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Leading global cybersecurity technology company Bitdefender has announced the appointment of two key figures to the business.
Andrew Philpott has become the new vice president of enterprise sales, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) while Joe Sykora, a 21-year-veteran of the security industry, is the new vice president of worldwide Channel development
The company said that these appointments build on the company’s commitment to serve European customers and its continued rapid expansion in the enterprise market. Philpott reports to Vincent Schiavo, senior vice president, worldwide enterprise sales and marketing at Bitdefender and is based in the company’s UK office.
“We are delighted to welcome Andrew Philpott as a key member of our global sales team during this period of intense growth at Bitdefender,” said Schiavo. “Andrew will play a key role in expanding our efforts in Europe, bringing more than 20 years of technology and cybersecurity sales leadership and experience.”
Philpott will lead Bitdefender’s overall growth market strategy for enterprise markets in EMEA. He will be responsible for growing the company’s footprint in core markets and expanding its relationships with partners across EMEA. To support this growth, Bitdefender will be expanding its enterprise sales organization as well as internal sales teams to support its SMB and mid-market customers.
“With deep roots in research and innovation, Bitdefender is uniquely equipped to protect sensitive data no matter where it resides and address the most pressing cybersecurity issues facing the modern enterprise,” said Philpott. “I look forward to helping our customers solve their hybrid infrastructure, datacenter, service provider and endpoint security challenges.”
Philpott comes to Bitdefender with a long and successful career in Information Security, building and leading sales teams covering EMEA for American companies such as Secure Computing, McAfee, and more recently Forcepoint (formerly Websense) where he served as senior vice president of sales, EMEA and held senior leadership responsibility for the region.
Joe Sykora, who will work in the firm’s North American headquarters in Santa Clara, California, will be responsible for relationships with more than 7,000 reseller partners across the globe. Sykora, who joins Bitdefender after seven years at Fortinet, brings nearly two decades of directly relevant industry experience to the mix. Prior to Fortinet he founded, built and sold his own systems integration company, so his channel experience includes both the vendor’s and the partner’s first-hand perspective. Sykora has long been recognised in the industry for his demonstrated ability to increase channel sales, lead and develop award-winning channel teams, and his dedication to driving successful channel initiatives.
“The investment that Bitdefender is making in the Channel and to our partners is second to none,” shared Sykora. “I look forward to continuing Bitdefender’s award-winning work and to leading the next stage of progress for our channel program.”
According to Vincent Schiavo, senior vice president, worldwide enterprise sales and marketing at Bitdefender, “The move to a global structure comes during a period of intense growth for Bitdefender, and we are thrilled to have a luminary channel sales leader like Joe on the team to help build a strong foundation for a program that will support partners’ needs.”
