Don’t expect Dan Wensley, newly appointed CEO of the Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA) “to tip over too many apple carts in the short term.” Under the leadership of the GTIA board and team members, the industry association has a solid business and operational plan in place for 2025, Wensley says.
“There is such a great plan in place, but the couple things we do want to do in 2025, which will culminate with the kickoff at ChannelCon, is restate and reestablish our mission, our value statements, our core values, our four core pillars, and really set us on a path into 2026 to expand and grow,” Wensley says.
GTIA is the rebrand of the previous CompTIA Community, following the sale in 2024 of the CompTIA brand and the training and certification business to private equity investors. The nonprofit industry organization officially relaunched this January as GTIA, and a search has been underway for a new CEO. GTIA says the comprehensive, multinational search attracted hundreds of candidates.
Wensley, who has spent 30 years in the channel, was most recently a strategic advisor and former CEO of ScalePad and operating advisor to Top Down Ventures, venture capital company that has invested in MSP-focused businesses such as Cork, ScalePad, and Empath. Before that, he served as president of Passportal, which N-able acquired in 2021.
Aligned with GTIA’s Mission
Wensley was a board member of CompTIA a decade ago, so it’s a full circle moment for him. “I think in participating in the advancement of the overall industry and working collaboratively since that time, I’ve remained a student of the industry over the past decade plus and really saw this opportunity to expand on what I’ve enjoyed most about my 30-year career, and what frankly has made many of the businesses that I’ve been involved with successful,” Wensley says. That “sense of community and partnership and peer group development is at the forefront of what GTIA does for its members.”
As for his and GTIA’s goals, Wensley says he titled his presentation to the search committee, “The Possible.”
“This was where we really found great alignment with what the board direction for GTIA moving forward under the rebrand would be—what is possible, what could we look to grow in, how can we add additional resources, how can we enhance the collaboration across the industry?” he recounts.
Through the interview process, Wensley says he and the search committee also aligned around the four foundation pillars of value for GTIA members going forward: people, both the GTIA team and community members; resources to propel IT service providers forward; a peer group community focus; and advancement for individual members and the community as a whole.
Intentionality of the ‘G’ in GTIA
Part of Wensley’s mandate is growing membership as well as expanding globally. “The team here has done an excellent job through the transition, and over the last couple of years, expanding CompTIA, now GTIA, into global markets, into opening up new communities and new geographies.” They will look to continue that expansion, he says, and “build out additional capacities and resources and localize it for those communities.”
Wensley says GTIA will continue supporting and expanding upon the philanthropic and charitable efforts of CompTIA, such as providing pathways to IT careers, supporting people from underserved and underrepresented communities who are interested in tech careers, and more. The endowment the association received from the sale of CompTIA makes that possible, Wensley says.
“We are in a unique and blessed position to be able to truly give back at scale. The board and myself and the executive team [have] spent a lot of time talking about the right structure, getting some outside counsel on what sort of things we could be doing and where we could expand, and what’s going to have the greatest impact. … So it’s really understanding the impact of not only the monetary contribution you’re making, but how can we extend the longevity of the impact that we’re delivering.”
ChannelCon and Beyond
Taking the helm at GTIA is Wensley’s opportunity to give back, he says. “I am probably the perfect example of somebody who didn’t come from a technical background and has had an incredibly successful and inspired career inside this industry,” he says. “I’ve been blessed to be in so many emerging technologies and business transformation hype cycles in our industry over the last number of years. And this allows the broader scope of being a part of that, at this stage of my career, to be able to give back and to guide where we can take this community.”
Asked what GTIA members will hear in July at the annual ChannelCon conference, Wensley says they’ll be leaning into the theme of the human experience of the IT services channel. And of course there will be sessions on AI, cybersecurity, tariff uncertainties, and more. “If it’s going on in the market, if it’s going on in the world, we come together at ChannelCon to discuss those things,” he says.
He adds, “We’re really going to set the foundation here for the remainder of 2025 and execute against a great plan and a great curriculum and a great event schedule that we’ve got all over the globe and start to set the foundation for an even better ’26 and beyond.”
