Sophos appoints new SVP of sales for EMEA

Cyber security firm Sophos has announced the appointment of Gerard Allison as its new senior vice president of sales for the EMEA region.

The seasoned channel executive joins the business from Exclusive Networks and boasts more than 30 years of industry experience in helping businesses increase revenue, develop sales programmes, training and enablement, as well as building customer and partner engagement.

Prior to his spell at Exclusive Networks, he also worked at Gigamom and Juniper Networks.

Announcing the appointment, Sophos chief revenue officer Michael Valentine said Allison will work to accelerate its growth efforts across the region.

“Gerard has a deep understanding of the distribution and reseller channel, as well as extensive knowledge of successfully establishing new routes to market,” he said.

“With this impressive track record, Gerard will be a valuable and important Sophos sales leader overseeing EMEA, particularly as we head into 2023 with our new Sophos Managed Detection and Response service.”

Headquartered in Oxford, Sophos specialises in providing advanced cyber security solutions, including managed detection and response (MDR), and incident response services, as well as a range of endpoint, network, email, and cloud security offerings.

The company has grown to become one of the largest pure-play cyber security providers, protecting more than 500,000 organisations and over 100 million users around the world via its network of resellers and MSPs.

Earlier this month, Sophos unveiled its new MDR offering, serving up new threat detection and response capabilities, as well as integration with telemetry from third-party vendors such as Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and more.

The firm said its refreshed portfolio, combined with its new EMEA sales chief’s cybersecurity and technology expertise, will help EMEA partners provide customers with “the most advanced security solutions available”.

“Sophos is an industry leader, pioneering the way with a new type of MDR service that every organisation can benefit from, so I am thrilled to be joining Sophos at this time and leading the company’s impressive sales team in EMEA,” said Allison of his appointment.

“I am also looking forward to working closely with our extensive partner network in the region to develop new revenue streams and ensure customers have the proper security needed to defend against today’s persistent attackers.”