INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS & ACQUISITIONS
Confluent appoints Karim Azar as area Vice President and General Manager for the Middle East
Confluent, a data streaming pioneer, announced the appointment of Karim Azar as Area Vice President( AVP) for the Middle East. In this leadership role, Azar will drive Confluent’ s strategy for the region, foster customer success, deepen partner relationships and advance the adoption of data streaming technologies.
“ We are delighted to welcome Karim,” said Kamal Brar, Senior Vice President Partners and Technology Group, Confluent.“ His deep understanding of the region’ s digital priorities, customer-first mindset and ability to foster trusted partnerships make him the ideal leader for the Middle East.”
Azar joins Confluent with a wealth of experience in the technology
industry, sales, business development and executive leadership roles. Most recently, he served as Regional Vice President for the Middle
East and Turkey at Cloudera. There, he was instrumental overseeing strategic initiatives and managing key client relationships.
Prior to his tenure at Cloudera, Azar held progressive roles at BMC Software, including Territory Manager for the Middle East Karim Azar and North Africa.
“ I am delighted to join Confluent at such a transformative time for our ME customers,” said Karim Azar.“ The region is leading the charge in digital innovation, as organisations tap into the value of real-time data to drive faster and smarter decisions. I look forward to working closely with our teams, customers and partners to help shape the next era of intelligent, data-driven business in the Middle East.”
WatchGuard appoints new Chief Executive Officer
WatchGuard Technologies, a global leader in unified cybersecurity, has announced the appointment of Joe
Smolarski as Chief Executive Officer. Smolarski brings more than 25 years of leadership experience across technology, operations and strategy. Known as a results-
Joe Smolarski driven, partner-centric operator, he has led global organisations through periods of transformation, scale and integration.
Most recently, he helped drive a tenfold revenue increase and multibillion-dollar valuation growth for Kaseya by uniting teams, technologies and partners around a single, customer-first platform vision.
Smolarski’ s track record of simplifying complex challenges and building effective platforms makes him well placed to drive WatchGuard’ s next stage of innovation and strengthen its partnerships.
“ WatchGuard has an incredible foundation, a world-class technology platform, an MSP-first business model and a reputation for trust and performance that stands out in the market,” said Joe Smolarski, CEO, WatchGuard Technologies.
“ Cybersecurity has become central to every MSP’ s growth strategy, and WatchGuard is perfectly positioned to lead that evolution. I’ m excited to build on the company’ s strong trajectory and make WatchGuard the cybersecurity vendor synonymous with the MSP community.” •
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