Zscaler announced that Karl Soderlund has been appointed as the company’s Senior Vice President, Worldwide Partners, and Alliances. In his role at Zscaler, Soderlund will be responsible for advancing and modernizing the Zscaler partner program by developing and executing a competitive go-to-market strategy, and leading a world-class channel team.
“As the leader in cloud security, Zscaler continues to become a destination for top talent,” said Dali Rajic, Chief Operating Officer, Zscaler. “Karl’s deep partner expertise and proven track record with the execution of highly strategic partner programs at top networking and cybersecurity companies demonstrates that he is the right industry veteran to take our channel partner program to the next level. As we continue to make meaningful investments in our partner model, I am excited to welcome Karl to the company and am confident that his contributions will deliver results and support company growth.”
The Zscaler partner program is comprised of leading system integrators, managed service providers, solution providers, and distributors, and continues to add new classes of partners that are expertly suited to help enterprises take advantage of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform. The partner program is responsible for delivering 95 percent of the company’s business. The Zscaler partner program goes beyond providing access to offering broad-based enablement across the lifecycle of Zscaler’s customers.
“Zscaler is an innovator and leader in cloud security that has consistently delivered on the promise of zero trust while redefining network security with the world’s largest inline cloud security platform,” said Karl Soderlund, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partners and Alliances at Zscaler. “With a total addressable market of $72B, it was a clear choice to join Zscaler. I look forward to bringing my experience to dramatically elevate Zscaler’s partner program.”
Soderlund joins Zscaler from Palo Alto Networks where he served as a Senior Vice President. Soderlund’s time at Palo Alto Networks was marked by strong accomplishments, including attracting and retaining top talent, architecting award-winning channel programs, and securing new partners. Soderlund has been awarded channel chief eight times over his career and for the past three years, he’s been recognized as one of the top 50 most influential leaders in the industry.
Prior to Palo Alto Networks, Soderlund also held senior roles at Aruba Networks, Avaya, HP, Cisco Systems, and Fortinet. Soderlund received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Anna Maria College.