Sunil Sharma is the new appointed MD at Sophos India

Sunil Sharma has been appointed as managing director at Sophos India. As the managing director-sales, Sunil will continue to lead Sophos’ India & SAARC business. He will continue to drive Sophos’ ‘channel best’ strategy and work closely with the security company’s partners to drive business.

Another big change at Sophos India is the exit of Hemal Patel, founder and CEO of Cyberoam. Sophos had acquired India bred network security vendor Cyberoam in early 2014.

“With integration of Cyberoam and Sophos now largely completed, Hemal Patel, the former CEO of Cyberoam and current SVP of India Operations at Sophos, has decided to move on from Sophos to re-engage in his passions as an entrepreneur, investor, and mentor of tech startups in India. Hemal’s positive influence will be missed at Sophos and we wish him well in his next adventure,” added Sophos’ official statement.

unil Sharma joined Sophos in 2011 and was promoted as vice president for India and SAARC region in November 2015. In earlier roles he was the channel chief (including heritage Cyberoam) for the security company.

“Sunil Sharma has been promoted to the position of managing director - sales for India and SAARC at Sophos. His responsibilities will entail driving the Sophos business across end-user and network security product segments in the region and strengthening Sophos’ market leadership,” confirmed the official statement from Sophos.

Will someone replace Sunil’s previous role? Sunil has been promoted as managing director-sales and will continue to lead the business in India & SAARC. His previous role however will not be replaced.

Speaking on his new role, Sunil Sharma, said, “I am truly humbled to step into this role and lead Sophos’ business in India and SAARC. I am excited and look forward to working with our channel partners in driving best-in-class, end-to-end security solutions for our customers. As Sophos accelerates forward, I will focus on driving innovation and dynamism that strives to set the standard for technological excellence in the industry.”

“Sophos business has grown in India and SAARC during the last 12 months and we continue to enjoy a tremendous opportunity across the region. We continue to invest in building a world-class channel program and are delivering on our “channel first” promise,” commented Joergen Jakobsen, senior vice president and managing director, APJ Sales at Sophos.

“Sunil has been instrumental in the growth and development of Sophos business in this region during the last three years, and I look forward to his leadership as we drive towards our goals of delivering the most innovative, simple and highly effective cyber security products to our customers,” added Jakobsen popularly known as JJ in the industry.

Sunil Sharma has over two decades of industry experience across senior roles at leading technology companies. Prior to his ongoing six year stint at Sophos, he was national manager for strategic alliances at McAfee. He has worked with EMC and IRIS computers. Sunil commenced his career with Thakral Computers as business manager in 1996.

“I am looking forward to the new role with the primary goal of continuing to strengthen Sophos’ position as a leading IT security company and building long term strategic relationships with our customers and partners," said Sharma.