CRN Exclusive: Fidelis Cybersecurity Adds Former FireEye Exec As Channel Chief

Fidelis Cybersecurity, an advanced threat detection and remediation company, is expanding its push into the channel and has added former FireEye channel executive Scott Collins to lead the charge.

Collins joins Bethesda, Md.-based Fidelis as vice president of channel sales. He started with the company July 18.

Collins previously served as director of Americas channel sales at FireEye. He joined the company in 2012, when FireEye was a young company just starting to launch its channel efforts, and helped it launch and grow its initial channel programs. He has also held channel roles at Zscaler and IronPort Systems (acquired by Cisco).

[Related: FireEye CEO Dave DeWalt To Step Down, Kevin Mandia To Take Top Leadership Role]

While Fidelis already has a partner program in place, Collins said he has been brought in to help the company ’accelerate’ its efforts in the channel. He said he prefers companies with a ’startup, young company feel,’ and saw a ’tremendous opportunity’ to help Fidelis expand its channel strategy in a hot market for advanced threat technology. That is why he decided to make the jump from FireEye, which has a very established program, to Fidelis, he said.

’There is absolutely a strong foundation built here that needs to accelerate. That’s what I am here to do. The building blocks are in place and the investments are being made. I’m proud to be part of the team,’ Collins said.

Those efforts will include growing the company’s headcount around the channel, especially around channel operations, Collins said, as well as building branding and awareness around the program. He said he will also look to make some ’tweaks’ to the partner program.

’We have a strong foundation, but there’s an opportunity to make some material changes that would make the program more attractive and more profitable in many areas of a partner's business,’ Collins said.

Collins said Fidelis has a strong commitment to building out its efforts with partners, one of the reasons he decided to join the company.

’I was really impressed by the entire company. The entire executive team has demonstrated a real commitment to a channel partner strategy. It’s something that, as my career has progressed, you learn to know when that is genuine and when that is disingenuous. In talking with all the executives here I recognized that they realized where Fidelis is in the growth cycle and they want and know they need to make a significant commitment to the channel,’ Collins said.

Jeremy Samide, CEO of Stealthcare, a North Olmsted, Ohio-based Fidelis partner, said he is excited to see Fidelis bring Collins on board. He said Collins has a good reputation in the industry for being able to help partners sell product and productize services.

’From what I know of him in the community, it’s a good hire and a very strategic hire for Fidelis. I think Scott will do a tremendous job,’ Samide said. He said is looking forward to meeting Collins next week at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

Samide said Stealthcare has had a strong partner relationship with Fidelis for the past four or five years, particularly when working with large clients, marketing initiatives and in incident response situations.

’They are investing more and they are taking more time [with] channel partners like [us], where we’re not exclusive but we do believe in Fidelis’ products. … [Collins’] appointment will certainly strengthen our relationship as a channel partner,’ Samide said.