SonicWall Strengthens Strategic Focus on SMB, Enterprise

SonicWall, a security partner protecting more than 1 million networks worldwide has announced plans to expand its global sales team and increase its marketing investment as the company continues to generate significant business momentum.

SonicWall announced that Robert (Bob) VanKirk, SVP of Strategic Sales, who has been focused on key verticals, the US Federal Government and strategic partners, will become Chief Revenue Officer for the company. Steve Pataky will be stepping away to take some time with his family and to pursue new opportunities.

“I am grateful to Steve for the role he played leading the SonicWall sales team through a time of unprecedented change and growth over the last three years.  Steve is a world class channel chief who was instrumental in restoring SonicWall’s 100 percent focus on the channel,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “Bob has done a tremendous job implementing our direct touch strategy over the last year and I am confident that he is uniquely positioned to continue to generate significant momentum around our go-to-market strategy in SMB and enterprise sectors.”

“I’m very proud of what we have accomplished during my time at SonicWall,” Pataky said. “We’ve built our SecureFirst partner program to more than 17,600 partners, generated approximately $700 million in deal registration in the last calendar year and our parnters have completed more than 140,000 hours of training and 275,000 successful exams as part of SonicWall University.”

“I’ve worked very closely with Bob over the last two years and he is the right person to lead the next wave of sales growth for SonicWall,” said Pataky. “I am confident that he will not only continue to grow our strategic accounts, but will also continue to develop our programs and relationships to ensure profitable growth for our partners..”

“I am excited to take the reins from Steve and build upon what he has achieved,” VanKirk said. “We remain 100% committed to our loyal and growing partner community and to our SMB sector, where we remain the market leader. I am also excited to continue ramping our growth as we work closely with partners to expand our strategic accounts focus in key enterprise verticals and government.”

Additionally, HoJin Kim, formerly Vice President of North America Channel Sales, will be taking a larger channel sales role as VP of Global Channel Sales. The company also announced that it has deepened its sales team by hiring Kate McIntyre as the Vice President of Inside Sales. Kate joins the company from Security Compass, where she served as regional sales director for four years.

Finally, SonicWall will continue its launch of a range of new products and service enhancements in the coming year across its Capture Cloud Platform, management capabilities, and virtual and cloud environments. To help support the new product launches and assist partners in taking them to market, SonicWall will be increasing its investment in marketing programs.