Kaspersky has appointed Chris Connell as Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Chris will lead the APAC business in addition to continuing his role as the Deputy Vice President of Global Sales for the company. Originally from the United Kingdom, he is set to be based at Kaspersky’s regional office in Singapore.
Chris joined Kaspersky as the General Manager for the UK and Ireland in February 2019. A year later, alongside his role as Deputy VP of Sales Network, he was promoted to Director of European Operations, and took on the task to boost the performance for the company’s European operations. Chris was then responsible for one of Kaspersky’s burgeoning regions – Northern and Eastern Europe. He has more than 23 years of experience in sales and commercial leadership across many sectors, including solution selling, consumer, B2B and channel sales. Prior to joining Kaspersky, Chris’s career was spent at companies such as Ingram Micro Europe and Australia, Tech Data and IBM.
“I am excited to take up this new leadership role in a region where cyber security trends are dynamic but also diverse in terms of needs and development,” comments Chris. “While we will continue to deliver tailor-made cyber security solutions for both businesses and consumers, it is equally important that we pivot away from the traditional and reactive ‘seek-and-destroy’ approach, to an all-encompassing concept of ‘cyber-immunity’ – building an ecosystem where everything connected is protected and secure by design.”
The expansion of Chris’s role at Kaspersky as the Managing Director for Asia-Pacific comes at an important moment for the cyber security ecosystem in the region, where spending is projected to hit US$28.2 billion by 2022.
“True cybersecurity can’t be achieved in a silo, and the key to building a cyber security ecosystem that breaks free from the constraints of operating in different silos is one that is built on integrated and collaborative operations. I am confident that Chris’s wealth of expertise and thorough understanding of global cyber security trends will help to build a safer and more transparent environment for all in APAC,” adds Evgeniya Naumova, Vice President of the Global Sales Network at Kaspersky.
General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Margrith Appleby adds, “I am delighted to have someone as experienced as Chris lead our APAC team as we continue helping our customers adopt the latest cyber security technologies”
In his new post, Chris is expected to lend his expertise to support the cyber resilience of APAC’s healthcare institutions. In addition, he will look to further develop and continue the growth in both commercial and enterprise cybersecurity, with a strong focus on threat intelligence for industry partners in the digital economy, as well as small and medium businesses (SMBs).
