UPDATED: Ex-Fortinet channel boss Haylock set for Palo Alto gig

Vendor claims new appointments will help its goal of "displacing market incumbents"

Palo Alto is shortly to unveil Simon Haylock as its new UK channel chief, weeks after he departed the same role at Fortinet, ChannelWeb understands.

Former VADition man Rob Pronk has also joined the firewall vendor as sales director for northern Europe. Pronk spent a year heading up the distributor's Benelux operations and, according to his LinkedIn profile, has also held senior regional sales posts at vendors including Aruba and Extreme.

ChannelWeb revealed two months ago that Haylock was to depart Fortinet after more than three years as UK channel manager, although the vendor refused to confirm this. We have now learned he is set to take on the same role at rival Palo Alto.

The vendor has confirmed Pronk and Haylock's appointments and issued ChannelWeb with a statement stressing its desire to ruffle the feathers of the market's bigger players.

"Rob and Simon are two exceptionally strong additions to Palo Alto Networks and join us at a time when we're making a go at displacing the network security incumbents en masse," said the statement. "Innovation is at the core of our culture and products, and as a result, our sales are now well above $200m after selling product for only four years."

Haylock's resignation was one of a trio of high-profile departures from Fortinet, with long-standing UK sales director Paul Judd and major account manager Hiten Mistry also leaving the vendor.

Speaking at the time, Fortinet's senior vice president of international sales and support Patrice Perche issued a thinly veiled barb at Palo Alto.

"Palo Alto has made a lot of noise and has been supported by some analysts, but customers are starting to see that it has a lot of weaknesses," he said. "We are not afraid of competing with it. We do not want to be like Palo Alto – you should always respect your competition and we respect our competitors."

The appointments of Haylock and Pronk come just a few days after Palo Alto ended its long search for a CEO by nabbing VeriSign boss Mark McLaughlin as its new leader.