Getting to Know our New APAC Country Managers

If you’ve been keeping up with Wasabi lately, then it will come as no surprise that we’ve been in hypergrowth mode – especially in the Asia Pacific region. It is quickly becoming one of our most important markets, with four storage regions spanning Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, and most recently Singapore. Not to mention the tremendous customers and partners we’re working with already like NTT Communications, DIS, Networld, NESIC, VGI, Highreso, as well as Probax, Comet Backup, Veeam, and Equinix who have all been instrumental in our international growth.

To support all of this momentum, and to take our APAC operations to the next level, I am beyond thrilled to welcome two new leaders to the Wasabi APAC team: Aki Wakimoto, our new Country Manager in Japan, and Andrew Sandes, her counterpart in Australia. I’m fortunate enough to have worked with both Aki and Andrew in the past, so I knew when I started to build out our team they would be the first calls I made. Both Aki and Andrew have the skillset and experience to build our Japan and Australia markets, optimize our channels of distribution, and drive customer success with Wasabi hot cloud storage solutions.

Here’s a little bit more about Aki and Andrew, and some thoughts from them on joining Wasabi.

Aki Wakimoto, Country Manager, Japan

As Country Manager for Japan, Aki is excited to strategically build out the go-to-market team, drive value for channel partners and customers, and help deliver storage solutions that maximize the ROI of data across organizations.

Aki brings 20 years of experience in the Japanese IT industry to Wasabi. She previously served as President and Representative Director of SolarWinds Japan where she grew the company’s customer and channel business, and implemented a comprehensive IT Operations Management (ITOM) product portfolio to support the digital transformation of Japanese enterprises. She has also held a number of impactful sales and operations roles with CA Technologies, Citrix Systems, and Adobe Systems and was also President of Pulse Secure Japan.

“Having worked with Michael before, I know he brings tremendous leadership to Wasabi, and I was excited about the opportunity to work with him again,” explains Aki. “I believe in the mission of Wasabi, that as data explodes, storage needs to be considered a utility. There is something incredibly special about Wasabi, and there isn’t a better time to join and contribute to the next phase of our growth.”

Andrew Sandes, Country Manager, Australia

Like Aki, Andrew has 20+ years of experience across Oceania, Japan, and the wider Asia Pacific region, helping customers solve their biggest problems using leading technologies like cloud storage. He’ll get to work immediately, strategizing with Wasabi’s Australian partners to build channel enablement and joint marketing programs that build advocacy for Wasabi hot cloud storage.

Before coming to Wasabi, Sandes served as Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Empflifi and was previously GM Asia Pacific at Lithium Technologies (now Khoros) working with large enterprises across the region to provide solutions to high scale online and social customer service challenges.

“What drew me to Wasabi first and foremost was the opportunity to work with Michael and Marty (Falaro) again. Marty was actually my first boss! I’ve had Wasabi on my radar for the last few years and I've been watching the Wasabi Partner Network expand and grow. The simplicity and power of Wasabi's value proposition is almost too good to be true, everybody wins.” says Andrew. “The opportunity for Wasabi in the Australia and New Zealand markets – and the wider APAC region – is enormous. Wasabi is very lucky to have an amazing network of global Technology Alliance Partners and local MSP and VAR channel partners to help grow our business. We look forward to expanding our channels and supporting them to deliver Wasabi's hot storage to their customers. Australia is a mature market for cloud storage as the hyperscalers have been preaching the benefits of the cloud for quite some time. Now there is a better way through Wasabi. ”

Welcome, Aki and Andrew!

Connect with Aki Wakimoto and Andrew Sandes on LinkedIn!