Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 06 | Page 56

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS Centrify appoints new EMEA Channel Director Centrify, the leader in securing hybrid enterprises through the power of identity services, has appointed John Andrews as its new EMEA Channel Director. John, who reports to Vice President and Managing Director for EMEA, Andy Heather, will be responsible for setting out and delivering on the company’s long-term channel strategy and building a core set of distribution partners and VARs across the region, including the UK, DACH, Middle East, Northern Europe and Southern Europe. John, who joined from BeyondTrust, has spent the last 18 years helping to build a channel presence and coverage in the Middle East and APAC markets for market-leading security vendors, including Juniper Networks, F5 and McAfee. He also spent three years as Marketing Director for Computerlinks Distribution, managing a portfolio of more than 25 security-focused vendors. As Centrify continues to invest funds and resources into channel marketing, one of the first jobs of the new Channel Director will be to evaluate 250+ partners and focus on establishing a top 10 tier of VARs in each region. Centrify also plans to introduce an enhanced and improved virtual training platform for partners. This will include a one-week boot-camp style delivery into each region, with intensive training to bring partners up to speed on the company’s services capabilities and encourage better cross-selling and customer support. “We have built up a strong channel network across EMEA over the past few years, but now is the time to assess these relationships to ensure our partners have the right skillset and product alignment, and are committed to adding real value to our mutual customers,” commented John Andrews. “We also want to ensure we are working with channel partners that can offer specialist skills and routes into core vertical markets, including banking, retail and telcos. “Our strength is the identity message, which plays into every part of the security sell, from privileged access management and single sign on to multi-factor authentication and identity-as- a-service (IaaS). My primary goal is to support our channel partners in delivering this message to customers who are struggling to manage identity and access in today’s diverse environments, incorporating hybrid cloud, mobile and data centre.” Centrify, which appointed Exertis as its distribution partner in the UK two years ago following the decision to move to a two-tier model, will visit distributors in each country to involve them in the process and present the new corporate strategy and vision. Other distributors include Infinigate in DACH and France, StarLink in the Middle East, and DCB in Benelux. ¢ Sage Middle East appoints new Regional Director Sage has appointed Aaron White as the new Regional Director for Sage Middle East. White, who holds an MSc in Information Systems from the University of Liverpool, and has more than 20 years of industry experience, joins Sage Middle East from Hitachi Data Systems where he filled the role of General Manager for the Middle 56 East and Turkey, and was instrumental in setting up operations in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan. Commenting on his appointment, White said, “It is an exciting time to join Sage Middle East with upcoming changes such as the implementation of VAT across the GCC region, regional policies pivoting to investing and developing non-oil Xerox names Pete Peterson as global channel strategy leader Xerox has announced that Pete Peterson will serve as Senior Vice President of Global Channel Strategy. As the team lead, Peterson will be responsible for revenue and profit growth, as well as leading and executing targeted investments across direct and indirect channels worldwide. Xerox is focused on enhancing and expanding its channel reach, particularly in the $20 billion multi-brand reseller space, by providing partners a broader set of products, solutions and vertically integrated tools, technology and service delivery processes. “Now that we support the largest solutions- enabled portfolio in the industry, we’re able to bring new opportunities to the partner channel that serve small and medium businesses (SMBs),” said Kevin Warren, chief commercial officer, Xerox. “Pete is part of our investment in that channel network – bringing to Xerox the extensive experience required to ratchet up recruitment and activation of partners that are the right fit and growth potential to increase our market share with SMBs.” ¢ sectors, and continued focus on localisation. The IT solutions industry is going through a transformation influenced by the changes in the way we work, along with technological developments. I look forward to expanding Sage Middle East’s role in the region, impacting on the organisation’s growth and revenue, and continuing the great work my predecessor did in promoting and building our proposition in the market.” ¢ Issue 06 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS