Kaspersky Lab's North American Channel Chief Bois Leaves Security Vendor

Kaspersky Lab North American Channel Chief Leslie Bois has left the company as the endpoint security vendor looks to position itself for the next-generation market, CRN has learned.

Bois, who had served as vice president of channel sales for North America, recently left the Moscow-based security vendor to take a new role at a startup. Kaspersky confirmed her departure in an email.

"After eight years of valuable service at Kaspersky Lab North America, Leslie Bois stepped down to pursue an external opportunity," a Kaspersky spokesperson said.

[Related: Q&A: Amit Yoran On Leaving RSA, New CEO Role At Tenable And 2017 Security Predictions]

As head of North American channels at Kaspersky, Bois helped drive a channel focus at the security vendor, including driving partner enablement, rolling out a strategic rebate program and pushing a focus on the upper midmarket and enterprise accounts.

The spokesperson said no permanent replacement had been named for Bois, and her responsibilities for managing regional channel sales and the partner community will be assumed in the interim by Michael Canavan, senior vice president for B2B sales.

Bois has been head of North American channel sales at Kaspersky since December 2015, though she has held various channel leadership roles at the company over the past eight years. Prior to joining Kaspersky in 2008, she held roles at Raritan and EDGE Tech Corp.

Bois was also named this year to CRN's 2016 Top 100 Executives list and the 2016 Power 100, Most Powerful Women of the Channel list.

Michael Knight, president and chief technology officer at Encore Technology Group, a Greenville, S.C.-based Kaspersky partner, said Bois has a "great skill set" and will "move on to do some great things" in her new role, which has not yet been announced.

"I think she did a great job there," Knight said. "I would definitely give her a lot of accolades for the things she's done [at Kaspersky] … Now she has the opportunity to do something different."

Knight said he sees Bois' departure coming at a time when Kaspersky is looking to realign itself to be more competitive in an evolving market for endpoint security. He said Kaspersky is still "absolutely channel friendly," but sees them positioning to be nimbler, technologically advanced and business-focused – changes he said are crucial in today's endpoint security market that is evolving to meet an emerging tsunami of next-generation endpoint security players.

"Kaspersky is realigning to focus on all the foes in the market there and competitors. I think it's going to be a good thing all around," Knight said.