The identity security vendor has appointed a 20-year regional veteran to build out its channel and go-to-market team, as enterprises start applying human identity controls to AI agents.
Saviynt has appointed Kamel Heus as Vice President of Sales for the Middle East and Africa, the identity security company announced on 8 September. Heus will be based in Dubai and will cover the MEA region including Turkey.
His mandate covers new business, renewals and customer expansion, alongside regional channel strategy, partner ecosystem development and the build-out of a local go-to-market team. Saviynt has identified expansion into Saudi Arabia and growth in local hosting capability as near-term priorities, the latter aimed at meeting in-region delivery and data residency requirements that increasingly determine which vendors qualify for public sector and regulated industry work.
Heus arrives with 20 years of enterprise cybersecurity sales leadership across the Middle East, Africa and Europe. He was most recently Vice President, EMEA at Thales, where he led the identity and access management business, and has held senior roles at Centrify, now Delinea, and Sophos. He holds a PhD in applied mathematics and computing from Université Grenoble Alpes and has been based in Dubai for more than a decade.
The appointment sits against a shift in what identity security is being asked to cover. As AI agents gain access to enterprise applications and data, they require the same discovery, governance and lifecycle controls applied to human identities, a category of risk that barely existed in regional procurement conversations two years ago. Saviynt’s Zuma platform is positioned to give organisations visibility into AI identities and enforce least-privilege access across their lifecycle.
Pete Angstadt, Chief Commercial Officer at Saviynt, said: “MEA represents a significant opportunity for Saviynt as organisations across the region accelerate their digital transformation and increasingly look to AI to transform how they operate and grow. Kamel’s deep experience in the region and understanding of its customers, markets and partner ecosystem will be invaluable as we continue to expand our presence.”
Heus said the regional market has become one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity markets globally. “I’ve spent over a decade building businesses from the ground up in this region, and I’m excited to do it again at Saviynt. My focus is to build out our local presence, grow a strong partner ecosystem, and enable organisations across MEA to grow their business through secure, confident access both for their people and their AI,” he said.
Saviynt’s target verticals in the region include government, banking and financial services, utilities, healthcare, oil and gas, and retail.
