Optiv Security, the world’s leading security solutions integrator, announced it is continuing to accelerate its international growth strategy with further investment in the Canadian market. The company has appointed veteran IT executive Debbie Heiser as vice president, Canadian services delivery, where she is responsible for growing Optiv’s in-country security services capabilities to better meet the demands of Canadian headquartered organizations and multi-national companies operating in Canada. The company has also named Daina Proctor as regional director. Proctor will focus on further expanding Optiv’s expertise in the National Capital Region and Western Canada – including Ottawa, Gatineau/Hull, Calgary, and Winnipeg, among other cities – to help public and private entities based in the region reduce the complexity of their cybersecurity programs while maximizing the efficacy and value of their security investments.†
Optiv began making significant investments to expand its local cybersecurity capabilities in Canada in 2016. Last year, the company†acquired Conexsys, a Toronto-based security solutions provider, and has continued to expand its presence in that market. Earlier this year, Optiv was included for the first time on the†IDC MarketScape: Canadian Security Services 2018 Vendor Assessment, where it was named a Major Player.
“When we began to grow our expertise in the Canadian market a few years ago, our goal was to bring a new and better approach to cybersecurity to Canada – one that takes an ‘inside-out’ risk-centric approach to security, where security investments are driven by corporate objectives rather than fear of external threats and vulnerabilities,” said Cheryl McGrath, Optiv’s area vice president and general manager for Canada. “This unique approach has resonated strongly, leading to an 85 percent increase in services revenues in Canada from 2016 to 2017, and Debbie’s and Daina’s appointments are the next logical steps in our journey. Each of these accomplished women brings to Optiv significant IT, security, business and leadership experience that will enable us to do an even better job serving public and private entities in Canada.”
Heiser brings to her role 20 years of experience leading large IT and managed technology services programs for prominent public and private organizations throughout Canada. At Optiv, she previously served as managing executive director – executive advisory, office of the CISO. Prior to that, Heiser held senior management positions at companies such as PepsiCo, Rogers Communications, and Royal Canadian Mint, where she led IT operations and the deployment of client-facing technology portfolios that included information security and risk management, business intelligence and data analytics services and solutions.
Proctor is a results-driven leader with a more than 20-year proven history of successful business engineering, service development, and delivery. She excels in managing teams that provide client service excellence through needs assessment, budget planning, implementation and service evolution, and optimization. Proctor most recently served as the director of information security international accounts for CGI. She previously held positions of increasing responsibility for Nortel Networks, and began her career at EDS.
Optiv today also announced that Osman Baig has joined the company as a regional director in Toronto. Prior to joining Optiv, Baig was a senior major account executive at Mimecast, served as major accounts manager at Proofpoint, and was the North Americas executive director of corporate sales for Messaging Architects.
“Canadian enterprises are turning to Optiv for a number of reasons, as is evidenced by our significant year-over-year growth,” said Heiser. “We offer a unique – and we’re told refreshing – approach to cybersecurity that is designed to give our clients better insights into their environments so they can operationalize and rationalize their current investments, and build sustainable risk-centric foundations for implementing proactive and measurable security. Also, we are an entrenched Canadian business that provides local security experts, combined with our ability to draw on our global capacity and international experience as needed. No other security solutions integrator can provide this combination of ‘local touch’ with global reach for the Canadian market.”
