ESET Lands Ex-Ingram Micro Exec As North American President

ESET has tapped 12-year Ingram Micro veteran Brent McCarty to lead the company's North American business and expand ESET's company's enterprise and MSP relationships.

The Slokavian cybersecurity vendor said McCarty will start later in August as president of ESET North America. He will report to Ignacio Sbampato, ESET's chief business officer.

"I'm really excited. We've got a great opportunity," McCarty told CRN exclusively. "We're going to keep investing in the channel, and I can't wait to get started."

[RELATED: CRN Exclusive: ESET Boosts Channel Resources After Seeing Strong Growth With Partners]

McCarty will replace Andrew Lee, who spent nearly seven years as CEO of ESET North America and departed the company at the end of 2017. ESET COO Palo Luka has run the region on an interim basis since then.

ESET derives more than 20 percent of its overall revenue from the United States, and has historically generated a large percentage of its sales from the consumer and business-to-business spaces. The company has more than 400,000 business customers globally, and derives 60 percent of its revenue from North American from business customers (with the remaining 40 percent coming from consumers).

Although ESET has some business in the enterprise, McCarty further growth in the enterprise space would be a natural progression for ESET as the company rolls out products relevant to that space.

The company is enjoying great growth currently in the MSP space from both a revenue and customer breadth perspective, McCarty said. Given the number of MSPs in the region still available to ESET, McCarty anticipates the company will double down and leverage that channel further.

The MSP space is so important to ESETsince end users tend to trust their MSP completely, according to McCarty. Given the strong role that MSPs play in the cybersecurity market, McCarty said it's an area that ESET plans to continue investing in.

"Given my 12 years of distribution experience, I'm pretty committed to the channel," McCarty said.

McCarty spent the past two years as vice president of global sales solutions at Irvine, Calif.-based Ingram Micro, managing the distributor's U.S. global customer base with sales in excess of $1 billion locally. Prior to that, McCarty was the chief country executive for 1,600 employee, $1.7 billion Ingram Micro UK and Ireland for 2.5 years, overseeing the successful acquisition of Comms-Care.

Although McCarty has never worked at a cybersecurity vendor, he had responsibility for Ingram Micro's cybersecurity business in the United Kingdom and Ireland when he was chief executive there. McCarty said he's been reading about the cybersecurity market, where various competitors fit into the marketplace, and growth opportunities in the channel to prepare for his role at ESET.

Ingram Micro and ESET are similar in terms of their commitment to the channel and their go-to-market structures, McCarty said. From a cultural standpoint, McCarty said ESETand Ingram Micro invest in training and other opportunities for their employees to ensure they're engaged and motivated, with both companies celebrating instances of employee success.

The two companies diverse from a technological standpoint, though, with Ingram Micro bringing a broad range of products to market to meet the needs of resellers across a diverse portfolio, McCarty said. ESET's competitors, on the other hand, tend to be more niche and focused on a specific product or products.

White Rock Security Group likes McCarty's strong sales background, extensive channel experience, track record of growth, and wide breadth of experience across several different markets, according to James Range, president of the Dallas-based company.

"He sounds like a salesperson," Range said. "I hope he brings that sales acumen to ESET and helps us grow the business."

White Rock has been an ESET partner for five years, and Range said he appreciates that the simple, straightforward design of their products means there's little need for customer hand-holding or reconfiguring the settings.

Range said he'd like to see McCarty focus on marketing and getting the word out on ESET. Specifically, Range said he'd like to see a corporate-driven air cover campaign focused on print advertising and other forms of mass marketing.

Once the customer can see what Eset is capable of doing and test it, the product sells itself, Range said, but he often finds himself having to explain to new customers who ESET is and what they're all about. The lack of name recognition can sometimes make it more difficult to get a foot in the door.

"For a long time, ESET has been the best-kept secret in security," Range said.