Bjorn Engelhardt (Forcepoint)
Forcepoint has continued to appoint executives impacted by the recent retrenchment at Symantec through the hiring of Bjorn Engelhardt as regional leader.
Effective immediately, Engelhardt has been recruited to head up operations across Asia Pacific, fresh from exiting Symantec in November 2019 following the vendor’s US$10.7 billion acquisition by Broadcom.
The move sees Engelhardt reunited with Klasie Holtzhausen, with the former channel director of Australia and New Zealand at Symantec recently joining Forcepoint as trans-Tasman leader, as revealed by ARN.
“I’m very excited to join Forcepoint heading up the Asia Pacific region out of Singapore,” wrote Engelhardt, via social media. “As cyber security threats continue to evolve the need for behaviour analytics and human centric approach to augment current practices increases.
“From well meaning insiders to malicious external hacktivists, people can be both the greatest asset and also the greatest risk for any organisation and understanding when behaviour changes and the risk that poses can make all the difference.
"Forcepoint’s approach is unique, the portfolio encompassing and our people ready to engage."
Before joining Forcepoint, Engelhardt was senior vice president of Asia Pacific and Japan at Symantec, a role he held for four months preparing the team for the upcoming acquisition by Broadcom. Engelhardt previously spent more than eight years at Symantec in a range of senior management roles from 2006 to 2014.
In between both stints at the security vendor, Engelhardt ran regional operations for Riverbed Technology for four years, having also spent almost 18 months as leader of Actifio in the region.
The appointment comes days after Accenture agreed to buy Symantec’s cyber security services business, which will be used to bolster the global system integrator's managed security services division.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and the purchase is expected to close in March 2020 subject to conditions.
