5 Things To Know About New Sophos Channel Chief Chris Bell

Bell, formerly chief strategy officer at Secureworks, joined Sophos through the merger of the two companies that closed in February.

Chris Bell, formerly chief strategy officer at Secureworks, has been named the new channel chief at Sophos following the recent merger of the two companies.

Sophos completed its $859 million acquisition of Secureworks in early February as part of its push into offering enhanced threat detection and response.

The cybersecurity vendor, which is owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, acquired Secureworks from its majority owner Dell Technologies.

What follows are five things to know about Sophos’ new channel chief.

Secureworks Veteran

Prior to the Sophos-Secureworks merger, Bell had spent more than eight years at Secureworks, starting there as senior director of product management, alliances and platform initiatives in mid-2016.

Bell was promoted to vice president of corporate development and strategic alliances in 2021, before being named chief strategy officer in April 2024.

Bell, whose title at Sophos is senior vice president of channels, alliances and global development, is based in Austin, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Dell, AMD Experience

Prior to joining Secureworks in 2016, Bell had held roles at Dell Technologies and AMD.

From 2012 to 2016, he had served in various roles at Dell Technologies, ultimately as director of business development for cloud client computing.

Earlier in his career, Bell was a senior product marketing manager at AMD and, before that, held multiple roles at Dell Technologies during his first stint at the company.

Change In Channel Leadership

At Sophos, Bell has been named channel chief following the departure of Kendra Krause, who’d served as senior vice president for global channels and small business sales at the vendor since April 2023.

In an email to CRN, Sophos declined to comment further on the departure of Krause, who’d been with Sophos for 12 years in total, beyond confirming that she is no longer with the company.

On his LinkedIn profile, Bell indicated that he took on the new role at Sophos in February. In addition to the closure of the Secureworks acquisition in February, Sophos also confirmed implementing a round of layoffs affecting 6 percent of staff on Feb. 12.

Focus On MDR

In a post on LinkedIn, Bell said his priorities at Sophos will continue to be focused around developing strong relationships with partners as well as “innovative” partner programs that drive growth for solution and service providers.

Bell noted in the post that managed detection and response (MDR) — an area where Sophos has been investing heavily in recent years — will be a key area for doubling down with partners.

“Following the Secureworks acquisition earlier this month, Sophos is now the leading pure-play cybersecurity provider of Managed Detection and Response, supporting over 28,000 organizations worldwide through our channel,” he said in the LinkedIn post. “I’m excited to scale this success through our global channel partner community, MSPs, MSSPs and alliances.”

Targeting MSP Growth

In response to a request for further comment, Sophos provided a statement from Bell over email that addressed additional priorities, including around making it easier for partners to work with Sophos.

Other key focus areas will include expanding cross-selling opportunities with current partners as well as recruitment of new partners, Bell said in the email statement.

Notably, there will continue to be a special emphasis on partnering with MSPs going forward, according to the statement from Bell.

In an interview with CRN in February, Sophos CEO Joe Levy that for partners, Sophos expects to be able to provide “a far greater capability in the market” for serving customers following the Secureworks acquisition. “We think this is just going to allow us to do an even better job for [customers] going forward,” Levy said.