Blue Coat announces new regional sales leaders

Blue Coat Systems, a leading provider of Web security and WAN optimization solutions, today announced that it has named Gary Olson vice president of sales for the Americas and Steve Rowland vice president of sales for APAC. In April, Blue Coat named Marc Andrews as vice president of sales for EMEA. The new regional sales leaders are responsible for developing and executing regional go-to-market strategy, driving market penetration of the Blue Coat WAN Optimization solutions, expanding the reach of the company’s Web security solutions and building strong partner relationships. All three report to Kevin Biggs, senior vice president of worldwide sales and field operations at Blue Coat.  

“With strong, differentiated WAN optimization and Web security products that meet the evolving requirements of businesses, our primary focus is now on advancing our go-to-market capabilities,” said Mr. Biggs. “I have great confidence that Steve, Gary and Marc will bring a new focus in the regions that will help us win worldwide.”

Gary Olson is an accomplished sales leader with a wealth of experience in technology sales for companies small, medium and large.  Prior to joining Blue Coat as vice president of sales for the Americas, Mr. Olson was vice president of worldwide sales at Mu Dynamics.  He held similar leadership roles at SeeBeyond, which was acquired by Sun, and Parametric Technologies. He holds a M.P.A. and graduated with honors from Troy State University, European Region, and has a B.S. in Engineering and Political Science from the United States Air Force Academy. He served as an officer in the United States Air Force and is a veteran of Desert Storm.

Prior to assuming the role of vice president of sales for APAC, Mr. Rowland led sales in the Americas for three years. Before joining Blue Coat, he was senior vice president of sales at Workbrain Corporation and vice president of sales at BMC Software. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rowland held sales and sales management positions at Carrier Corporation, a division of United Technologies Corporation. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Prior to joining Blue Coat as vice president of sales for EMEA, Mr. Andrews was president of Micro Focus International. Previously, he was president of international operations for Saba Software and chief operating officer at NETIQ. He also led sales and marketing for EMEA at BMC Software.