Rob Tomlin on new European remit and Exclusive’s soon-to-be UK&I €1bn milestone

“My job is to ensure that the Exclusive experience is the same, with some regional specialisms in all of the countries” Tomlin tells CRN

Exclusive Networks’ former UKI MD has now been tasked with growing its Nordics, Benelux and Baltic operations as its new regional VP of Northern Europe.

Rob Tomlin received his fresh promotion and expanded remit last week and is now one of six regional VPs the VAD’s has across the globe.

Speaking on his new role, before diving into Europe, Tomlin gives CRN an easter egg on the growth of the distie’s UKI business.

The cyber market saw “crazy growth” during Covid, and that twitch spend has stayed with the customer renewal cycle.

Tomlin states the market is now “seeing the next chapter”, with nearly all Exclusive’s vendors seeing revenue jumps in the high teens and higher.

“Just in the UK and Ireland, we’re close to achieving a milestone I'm not sure anyone ever thought ever achieved.

“We should surpass €1bn run rate in the UK and Irish market by the end of the year.

“When you think about the size and scale of that, it really shows how large the cyber market is.

“It also shows why the resellers are making such large investments in cybersecurity.”

Aiming for more growth further afield

The Paris-HQ distributor has been growing its UKI footprint for more than ten years, with Tomlin joining the team last year.

“We’ve now nearly doubled the Irish business, and the UK business is in double-digit growth,” he reveals.

“The opportunity came along towards the end of last year for me to go and run the Benelux, the Nordics and the Baltics, as well as the UK and Ireland.

“It's something I was really excited about, and I always wanted to do when I joined Exclusive.

“The opportunity was for me to go and help those countries and their country managers and take it to the next level, as one of six regional VPs that Exclusive has across the globe.”

He continues that his responsibilities regarding the distributor’s vendor portfolio in the new regions are “no different than in the UKI.”

“Quite a few of our partners tend to operate with a UKI/Nordic/Benelux go-to-market.

“My job is to ensure that the Exclusive experience is the same, with some regional specialisms in all of the countries.

“So the service that we provide, be it professional services, support services, and the like, is the same anywhere in Europe.

“In the past, we probably haven't had that regional approach. So this is a real win for our vendors.”

Priorities, first 100 days and beyond

For his short-term priorities, Tomline states it’s all about getting to know Exclusive’s people in Northern Europe.

“I’ll be spending time in all the countries with all of the teams, understanding what makes us successful,” he says.

“And then looking to understand what the vendors need from us in those new regions, and what the customers need as well.”

A big focus, however, is accelerating Exclusive’s services go-to-market.

“We are truly unique in the world of distribution in that we are a services-led cybersecurity distributor at scale.

“So really helping our partners understand what our services portfolio is and understand how we can help them fill some of their skills gaps.”

Thinking longer-term, over the next two to three years, Tomlin highlights the challenges of the vast cyber market.

“The amount of transactions, compliance and risk is off the charts.

“Part of our challenge to keep up with the demand we see is to help our partners make things simple at scale.

“So a big focus for me is to drive customer experience through tooling, whether it be renewals tooling or driving our customer adoption and portals.”

Secondly, he needs to focus on Exclusive’s ecosystem play.

“Our job is to be the trusted advisor to partners and help them understand where to make their bets and where to make their investments in the years to come in the vast amounts of cybersecurity vendors that are out there.

“Finally, the skills gap and helping plug that, both in helping our resellers find talent for the future but also provide services resource to the resellers as they grow out their cyber businesses.”