Bitdefender announces Kevin Dyson as new ANZ boss six months after his hiring

Security vendor Bitdefender has announced it has named Kevin Dyson as its new regional director for Australia and New Zealand, six months after he joined the role in January this year.

Dyson replaces Demetrios Georgiou, who left Bitdefender in November 2021 to join Secureworks as its sales director and general manager for Asia-Pacific.

Also announced was Greg Ryan, who was hired as regional sales director in April this year.

CRN understands the announcements come as both have just become active with the onboarding and getting across the Bitdefender enterprise portfolio, and has only decided to reveal the appointments to the market months after their hiring.

In the announcement, Bitdefender president and general manager, Business Solutions Group Steve Kelley said Dyson and Ryan are seasoned professionals who understand the ANZ markets.

“Kevin and Greg are seasoned professionals who understand the Australian and New Zealand markets, the unique challenges organisations in the region face, and how to position Bitdefender’s business security solutions to meet their needs and increase cyber resilience,” he said.

“I’m confident they will continue to build our reputation as one of the world’s most trusted cybersecurity companies while expanding the range of enterprises and organisations benefiting from our innovations in threat prevention, detection and response technologies.”

Dyson was chosen for the role partly from his decades of enterprise sales experience with leadership positions at the likes of Nokia Corporation, Check Point Software Technologies and Fortinet.

Speaking on his appointment, Dyson said his and Ryan’s appointments represent an investment in the channel at a time when enterprises are increasingly in need of effective cybersecurity in the face of changing market conditions and increased attack sophistication.

“We’re committed to building more awareness of the enterprise capabilities of Bitdefender in the A/NZ region,” he said.

“CISOs, and security teams struggle to keep up with the constantly changing threat landscape, supply chain security issues, and threats like ransomware. Bitdefender solutions are recognised by top third party tests like MITRE, AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives, as well as industry leading analyst firms for efficacy in detection and prevention, but also for ease of use and deployment, which are important to mid-sized and smaller organisations that make up the vast majority of the ANZ market.”

Ryan was hired also for his past roles, specifically in sales and marketing leadership at IBM and Telstra, as well as strategic sales roles at FireEye (now Trellix), Wipro Limited and Cloudstaff.

On his appointment, Ryan said mid-sized organisations are a key focus area for selling Bitdefender in the ANZ region.

“Bitdefender managed detection and response (MDR) offering is one of the best on the market and tailored for mid-sized organisations, such as those in the education, healthcare, local government and fintech/financial services markets who often have limited on-site security resources,” he said.

“Globally, we have seen growing adoption of Bitdefender MDR in these verticals, and believe that we can replicate this success here as well. I’m excited to join Bitdefender and help solve critical cybersecurity challenges ANZ businesses continue to face.”