Cato Networks appoints Jacob Pereira as Area Vice President, Channels – APAC

Pereira joins from Zoom after nearly five years building its APAC partner ecosystem, with prior channel leadership roles at Nutanix and Dell.

Cato Networks has appointed Jacob Pereira as area vice president, channels – APAC, bringing in a channel executive with experience building partner ecosystems across the region.

Pereira is based in Singapore and takes on the APAC channels role from September 2026.

Pereira joins Cato after nearly five years at Zoom, where he served as head of APAC Partners. During his tenure, he focused on building Zoom’s channel ecosystem across Asia Pacific and advancing its channel-first strategy, working with channel, alliance and service provider partners.

At Cato, Pereira will focus on expanding the company’s engagement with partners and customers across APAC, with Cato’s portfolio spanning secure access service edge (SASE), network security and AI security.

Pereira announced the move following his first week with Cato’s executive leadership team in New York. He said his focus would be on bringing Cato’s security and networking technologies to partners and customers across APAC.

His move adds another channel-focused executive to Cato’s regional leadership as enterprises increasingly evaluate converged networking and security architectures and partners take on a larger role in deploying and managing these environments.

A channel career across Zoom, Nutanix and Dell

Pereira spent close to five years at Zoom as Head of APAC Partners, where he worked on developing the company’s partner ecosystem across the region.

In his departure note, Pereira credited his time at Zoom with teaching him how to build a channel ecosystem, highlighting the importance of trust, relationships and a shared approach between vendors and partners. He also thanked Zoom’s APAC channels, alliances and service provider partners.

Before Zoom, Pereira was senior director, Channels, APJ at Nutanix from 2017 to 2021. He also spent over 15 years at Dell, giving him a long track record across enterprise technology and channel businesses.

The move to Cato therefore continues a career centred on partner-led growth, with Pereira having worked across vendor channel organisations at Dell, Nutanix and Zoom.

For Cato, Pereira’s appointment comes as the company positions SASE, network security and AI security as part of a broader security architecture for enterprises.

His remit covers APAC channels, putting partners at the centre of Cato’s regional expansion strategy. The focus will be on working with partners to take Cato’s technologies to customers across the region, while expanding the ecosystem around its networking and security portfolio.