Kaspersky Australia boss defects to distributor

Kaspersky Labs Australia managing director Andrew Mamonitis has left the vendor to join its major distributor Hemisphere Technologies.

The northern Sydney distie announced its blockbuster signing yesterday, adding Mamonitis would join as a director responsible for sales and alliances.

“[The switch] was a purely personal decision. It was an opportunity to work for a young, dynamic organisation and a number of different vendors,” Mamonitis told CRN. “It’s nothing untoward with Kaspersky.”

Kaspersky Labs marketing manager Basem Abdo is following his former boss to Hemisphere. The security vendor stated that its presence in the country would continue as-is, despite the personnel changes.

“Kaspersky Lab’s operations in Australia and New Zealand remain unaffected and the company will continue to invest and grow its market presence in this very important region,” said Kaspersky chief business officer Garry Kondakov.

“Maxim Mitrokhin, Kaspersky Lab's managing director for Asia-Pacific, will take over the management of the region until further notice.”

Hemisphere to open new Sydney facilities

Mamonitis departs after seven years as the Australian boss of Kaspersky. He originally joined the security vendor in 2009 as a sales director, leaving behind a seven-year stint at MYOB.

He cited the strong growth of Hemisphere as a major reason for his defection. The distributor, after opening a Melbourne branch about a year ago, will launch brand new headquarters in the northern Sydney suburb of Brookvale in the coming weeks.

“It will have a new warehouse and facilities for training,” said Mamonitis, who will be based in Melbourne.

Hemisphere chief executive Peter Phokos said Mamonitis’ appointment would relieve some of his burgeoning workload.

“Bringing him on board as director allows me to focus on the operations side of the business while confident the sales side is being handled by one of the best in the business,” Phokos said.

“We have aggressive expansion plans for the next year and are hoping to grow our staff count by 30 per cent. Andrew is a critical part of those plans.”

In Australia, Kaspersky Labs currently distributes to both consumer and corporate markets through Hemisphere Technologies. The second distributor, Exclusive Networks, concentrates on the corporate channel.

From 2008 to 2012, the vendor was represented by Victorian distributor SMS eTechnologies.