Luca Simonelli joins Fortinet as Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific

Simonelli began his cybersecurity career with Fortinet in 2004 before moving on to other companies and now returns to lead the region.

Fortinet has appointed Luca Simonelli as Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific (APAC). An industry veteran with over three decades of experience in tech leadership, Simonelli will lead Fortinet's Asia Pacific sales organization, overseeing the company's businesses across Japan, North Asia and South Asia (Southeast Asia, India & SAARC, Australia and New Zealand).

Based in Singapore, Simonelli will also be responsible for further driving regional strategy, strengthening customer and partner relationships, and accelerating Fortinet's continued growth across the region.

Prior to joining Fortinet, Simonelli served in a senior leadership role at GCX Managed Services. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled high-performing teams across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, holding leadership positions across the cybersecurity, networking and managed services industries, including nearly eight years at Fortinet, where he previously led the company's EMEA business.

In a LinkedIn post, Simonelli said he is very excited, humbled, and deeply aware of the responsibility that comes with stepping into his new role as SVP APAC at Fortinet.

“This is a particularly meaningful move for me. Fortinet is where my cybersecurity journey began back in 2004, when the company was still a few hundred people worldwide and the industry itself looked very different from today. Returning to Fortinet fifteen years after my previous experience with the company feels both special and inspiring: a return to where it all started, and the beginning of a new mission,” he said.

Commenting on Simonelli’s appointment, Joe Sarno, Executive Vice President, International Sales at Fortinet, said Asia Pacific continues to be one of the most dynamic cybersecurity markets globally, as organizations accelerate digital transformation, adopt AI, and modernize 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,” he said.

For Simonelli, 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 modernize 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 organizations securely embrace the next phase of digital transformation,” Simonelli added.