Claroty SEMEA head on key regions, verticals, and getting more women in tech

Nina Gouas tells CRN where Claroty’s channel business is focusing in 2025 and how she joined the tech workforce

Claroty is paying particular attention to the manufacturing and healthcare industries in EMEA this year.

Spearheading this in Southern Europe and Middle East and Africa is its channel & alliances director for those regions, Nina Gouas (pictured), who recently spoke with CRN about how she got involved in the channel.

Gouas majored in international business at university and sought a position in this area after her studies.

“I was also looking to get into a space where I saw growth opportunities, and my background was related to cybersecurity and IoT,” she explains.

“Because of that, cybersecurity stood out for me as a good opportunity for growth from both a market level perspective and a personal one.”

She joined Checkpoint Systems as regional channel manager in 2006, marking the beginning of her channel career.

After seven years at the vendor, Gouas left Checkpoint as its SEMEA channel sales & alliances director and went on to hold numerous EMEA channel head roles at a number of technology companies.

She then landed at 100 per cent channel-focused organisation Claroty in 2021 after being approached by the cyber physical systems specialist to lead its Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa channel business.

“I was coming from the IoT space, but also the physical security space. These industries, especially the physical security challenges, have shifted with the connected world that we're in to cybersecurity challenges.

“With the mix of challenges and shift of customers, Claroty reached out to me to offer this role.

“For me it was a perfect match, and on top of that there were big growth and development opportunities in the market.”

Channel priorities

Claroty welcomed a new channel leader in August with Tim Mackie joining as vice president of worldwide channels and alliances.

Therefore top of the agenda for the vendor’s channel team is focusing on scaling its platform approach to cyber physical systems.

“We’re doing that by focusing on key regions and specific verticals like manufacturing and healthcare.

“We’re investing in research and development to drive product innovation, and also we're working on continuing to mature our partner programme.”

Getting more women in tech

Gouas speaks with women who are interested in a career in IT “on a daily basis” as a member of various women organisations in France, such as Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) and CEFCYS - Cercle des Femmes de la CyberSécurité.

“My whole career I have advocated for women and supported them,” she says.

“IT is known for its lack of women because of its technical aspects. However, I have seen great progress over the years, and I think this is also thanks to these organisations that I have just mentioned.

“The landscape is changing and I think these organisations are facilitating connections and removing roadblocks.

“There is still room for improvement, but I think it’s progressing.”