Role: CEO, Performanta
What’s been your business high point for the last twelve months?
Our new go to market focusing on data risk and including the convergence of identity with data and threat. This is the first time our GTM is covering the entire organisation. It obviously includes sales and marketing but also covers organisational structure, KPIs and areas of focus to ensure we are truly client centric and protect humans where data matters most.
Name one thing that your company is looking to achieve in 2026.
A high level of profitability, driven by strong growth in both our managed services and consulting practices, and we intend to do so despite navigating a very tough market. It is a combination of financial discipline and strategic ambition that will define our year.
What keeps you awake at night as a partner leader?
The mental health of our employees, and the responsibility we carry in helping them navigate an incredibly fast-pace changing market and job uncertainty. Our focus remains on maintaining safety for our clients throughout their data risk journey, which is entirely aligned with our tagline: we protect people where data matters most.
Is AI being overhyped?
AI may be overhyped by those who do not truly understand what to do with it, but it is being applied proportionally and purposefully by those who do. We have been on this journey since September 2023, and as a result, we use AI very responsibly across all areas of our business.
What’s been your most successful internal AI project to date, and why?
Our most successful internal AI projects have been our SafeXDR Agentic SOC – Intelligent SOC for Intelligent People. Increase of client centricity and client safety were the guiding principles. As a result, our mean time to detect, respond, contain and remediate is now measured in seconds. Our rules are now dynamic and help clients reduce their business risk.
Can you share a surprising prediction about how the UK IT channel will evolve over the next five years?
Surprise, surprise – the channel will still exist, despite what many predict. My belief is that it will evolve into a far more sophisticated channel, enabling clients on their IT and security journeys while maintaining a level of sophistication derived from both the technology and the people leveraging it. The channel will become leaner in headcount but more impactful in outcome, with greater automation, and even the human touch will increasingly be delivered through automated means. I do foresee more blurred lines between VAR, VAD, MSP/MSSP and vendors.
Which tech gizmo could you not function without?
Anything connected to music. I listen to music two to three hours a day. It is an inherent part of my life. Whether it is my phone, the TV, the radio or a turntable music is non-negotiable for me. It is one of three universal languages that bring people together.
Which three famous people, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party?
I would invite them separately, across three dinners rather than one. That way I can truly invest the time in each conversation. My three guests would be Nelson Mandela, Rassie Erassmus (head coach of the Springboks), and Condoleezza Rice. Three people who have impacted my life in the most profound ways. Notably, I have not chosen anyone from business or tech; I believe the world today needs a little more sanity, and that wisdom drawn from the worlds of sport, leadership, and public service is far more essential for this day and age.
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
Be careful of the long route if you are not prepared for it.
Which tech figurehead has impressed you the most this year, and why?
There are quite a few, but I will try and keep it close to home. This year I was mostly impressed with by my dear friend Refael Franco, former deputy director general of Israel Cyber Authority and CEO of Code Blue Cyber. Franco brings humility combined with tremendous level of knowledge and expertise in crisis management. And above all, he is the salt of the earth.
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