Spotlight on Mike Nevin

Mike Nevin launched The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals in Europe in 2002. He is a speaker at Women in Alliances annual summit. In this article learn more about him

Why did you agree to present at the Women in Alliances Annual Summit 2025?

I founded Women in Alliances because I am passionate about helping women succeed in alliance roles without prejudice.

How did you get into partnerships?

I launched The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals in Europe in 2002.

What do you love the most about it?

The elegance of the collaboration model. In the best alliances, you take something that you have a surfeit of and use that to attract partnerships with people and organizations that have a surfeit of something that you either don’t have or have very little of. You don’t need complicated contracts, and you can start effective alliances very quickly. Done right, they are an extremely agile business model.

What are the biggest challenges?

The lack of support from the sales community for the role of alliances. Despite all the evidence to the contrary alliance managers are still seen as failed salesmen.

What attributes make you good at your job within Partnerships?

Emotional Intelligence and the desire to share knowledge with other people.

How important is networking and face-to-face in your role?

Essential. In fact. I run regular alliance face-to-face networking meetings to allow the alliance community in the UK to thrive.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to shift from a different role into partnerships?

Be clear about how you will go about partnering with target companies and be sure that your organization REALLY does support partnerships rather than just paying lip service to the idea.

How have partnerships changed in the last 5 – 10 years?

They have become more agile and faster moving, and the emphasis has passed from binary one-to-one partnerships to a consideration of alliance and partnership ecosystems.

How important do you think partnerships will be in the next five years?

Essential because the advent of agentic AI will mean more opportunities for people and companies to find the ‘perfect product fit’ with potential partners far more easily and effectively.

How are you helping raise the profile of women in partnerships?

I recommend WIA to any female I come across in my day-to-day work.

What would your key piece of advice be for colleagues in partnerships?

Hang Tough! You will have some hard times convincing non collaborative people about the benefits of alliances and partnerships, but don’t give up because there are other people out there like you. You are not made, and you are not ‘going native’ no matter what your ‘hard talking’ CRO says. You are the guardians of the most cost-effective business development methodology known to man, and the future holds the promise of alliance and partnership sales overtaking direct sales as the preferred method of business development. When that happens, alliance and partnership professionals will be seen as the most important group in business development.

Join WIA Annual Summit

Connect with Mike