Naina Parhar (Kaspersky Lab)
Kaspersky Lab has appointed Naina Parhar as head of channel sales across Asia Pacific, as the cyber security vendor builds out partner capabilities across the region.
Effectively immediately, Parhar will be responsible for bolstering the company’s distribution framework, alongside taking control of Kaspersky Lab’s new telesales business, central to SMB growth ambitions in 2018.
In working closely with local teams across APAC, Parhar will also be charged with rolling out the vendor’s new global partner program for the region.
“A great part of Kaspersky Lab’s market success is attributable to its strong channel and delivering more value to our partners is one of the company’s highest priorities,” Kaspersky Lab Asia Pacific managing director Stephan Neumeier said.
“With Naina’s impressive track record in building alliances and insight of the APAC channel dynamics, having her onboard supports our steadfast commitment to step up our channel program in the region.”
Leveraging more than 17 years experience in enterprise sales and partner management, Parhar has worked for vendors such as Microsoft and Autodesk.
During her time at Microsoft, Parhar managed strategic solution partners for the Singapore business, focused on driving sales and growing partner profitability.
“Partners have been the core of our business and will continue to be important to our ability to scale,” Parhar added. “I am looking forward to leading a part of the business that has so much opportunity.”
The regional channel hire comes seven months after the vendor announced a leadership change locally, with Anastasia Rae appointed to the role of general manager of Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), replacing the departed Peter Brady.
“She [Naina Parhar] has a focus on Australian and New Zealand partner growth which is pivotal to our success,” Rae added.
