Kaspersky Appoints New GM For Africa

Kaspersky has announced the appointment of Andrew Voges as the new General Manager for Africa. Given the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the rise in ransomware attacks and the need for the protection of IT assets in the continent, Voges’ immediate objectives will be to accelerate growth in the enterprise segment, consolidate Kaspersky’s channel presence, formulate strategies to onboard more partners and customers within the B2B framework and strengthen customer satisfaction.

“Africa offers untapped potential. Kaspersky has demonstrated strong performance in Africa in 2022: there was a 16 per cent increase in B2B sales in the region,” said Voges.

“My vision as GM is to foster unparalleled customer satisfaction and carve out a resilient ecosystem here, he said, adding “Our focus will be on strengthening our technical infrastructure and intensifying our partnerships to make Kaspersky’s world-class security solutions more accessible in Africa. Another priority will be to implement Kaspersky’s Cyber Immune approach to protect organisations, including those in critical sectors, even more effectively. Being part of a pioneering cybersecurity company like Kaspersky, committed to global cyber safety, is an honour.”

Voge’s professional journey is filled with significant stints at tech companies like Quest Software, Check Point Software Technologies and Cisco Systems. His mandate as the new GM for Kaspersky in Africa will see him based in Johannesburg, reporting directly to Kaspersky global HQ management.

Commenting on the announcement, Kirill Astrakhan, Executive VP, Corporate Business, Kaspersky, said, “Africa is a strategic region for us, and Kaspersky has been growing here for almost 15 years. Andrew’s extensive experience and understanding of the local market make him the perfect fit for the regional GM role as we plan to further strengthen our position in Africa, reach out to new clients and partners, and increase our sales and share. His insights will be instrumental in helping us to further develop our enterprise market presence and initiate fresh avenues of business growth. We wish Andrew the best of luck in his new position.”

Kaspersky will also emphasise R&D to meet the unique challenges of the region. In recent years, they have been expanding their product ecosystem and in particular enterprise security portfolio with solutions based on superior threat intelligence to ensure better protection for its customers. Kaspersky’s new approach to digital transformation is the cyber immunity approach, a concept involving creating solutions that are virtually near impossible to compromise and minimise the number of potential vulnerabilities.