Fortinet appoints Luca Simonelli as Asia Pacific chief

Fortinet has appointed Luca Simonelli as Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore.

He will lead the company's Asia Pacific sales organisation and oversee operations across Japan, North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, India and SAARC, and Australia and New Zealand.

The appointment marks Simonelli's return to Fortinet after a previous stint of nearly eight years, during which he led the company's business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Most recently, he held a senior leadership role at GCX Managed Services.

In his new role, he will oversee regional strategy as well as customer and partner relationships, as Fortinet looks to strengthen its position in a market of growing importance to cybersecurity vendors.

Asia Pacific has been one of the most active regions for technology investment, with organisations upgrading networks, moving more workloads to the cloud and increasing spending on cyber defences. Those shifts have intensified competition among security suppliers seeking a larger presence with corporate and public sector customers.

Simonelli brings more than 30 years of experience in technology leadership roles spanning cybersecurity, networking, secure access service edge, cloud security and managed services. He has worked across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Regional remit

Simonelli will oversee a broad and diverse territory, reflecting the complexity of the Asia Pacific market. The region includes mature technology markets such as Japan, Australia and Singapore, alongside fast-growing economies in Southeast Asia and South Asia, where cyber spending is rising as businesses digitise operations.

His appointment also underscores Singapore's role as a management base for multinational technology companies operating across Asia Pacific. The city-state remains a regional hub for sales, finance and operational leadership across the cybersecurity industry.

Joe Sarno, Executive Vice President of International Sales at Fortinet, described the move as part of the company's broader focus on the region.

"Asia Pacific continues to be one of the most dynamic cybersecurity markets globally, as organisations accelerate digital transformation, adopt AI, and modernise critical infrastructure. Luca's deep industry experience, customer focus, and proven ability to build high-performing teams further strengthens our leadership across Asia Pacific and positions us well to further support our customers, partners and teams as we continue executing our long-term growth strategy," said Sarno.

Return to Fortinet

For Fortinet, bringing back a former regional leader adds an executive already familiar with the company's structure and sales model. It also places a seasoned industry executive in charge of a market where vendors are aligning security products with changing customer demand around cloud use, artificial intelligence and infrastructure upgrades.

Simonelli holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Milan. His background spans both vendor and managed services environments, giving him experience with direct customers as well as channel and service provider relationships.

Fortinet is one of the world's largest cybersecurity suppliers, with products and services spanning network security, cloud security and threat intelligence. The company has built a large installed base across enterprises, governments and service providers, making leadership changes in major regions closely watched across the sector.

Competition in Asia Pacific has sharpened as customers seek to simplify security operations while dealing with a wider range of threats. That has prompted vendors to invest in regional leadership teams with experience across multiple geographies and routes to market.

Simonelli described his return as an opportunity to build on the company's position in the region.

"Fortinet has built one of the industry's most comprehensive and integrated cybersecurity platforms, bringing together networking, security and AI to help organisations reduce complexity while strengthening cyber resilience. As customers continue to modernise their infrastructure and embrace AI, Fortinet is uniquely positioned to help them secure every part of their digital journey. I'm excited to rejoin Fortinet and work alongside our customers, partners and teams across Asia Pacific to build on the company's strong momentum and help more organisations securely embrace the next phase of digital transformation," said Simonelli.