Check Point software has announced the appointment of Les Williamson as the new Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand channel region. In his new role, he will be tasked with driving new business and revenue expansion for Check Point in the Australian and New Zealand market.

He will report directly to CheckPoint Vice President and General Manager APJ Sharat Sinha, who stated that the company is incredibly excited to have “ Les, an industry veteran, leading the Australian and New Zealand business.”

Les Williamson will replace Ian Raper, who left the role last November to work as US software provider Splunk’s Sales Director in the region. 

Williamson’s appointment follows a domino effect of appointments which started with the  promotion of Check Point's ANZ channel chief Rod Thorne to Australia country manager and replacing him with Arcserve's vice president of APAC sales Leo Lynch. 

Check Point also hired IBM’s New Zealand General Manager for digital and channel Mark Butler as its NZ country manager and named former Oracle and Intel marketing leader Rupal Hollenbeck as its chief commercial officer. 

Before this role, Williamson worked at Amazon Web Services as their telecommunications business unit head for APJ for the past two years. Previously, he has also worked for Citrix as ANZ vice president from 2017. He also previously held various roles in Cisco for 14 years from 1999, including vice president of ANZ from 2007 and vice president of Asia Pacific from 2011.

Les Williamson, ANZ Head, said,” This was a time of 'great momentum' for the company in ANZ. As digital transformation picks up speed, the need for comprehensive and trusted cyber security also increases in focus, and importance. Checkpoint Intelligence reports show a complex reality, with Australian and New Zealand organisations experiencing an average 890 cyberattacks per week in the last six months.”