McAfee aim to increase A/NZ channel focus

McAfee has appointed Nigel Youlden as channel and SMB sales manager for the security vendor’s A/NZ channel partner network.

Youlden has 13 years’ experience in the IT industry having most recently worked as NSW state manager for Corporate Express Australia’s IT Solutions Division. He also previously held an account manager position at Dimension Data.

Youlden told CRN: “I’m very excited to be at McAfee, as the company is in a great position in terms of growth and ’07 is shaping up to be a great year.

“We will have more resources round the channel and listen to what our partners want.”

Youlden said McAfee has significantly increased its marketing budget to create more lead generation, different channel programs, road shows and events.

“It is a good, young, vibrate team at McAfee. We have had an internal sales team which has been generating leads for the channel. We have refocused that team to be channel account managers, so we will have a lot more focus on the channel,” he said.

Youlden said McAfee’s channel reward programme is one of the industry’s most generous which the vendor is opening out to more of its products.

“The SME space is a huge opportunity for us and the market in general. We have our security as a service offering, which we need to tell more people about. It is very much a service that our resellers can provide,” added Youlden.