Steve Johns (LAB3)
Microsoft strategic partner manager Steve Johns has left the company for Melbourne start-up LAB3 as its head of alliances.
In the new role, Johns will be responsible for building on strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Red Hat and Hashicorp as well as co-creating intellectual property (IP) and building up a go-to-market plan into packaged managed services capabilities.
Johns comes to the role after a number of years as Microsoft global strategic partner manager, a position that saw him address the markets in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Johns also handled the Singapore market in a similar capacity from 2016 to 2018.
Other partner-facing positions over more than 17 years at Microsoft included strategic telco partner lead for Asia, partner account manager for cloud business development with Telstra and the channel marketing manager for Canada.
He has also held roles at Webcentral, OzEmail Internet prior to its acquisition by iiNet and Indigo Pacific.
On his transition, Johns said his focus is on putting people first.
“If you help others reach their goals, your own goals get fulfilled, and you have more fun along the way,” he said.
“With technology advancing, the people side in my view becomes even more important, as it’s been said that people do the innovation, not the tech, and we all need to surround ourselves with great people and great partnerships.”
