Joe McPhillips (Cylance)
Former Symantec channel chief Joe McPhillips has taken on the newly created role of director of Asia Pacific (APAC) channels at Cylance.
As revealed by ARN, McPhillips left Symantec in September after three years with the security specialist.
In his new role, McPhillips will be responsible for continuing to grow Cylance's presence across specialist partners, global service providers and managed security service providers (MSSPs), on the back of what the vendor labelled as "record year-on-year growth in Australia and New Zealand".
"The roles I've previously held in APAC have been quite different from this role," McPhillips told ARN. "We are at a different cycle in that respect.
"Cylance is a younger company and we have a growth trajectory and therefore I see a lot of business development in this role rather than operational management of channels."
McPhillips explained that he will be involved in setting up a strategy for APAC channels, which involves meeting with a range of partners to understand which providers the vendor can strike up an alliance with across the wider region.
"It's a fresh approach to the cyber security market and we want to capitalise on that," McPhillips added. "We believe we've got something to offer partners across the board.
"Whether that'd be managed security service providers or whether that is traditional resells as well as global system integrators."
McPhillips’ experience includes developing, implementing and executing sales and channel strategies in EMEA, North America and APJ at organisations including Blue Coat Systems, McAfee, Riverbed Technology, CommVault, Netintelligence, BT and Fujitsu.
For McPhillips, the decision to take on this role was based on Cylance's technology, its leadership and local team plus the opportunity in cyber security space.
"With over 25 years’ experience working in IT markets around the world, Joe brings significant passion and expertise in developing and managing channel strategies to Cylance," said Tim Mackie, vice president, international channels and worldwide distribution at Cylance.
McPhillips’ appointment comes as Cylance embarks on its next phase in global growth, with investment in building its business across the Asia Pacific theatre.
Cylance is currently operational with distributors and partners throughout Southeast Asia and Korea, and the company will be deepening its investment and extending this presence under McPhillips’ direction, who will be based in Sydney.
