Wellington-based Compuware has named Janne Halonen as Country Manager for New Zealand and will be responsible for growing the company’s local business.

Halonen recently relocated from Finland, where he was Country Manager and, as Regional Director for the Baltic countries, also responsible for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

“From a market perspective there are quite a number of similarities between New Zealand and Finland,” said Halonen. “They are quite similar in geographical size, the major IT market segments government, banking and finance, and telecommunications  are also very similar, and both countries require vendors to work closely with business partners to deliver solutions. It is my personal goal to build Compuware’s business by working with partner organisations as I believe it is one of the keys to growing the New Zealand business to the next level.”

Halonen will report to Steve Jobson, Vice President for Compuware Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Compuware also announced today that it had appointed Rafi Katanasho as Solutions Sales Director, Applications Performance Management for Australia, New Zealand and Japan.