Trend Micro has announced the appointment of Conner Smith as its new head of partnerships and alliances for the sub-Saharan Africa region.
Smith joins the team effective 1 June 2020, and will be responsible for leading the company’s channel sales and alliance strategy across the continent.
Trend Micro has experienced exceptional growth in its channel in the region over the last year. An acceleration that has in part been fuelled by extensive executive focus as well as its programmatic approach to delivering a reward and certification driven Channel Programme that enables partners to fast track channel enablement and heighten customer experience.
“Our channel remains the primary means by which we engage with our customers across sub-Saharan Africa. It is a critical part of our business, and we are delighted to welcome Conner. She is a proven channel executive with a reputation for developing and nurturing key accounts and alliance partnerships, to the Trend Micro team,” says Indi Siriniwasa, vice-president: Sub-Saharan Africa at Trend Micro.
“Conner not only brings an impressive list of achievements to the role but also extensive knowledge of the Channel outside of South Africa. We believe she will assist us in taking our Channel programme and partnerships to a new level.”
Before joining Trend Micro, Smith was the strategic partner and technology alliance manager for Africa at Hitachi Vantara. She brings with her over eight years of international vendor experience, with in-depth knowledge of the sub-Saharan Africa region and strategic accounts management.
During her career, she has held the positions of technology channel manager, vendor management, strategic distribution manager and sales manager, and served at data specialists Tibco and networking security company F5 Networks.
“I am passionate about the IT industry, and in my career, I have had the privilege of working with global and pan-African Telecommunications and Financial Services companies as well as had oversight of OEM accounts and alliances,” states Smith. “Trend Micro is an exciting company and a leader in the Security market. I am looking forward to bringing value to the team and its Channel, by accelerating Partner Programmes, focussing on Strategic Alliances, and taking its specialised brand of holistic Cloud Security to a market craving innovation, but still constrained by security fears.”