Riverbed Technology has promoted Taj ElKhayat to the position of Regional Vice President for Middle East, Turkey, North, West, and Central Africa (METNA). In his new role, ElKhayat’s responsibilities include strengthening the company’s position as a key technology provider for the hybrid enterprise, expanding its penetration into new industry verticals and growing its regional footprint in emerging markets.
Elkhayat joined Riverbed as General Manager for the MENA region in January 2013 and was promoted to Managing Director for METNA in January 2014. During this period, he set in place Riverbed’s go-to-market strategy for the region, which entailed growing the company’s customer base in the key markets of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt; engaging more deeply with a select group of focused channel partners; and strengthening local ties with Riverbed Technology Alliance (RTA) partners such as EMC, VMware and Microsoft with the intention of creating joint opportunities.
Kristian Thyregod, Senior Vice President, EMEA, Riverbed said, “Elkhayat has done an outstanding job in the region, and since he joined the company, he has brought strong vision, leadership and passion to the team. I am delighted to promote Taj to this expanded role, where he will focus on selling solutions across the Riverbed portfolio, help his team drive even closer engagement with our customers, and widen and strengthen relationships across our channel ecosystem, to deliver even further growth in the region this year.”
“We have already firmly entrenched Riverbed in the GCC and Saudi Arabia and will now look to expand, together with our partners, into neighbouring markets. I look forward to creating synergy between the professional services, marketing, technical, sales and channel teams to help our customers unlock all the business benefits of the hybrid enterprise,” said Elkhayat.
In the last 24 months, the vendor has seen a substantial growth in METNA. During the same period, the company has added key regional enterprise customers in verticals such as airlines, public sector and education.
