Former Veeam ANZ VP appointed as CrowdStrike APJ sales boss

Cloud-delivered endpoint protection provider CrowdStrike has today announced that Don Williams has joined the organisation as the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) corporate sales director based in Sydney, Australia.

Williams will be overseeing the Corporate Sales Team in APJ with a focus on growing CrowdStrike's revenues and customer-base by working closely with the channel to find new market opportunities.

Williams joins CrowdStrike from Veeam, where he was Australia and New Zealand vice president.

"I'm excited to begin my work with CrowdStrike and help organisations transition away from ineffective, legacy antivirus products," he says.

"The universal need for more effective endpoint protection presents a massive market opportunity for CrowdStrike and our partners as customers look for more reliable technology to combat sophisticated attacks."

His sudden resignation from Veeam in October last year came as a surprise to many.

He was replaced by Dell EMC's Shaun McLagan.

In his role at Veeam, Williams oversaw triple-digit revenue growth with a focus on growing the company's market share in virtualisation, disaster recovery and cloud software markets.

Williams has also held various senior leadership positions in the North America and APJ markets.

His appointment comes off the back of CrowdStrike's significant expansion of its partner base in APJ, having more than doubled the roster of active partners in 2017.

CrowdStrike announced at the time it would be hiring more staff to support its team of lead and sales development representatives, and a specific support role for its largest partners.

Williams will be reporting directly to CrowdStrike global corporate sales vice president Joseph Mattioli.

"We're thrilled to have Don join our team. CrowdStrike's ongoing mission is to stop breaches, and we're seeing massive growth in the APJ region as a result of the success of our platform," he says.

"Our partners are crucial to bringing this platform to market, and Don's proven track record of building and accelerating pipeline growth, combined with his existing channel relationships and deep understanding of customer needs, will be a key part of that strategy."

Following record growth and sales last year, CrowdStrike saw registered deals increase by 500% as well as a 350% increase in the new business pipeline.

This year, CrowdStrike was named a visionary in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms.