Enterprise data management vendor Veritas Technologies has announced the appointment of ex-VMware talent Brian Higgins as the company's new channel sales leader for the Asia Pacific and Japan region.

In this role, Higgins will lead the overall APJ channel strategy, tasked with growing the company's local partner ecosystem and helping partners differentiate in the market and deliver greater value to customers.

Veritas APJ senior vice president Chris Lin says, “The channel business has transformed extensively as partners are more focused than ever on providing solutions that empower customers to solve some of their most pressing business challenges.

“With Brian's track record in building winning teams and in-depth understanding of the partner community and the diverse business cultures across the region, I am confident that he will continue to grow and create value for our partner network."

Higgins has a portfolio of industry experience spanning over 20 years, holding a range of senior sales, marketing and channel leadership positions at organisations including Citrix, Cognos and Business Objects.

During his previous role at VMware, he was responsible for the commercial business, partner and hybrid cloud services teams in South Asia and Korea.

Veritas says - in his previous roles -  Higgins has been instrumental in driving business transformation in order to achieve significant results.

On his new appointment, Higgins says, “For businesses, the most valuable resource today is data, and Veritas understands that well. As more and more organizations continue to embrace digital transformation, the only constant is the exponential growth of data.

“Veritas is at the forefront of innovation and I look forward to being part of this exciting journey, to empower our partners to help our customers simplify the complexities of data protection and accelerate their business growth.

Higgins holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from the University of Phoenix and has been living in the APJ region since 1995.