Okta ANZ boss Graham Pearson jumps to Alien Vault

Identity management vendor Okta has confirmed the departure of its former ANZ boss Graham Pearson, joining security vendor AlienVault as its vice president for Asia-Pacific.

In his place is general manager for Asia Pacific Graham Sowden, who joined Okta earlier this year as part of a leadership shakeup with Pearson shifting his focus to the APAC region as a whole.

“I am very pleased to announce the next part of my journey is now with AlienVault. I look forward to connecting with you,” Pearson said on LinkedIn.

Pearson was hired to lead Okta’s ANZ business in 2014, with his role changed to regional vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan last year.

Prior to joining Okta, he worked at Oracle from 2006 to 2014, holding various sales and leadership roles. He also worked with CA Technologies and Websense (now Forcepoint).

Meanwhile Graham Sowden joined Okta in July after close to four years as general manager for Asia Pacific for software-as-a-service company Acquia.

He also held executive roles for the regional businesses of data management vendor Informatica and application management and testing vendor Mercury Interactive.

"We have solid, established operations in Australia with an office in Sydney and employees around the country. Our customer base has been growing considerably year over year and we see opportunities for us across the whole of the APAC region, from SMBs to enterprises," Sowden told CRN.

"We have a rolled-out working model in Australia and we’re ready to expand the already existing relationships with customers and businesses from outside Australia."

In January, Okta appointed Matthew Paull to lead its Australia and New Zealand channel after promoting Scott Monro as APAC channel boss. Monro was hired in January to replace Reno Maglitto, who joined Netskope.