Bennett takes over from Matthew Lee who, after seven years at the helm, moves to focus on the SUSE ISV/HSV business as cloud and strategic alliances manager.

Having been involved in the technology sector for 18 years, Bennett aims to bring knowledge and insight into the dynamics and strategies required to ensure that SUSE South Africa continues to penetrate and drive market capitalisation in the sector.

Bennett has held various sales leadership positions in the industry and his background at SAP will also ensure that SUSE continues to build a strong partner and ecosystem business.

Bennett also has experience in corporate leadership, enterprise sales, SME sales, tele-sales, sales operations and in the indirect channel business.

As country manager, Bennett will be focused on showcasing SUSE as the chosen solutions provider of pure open 'open' source Linux distribution on the continent.

"I want to drive greater brand awareness and solidify our presence in South Africa and the sub-Saharan African regions. I will also be focused on supporting and growing our channel and partner ecosystems through enablement and training to bring value to customers. In essence, my aim is to support our customers on their journey to an entire software defined data centre," says Bennett.

"The next chapter in SUSE’s development will continue, and even accelerate, the momentum generated over recent years. I have a vision be the number one solutions provider of pure open 'open' source SUSE Linux solutions in Africa," adds Bennett.

"I am very excited to have joined this team, and look forward to not only promoting our business growth, but continuing to meet enterprise transformation demands," Bennett concludes.

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