Kaspersky Lab North America has appointed Kim Stevens as its new director of VAR Channel Sales, responsible for developing the security vendor’s VAR strategy and sales performance. She will report directly to John Murdock, Kaspersky’s channel chief.

Stevens plans to leverage her position to focus on growing Kaspersky’s business with strategic partners who understand the opportunities available in the cybersecurity market. She also will work to take a targeted approach to solving partner issues and continuing Kaspersky’s efforts to attract more midmarket and enterprise partners.

“My initial plans are to make sure that our team is really focused on strategic partners and investing in those partners … to help grow the business,” said Stevens, in an interview with The VAR Guy.

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Stevens has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years, and has held leadership positions at companies including NEC, Acronis, EMC and Cisco Systems (CSCO). She also worked for 10 years at IBM, spending seven of those years in the company’s Channel Sales division, according to the announcement.

Kaspersky’s former director of VAR Channel Sales, Jim Sullivan, was promoted to vice president of SMB Sales, where he will be responsible for overseeing the company’s small and midmarket sales organizations in North America. He will report to Mike Parise, Kaspersky’s senior vice president of Corporate Sales.

Together, Stevens and Murdock said Kaspersky will continue to build out its partner program this year, with Murdock teasing the appointment of several new channel executives and the addition of more partner resources for demos, evaluations and training. The company is expected to reveal more details on its growing partner program during next month’s Kaspersky Lab North American Partner Conference in Miami.

“I’m thrilled that Kim has joined the team here,” said Murdock. “She brings a lot of great experience to the table and she’s a very partner-centric leader. So I think the leadership she is going to continue to bring to the culture we have here is going to be tremendous.”