcing firms.
Prior to that, Alan served at Business Objects where he had global responsibility for strategic SI and software partners. He instigated the relationship with SAP, and drove joint solutions that attained dominant market share in oil, pharmaceutical and telco verticals. He then leveraged the SAP relationship to enable Business Objects to become the de-facto BI standard at the top 3 global SI and outsourcing firms. The resulting industry solutions and customer base were key factors in the SAP decision to acquire Business Objects.
While in Europe, Alan worked for IBM where he had led sales and marketing of the newly formed European Retail Consulting group. Earlier in his IBM career he was an account executive to a major UK retailer, selling and deploying the first complete eCommerce supply chain solution in the UK.
Alan has a degree from the University of Leeds (UK) in Physics, with additional qualifications in Economics, Management Studies and Logistics
Granada Partners' Interns
Billy Winters
Intern - Legal & Contracts
Silicon Valley, California, United States
Contact via email
Billy Winters studies Intellectual Property Law at Santa Clara University's School of Law and provides legal and contractual support to Granada Partners. In this role, Mr. Winters compiles contractual requirements from Granada Partners' clients and prospects, builds draft contracts and submits them to outside legal counsel for review and approval. Additionally, Mr. Winters provides supporting research assistance to Granada Partners' partners, clients and advisors.
In addition to his studies at Santa Clara University, Mr. Winters graduated from St. Mary's College of California, attended Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island and is a graduate of Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo.
Want to Learn More About Building Partnerships with Systems Integrators, Outsourcers, Software Companies, SaaS and Cloud Vendors?
Contact Butch Winters, Alan Probert, Kevin Green, David Hilton or Jennifer Kula today to discuss how your company would benefit from Granada Partners' Outsourced Business Development Strategy Assessment. During this confidential, ninety-minute conference call diagnostic, we'll speak with key members of your management team to review your business development, corporate development and technology alliance processes and develop a focused, actionable diagnostic report that highlights areas for improvements and presents recommended paths to success.