Maya Zakhour to lead NetApp channel beyond Middle East and Africa

NetApp has announced that Maya Zakhour will take on an expanded role as Channel Director for the Middle East and Africa, Italy and Spain. Maya will report to Kristian Kerr, VP Partner Organisation EMEA.

In her new role, Maya will work closely with in-country channel leaders, distributors and alliances to build a stronger partner ecosystem, increase NetApp’s footprint and grow the business across her new territories.

“I am excited to take on this new role at a time when the adoption of cloud services is rapidly growing across the MEA region. My focus is to strategically grow NetApp’s channel business across all territories, while ensuring profitability for partners, especially in this time of crisis,” says Zakhour. “NetApp has a strong go-to-market strategy, a robust channel community, and an exceptionally rewarding partner program and enablement plan that will boost our efforts to ensure our customers’ transition to a cloud-first organization.”

With a competent in-country partner ecosystem, Maya is tasked with driving partners to leverage NetApp’s strong cloud offering along with its public cloud alliances across MEA, Italy and Spain.

“Our priority is to get businesses back on track and help them prepare for the new normal as well as future disruptions. NetApp’s alliances with global hyperscalers Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services coupled with the recent acquisitions of CloudJumper, Talon Storage, and Spot, strengthens our overall cloud offering and allows our customer to unlock the potential of the cloud and get more out of their cloud investments,” added Zakhour.

A key part of Maya’s role will be to encourage partners to secure their installed base, engage its strategic partners to leverage NetApp’s converged offerings and drive cloud adoption to adapt to a remote-working model to ensure business continuity.