RSA Vet Brian Breton Replaces Faraz Siraj As Americas Channel Leader
RSA has tasked global channel strategy leader Brian Breton with spearheading execution and management of the company's Americas channel sales operation.
The Bedford, Mass.-based security vendor named Breton to take over for Faraz Siraj, who told CRN he's leaving the company after spending nearly two years leading RSA's channels and distribution efforts in the Americas. Siraj characterized the departure as "amicable," and said exiting now rather than committing for another year gives him a good opportunity to really evaluate what he wants to do next.
"RSA is, and will always be, a great company," Siraj told CRN. Siraj declined to provide his last day of employment with the company, but said he's "basically done" with his work at RSA.
The highlight of Siraj's tenure came in February 2018, when RSA rolled out updates to its channel program that reward incremental growth with existing clients, incumbency renewal, and partners with strong marketing proposals. The enhancements also included a managed services program for its RSA NetWitness offering that provides MSPs with technical resources and a more flexible business model.
Siraj told CRN he thinks the rollout of the updated program went well, though the final results remain to be seen. Siraj is most impressed by the diversity of RSA's partner base, which spans the gamut from transactional direct market resellers (DMRs) to deep consulting partners, saying that the breadth of the community provided him with more insight into the skills different types of partners bring to the table.
Filling in Siraj's shoes will be Breton, who's been involved with cybersecurity for the past quarter-century and joined RSA in 1999 as a senior manager of product marketing. Over the next two decades, Breton worked his way up the ranks to senior director of global channel strategy, where he developed global standards for measuring channel sales efficiency and drove global resource planning efforts.
"RSA remains committed to the channel and confident that Brian will increase both the effectiveness of our channel programs and overall channel contribution to RSA," a company spokesperson told CRN. RSA didn't respond to questions about Siraj's status with the company.
RSA said last year that they had doubled the channel's slice of the revenue pie from 35 percent in 2014 to 70 percent in 2018, due largely to the acquisition of primarily direct companies and subsequent introduction of their products to RSA's channel program.
In the past year, RSA has increased the number of partners at its top two levels - Titanium and Platinum - by 25 percent, which in turn increased the focus and attention these partners were putting on RSA products, Breton wrote in his CRN 2019 Channel Chiefs profile. These partners are enjoying both more revenue as well as additional rebate opportunities, according to Breton.
Breton in 2018 was involved with the release of the RSA Partner Marketing Center with Concierge service to help solution providers with targeted marketing campaigns. The service provided the channel with an 'easy button' to build, create and implement RSA-based marketing campaigns, Breton said, as well as access to a live concierge to help out with anything related to the service.
Breton is reporting to Ted Kamionek, RSA's senior vice president of global sales, according to his Channel Chiefs profile. RSA employs 100 people in its channel organization, and services 5,000 channel partners in North America and 8,000 partners globally, according to the profile.
As for Siraj, he would be interested in a strategic role with a technology company that's also partner-heavy and focused on growth through the channel. Although Siraj has a strong security background as the former leader of Cisco's Americas Security channels and ThreatQuotient's global channels, he doesn't plan to shy away from non-security positions that sound promising or interesting.
Siraj said he will bring to his next employer tons of experience, a great track record, and an ability to understand the partner business and landscape. In particular, Siraj said he excels at crafting channel programs, growing relationships with existing partners, developing a strategy within the channel team, and working closely with partners both large and small to implement the go-to-market strategy.
"I'm looking forward to my next opportunity," he said.