The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance (CRMEA) has announced Pankaj Monga, president and CEO of Channel Fusion, as the recipient of the 2024 Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award.
Mr. Monga will receive the award during the CRMEA’s annual meeting Tuesday, Jan. 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cedar Rapids Convention Complex in downtown Cedar Rapids.
“Pankaj Monga exemplifies the values we associate with Howard Hall, certainly in the way he leads his company, but also in the way he has elevated community discussions beyond the business world,” CRMEA executive director Doug Neumann said in a release. “Among many other accomplishments, Pankaj has shown outstanding resilience and passion for what he does in the way he has built his business, literally from the ground up. We are so pleased to honor him with this award.”
The Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award is named for industrialist and philanthropist Howard Hall (1894-1971), who used his influence to create a better local economy and community. Mr. Hall was dedicated to the development of the region and frequently worked behind the scenes to attract new businesses and jobs.
The Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the Economic Alliance, is given to a premier business leader or couple who exemplifies the outstanding, enduring business values of Howard Hall and his passion for a vibrant Cedar Rapids.
Mr. Monga serves as president and CEO of Channel Fusion, a tech-enabled services company he founded in 2003 in his basement, which is now operating in three different countries and has more than 170 employees.
In his role as president and CEO, Mr. Monga consults C-level executives in global, industry-leading Fortune 500 companies such as John Deere, Michelin, Pirelli, Hankook, Timberland and Johnson Controls, among others, on global channel incentive and enablement initiatives while guiding the creation of new pillars of technology and services for his company’s future growth.
In October 2013, Mr. Monga started Channel Fusion India as an overseas division of the company to help strengthen execution and delivery for Channel Fusion clients and help port successful channel marketing initiatives for Channel Fusion clients in the emerging Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions.
In 2021, Mr. Monga started Channel Fusion Mexico to continue to expand the company’s footprint in the Latin America (LATAM) market.
Mr. Monga has over 30 years’ experience in the channel marketing industry, working with many complex channel incentive and trade promotion programs over a multitude of industries. He has served on the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance policy board as well as the Openloop Technologies board and currently sits on the board of Higher Learning Technologies, the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) Board, the Technology Commercialization Committee, the Ohnward Bank Advisory Board and the ISA Ventures Advisory Board.
