Without the efforts of Keith Weatherford in 2016, Symantec Canada would be a shell of its former self.
Symantec went through a lot in 2016 with the Veritas Technologies split becoming official in January, and the acquisition of Blue Coat Systems Inc., a cybersecurity hardware, software, and service provider, closing in June.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride for the Canadian division either. Symantec Canada saw most of its senior leadership choose to move with Veritas instead of sticking with the company, and Weatherford, Symantec’s Americas channel chief, has been left picking up the pieces.
He spent most of 2016 looking to hire new channel account managers (CAMs) and increasing the headcount of Symantec Canada.
“We are so under-covered in Canada and we are looking to hire more CAMs to better our geographic and partner coverage,” he said in a previous interview with CDN. “My message for Canada is that I view it as a great growth opportunity and now that we have a strong leader we can go and invest more in the Canadian market. And, I know that if we invest heavily the business will follow.”
One of Weatherford’s more strategic moves was to hire Ajay Sood, the former head of sales for FireEye Inc. to be Canadian country leader. Sood holds the title of Vice President and GM – Canada at Symantec and has extensive experience at McAfee, Cisco and Trend Micro.