INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS & ACQUISITIONS
Westcon-Comstor Southern Africa appoints Nickey Mannya as Director of Cybersecurity and Next Gen Solutions
Westcon-Comstor, a global technology provider and specialist distributor, is strengthening its leadership team with the appointment of Nicodemus( Nickey) Mannya as Director of Cybersecurity and Next Gen Solutions for Southern Africa.
The appointment comes at a pivotal time as organisations across Southern Africa face escalating cyberthreats and pressure to modernise IT environments, making security and innovation core to sustainable growth.
“ Nickey’ s experience is unique in that he combines deep technology expertise with a strong commercial background and a people-first leadership style,” said Louise Taute, Managing Director of Westcon-Comstor Southern Africa.
“ He understands that the future of distribution lies not just in supplying products but in enabling tailored solutions that grow our partners’ businesses. His ability to listen, consult and deliver results makes him the right person to lead this critical portfolio.”
Mannya brings over two decades of experience in technology leadership, sales and consulting across diverse industries in Southern Africa. With a career spanning mining technology, financial services, marketing technology and digital solutions, he has consistently driven innovation, transformation and sustainable growth. His consultative
Nicodemus( Nickey) Mannya
approach and ability to tailor solutions to partner and client needs set him apart as a leader who builds lasting value.
In his role, Mannya will oversee Westcon-Comstor’ s growing Cybersecurity and Next Gen Solutions portfolio.
Check Point acquires Lakera to deliver end-to-end AI security for enterprises
Check Point Software Technologies has announced an agreement to acquire Lakera, a leading AI-native security platform designed for Agentic AI applications.
The deal positions Check Point to deliver one of the industry’ s first end-to-end AI security stacks, helping enterprises secure models, agents and data as they accelerate Digital Transformation.
Enterprises are embedding large language models, Generative AI and autonomous agents into workflows, driving innovation but widening the attack surface. Risks range from data exposure and model manipulation to multi-agent collaboration and autonomous decision-making. Check Point said the acquisition will enhance its Infinity architecture with Lakera’ s runtime protection, enabling enterprises to deploy AI at scale with greater confidence.
David Haber, Co-Founder and CEO at Lakera
“ Lakera was purpose-built for the AI era, with real-time runtime security and research at its core,” said David Haber, Co- Founder and CEO at Lakera.“ Joining Check Point allows us to accelerate and scale our mission globally.”
Founded by AI specialists from Google and Meta, Lakera operates R & D centres in Zurich and San Francisco. Its flagship products, Lakera Red and Lakera Guard, combine posture assessments with runtime enforcement and continuous adversarial testing.
Upon completion, Lakera will form the foundation of Check Point’ s Global Centre of Excellence for AI Security. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2025, subject to customary conditions. •
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