Sophos names Ciaran Rafferty new VP for UK and Ireland

IT security and data protection firm Sophos has appointed Ciaran Rafferty as its new vice president of UK and Ireland.

Based at the company’s headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Rafferty will lead and manage Sophos’s UK&I sales and marketing function, and help develop the company’s global sales programme strategy.

Formerly VP of SAP UK&I, Rafferty joins Sophos from SAP global partner Seidor, where he held the position of director and exceeded growth targets to raise the company’s UK profile.

Rafferty’s role at Sophos will include strengthening relationships with Sophos’s reseller community, identifying opportunities in which to grow the data protection business and engaging with customers to identify higher levels of service excellence.

As VP of Sophos UK&I, Rafferty will be responsible for understanding the market opportunity for Sophos resellers, VARs, integrators and distributors, and feeding this knowledge into the development of the Sophos Partner Programme strategy, announced earlier this year.

Chris Doggett, director of global channel programmes, says: “Sophos’ business is built on high value partnerships and our complete commitment to achieving joint success with our partners. As we look to grow our business, it will be this foundation that will be integral to leadership in a competitive marketplace. Ciaran brings extensive experience and a deep understanding of the needs of our partners to our own organisation, both of which are key to ensuring continued growth and profitability for our partners and for Sophos.”

Adds Rafferty: “Data loss prevention, compliance and encryption will remain the top priorities for UK businesses throughout the next 12 months. This represents a great opportunity for VARs to grow revenue and increase customer retention rates. My job will be to ensure that existing Sophos partners have access to the right solutions and support in order to make the most of these opportunities, as well as meet our aggressive partner recruitment targets over the next twelve months.”