Help AG appoints Fahad Al-Suhaimi as Country Director to lead expansion in KSA

Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital, has appointed Fahad Al-Suhaimi as Country Director to spearhead the company’s plans for expansion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Al-Suhaimi brings with him more than 15 years of experience in successfully driving business expansion in the technology industry across a variety of roles in project management, business development, sales, and marketing strategy. He joins Help AG from Innovative Solutions SA, where he held the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Prior to that, he served in management positions at Mobily, SAS, HP, the Saudi Telecom Company, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Based in Riyadh, Al-Suhaimi will be responsible for leading business growth and expansion across the nation at a time when organizations are looking to further accelerate their digital transformation ambitions driven, in part, by the global COVID-19 outbreak but also as one of the focal points of Saudi’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy through increased focus on innovation.

Commenting on the appointment, Stephan Berner, Chief Executive Officer at Help AG, said: “We are very excited to have Fahad leading our expansion into Saudi Arabia to meet the significantly increasing demand for Help AG’s Managed Security Services and cybersecurity on-premises and secure cloud infrastructure projects. It is clear that organizations and governmental agencies across the Kingdom are most eager and ready to embrace digital transformation – and as one of the region’s strongest cyber security companies, we look forward to supporting their bold steps with our tailored information security solutions and services that ensure they grow securely.”

He added: “Fahad’s extensive experience, network of public and private sector relationships, and understanding of the Kingdom’s threat landscape makes him the perfect addition to our team and reinforces our commitment to advancing the Crown Prince’s pioneering Vision 2030 digital transformation agenda.”

Commenting on his new role, Fahad Al-Suhaimi, newly appointed Country Director in Saudi Arabia, Help AG, added: “I am honoured to join Help AG and look forward to expanding the reach of our cutting-edge 360° capabilities to empower the infrastructure of organizations in the Kingdom and enable secure transformation that will help drive the digital economy. As the Gulf’s largest economy, there is huge demand in the market for our services and solutions as organizations rapidly embrace digital technologies not only accelerated by the shift to cloud and multi-cloud environments during Covid-19, but also on account of Saudi’s national transformation plan that prioritizes innovation to diversify the economy away from oil and develop public service sectors including infrastructure, health, education, and tourism. Part of Etisalat Digital, Help AG already leads the largest team of cyber security experts in the region with a 160+ strong workforce, making us best positioned to serve the market.”

Help AG’s New Cyber Security Operations Center to Launch in 2021

In addition to already having the largest Managed Security Services (MSS) team in the Middle East, Help AG also plans to launch a new state-of-the-art Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC) in Saudi Arabia in the first half of 2021 to meet the state’s growing need to strengthen protection against cyber threats.

According to a recent IDC CIO Survey, 60% of Saudi CIOs see managing security as their biggest ongoing technology challenge and 85% of CIOs think that investments in cyber security and privacy technologies will be critical to their digital transformation initiatives. The report also predicts that the fallout from the pandemic is likely to expose new security loopholes that cybercriminals will exploit.

The CSOC will comprise top-level security analysts and monitors to assess vulnerabilities, and analyse and interpret critical security events or abnormal behaviour occurring within complex IT security infrastructures, with Help AG’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service, and Incident Response methodology, designed to inform and support organizations on a 24/7 basis. The MDR Service also supports Active Response and Containment actions initiated by the CSOC team with solutions such as Palo Alto Firewall and Carbon Black Response, significantly decreasing time to respond and mitigate a threat, and positioning organizations a step ahead of any incident.