Kaspersky Lab announces SA Head of Operations and African expansion

Kaspersky Lab reaffirms commitment to African market

Kaspersky Lab, the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions, is aiming to boost its presence and intensify its business activity within the African market – a region that is a key focus for the brand.

Says Vasily Dyagilev, Managaing Director of Kasperskly Lab Emerging Markets; “Our aim is to become the number 1 IT security vendor in South Africa and the leader in the African region within the next 3 years. It is for this reason that the company recently undertook a restructuring process within its office located in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

In line with this Kaspersky Lab today announces the appointment of Riaan Badenhorst as the Head of Operations for Kaspersky Lab Africa. Riaan will be in charge of all Kaspersky Lab’s operations in more than 40 countries of the Sub Saharan African region. Having been with the brand since 2011, where Riaan has worked as the corporate sales manager focusing on growing Kaspersky Lab’s market share in both the enterprise and small business sectors, Riaan brings a wealth of insight into this role. Continues Dyagilev; “We are excited about the appointment of Riaan in this position and welcome him into this role. With more than 15 years of experience in the broader IT industry, Riaan has acquired extensive knowledge of IT over the years and we look forward to the value this will bring to the brand in Africa.”

Says Riaan Badenhorst; “I am honoured to have been appointed in this role for Kaspersky Lab in SA. In the local region, we will work hard on expanding our reach and service offerings, paying special attention to developing our channel and supporting our partners, where soon we will be able to present new services for our African business customers.”

Since the brand opened its local office in South Africa in the November of 2009, Kaspersky Lab has experienced phenomenal growth and has shown strong results. Today, the brand is number 1 within the retail sector in the country, and when comparing results of 2011 to 2012, the brand has experienced a 30% YTD growth rate in the retail sector, and a 15% growth rate overall. Continues Dyagilev; “Going forward, considering the fact that more and more businesses are becoming entrenched in the digital world, where concepts such as virtualisation are growing at an astonishing rate, coupled with the fact that 125 000 new samples of malware appear every day, according to our research, our aim is to strengthen our presence and growth within the corporate solutions market. We want to become number 1 among the IT security vendors in South Africa. Our goal for other territories remains to enlarge the partners’ database and increase our share in all segments.”

The restructure of the local office has been undertaken to assist Kaspersky Lab in reaching these high goals. Africa has been hailed as the next big growth market and it is for this reason that the world has its ‘eye’ on the contient, due to the ample opporutunity it presents. Opening an office in the SA region formed part of Kaspersky Lab’s international expansion strategy to establish its footprint across the emerging African region, which has and continues to show stong IT competiveness.

Further to this, Kaspersky Lab has also established a new branch in the Kenyan region – a market that is growing by the day. Bethwel Opil has been appointed in the role of Channel Sales Manager for East Africa, where he is responsible for 5 East-African countries. This brings the total African Kaspersky Lab staff count up to 8 highly-professional specialists by the end of 2012.

Adds Dyagilev; “According to Kaspersky Lab statistics in Q3 of 2012, every fifth user in South Africa and Nigeria and every forth in Kenya faced a form of malware while surfing the Internet. This proves the reality of cybercriminal activity here and makes us work harder on raising awareness of the necessity of protection measures and offering a robust line of consumer and corporate solutions in the region.”

“We are committed to delivering only the best in products and services to our customers where the restructure of the African office reaffirms Kaspersky Lab’s commitment to the region,” concludes Dyagilev.