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Afy Merchant
Strategic goals - Cybersecurity maturity, Compliance Readiness and Certification to framework, standards, regulations
Ft. Washington, MD, United States
Details
Experience:
A pragmatic approach to product management starts with uncovering strategic opportunities in the marketplace and the launch of service offering through a methodical approach, including Target market evaluation, business case, product strategy, product roadmap, marketing, launch, and delivery of the service offering. Experience with an end to end product management with quick impact to revenue goals.
Key Highlights :
• Forming & managing GRC partnerships with leading service providers in the USA and globally.
• Setup partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, ConnectWise, and other solution providers and tier two professional services and consulting organizations.
• Setup a partnership program within ControlCase to broaden our reach to Managed service provider marketplace and successfully achieve MQLs for our business development and account managers
• Use of the pragmatic approach to bring a service offering and build a business case, presenting it to partner stakeholders, internal stakeholders, and the board of directors.
• Uncover strategic opportunities with partners to create a market-driven service offering
• Identify the right product strategies, share the product vision and gain consensus for product plans
• Build and leverage user expertise to foster innovation and de-risk solutions
• Build Targeted solutions with a phased approach, prioritized based on impact and immediate ROI, and deliver on product plans
• Create user groups to measure effectiveness, connect business to buyers, and create marketing canvases for launch
• Identify launch strategies and empower sales
• Create impactful pricing and determine the market value of the service offering.
• Setting up ROI, CBA, Costing, and project planning with internal and outside partners for successfully launching the service offerings
• Drafting and creating content for marketing jointly with partners for the service offering
2021 : Present
ControlCase
Senior Vice President –Product and Service strategy (Cybersecurity) and Partnership channels
A member of the senior leadership/executive team for a $20M private equity-backed company with overall responsibility for Business Development, Sales Engineering, account management, and marketing for Americas and Northern Europe
Key Highlights :
• Forming & managing GRC partnerships with leading service providers in the USA and globally.
• Successful partnership set up in eight Middle East countries resulting in 5X sales revenue increases within the first year of an alliance.
• Set up channel partnerships to drive sales leveraging their clients and internal sales resources
• Part of restructuring efforts for the organization to develop Sales, Sales Engineering, and Marketing as distinctive functions within the organization structure.
• Setting up Sales Engineering process and creating a knowledgebase of our service offerings and technical discussions for Account managers and sales engineers
• Understanding the unique client requirements and business needs and consulting them for the best path approach on their journey to cybersecurity maturity and compliance.
• Develop/maintain processes, standards, and tools for gathering/reporting consolidated corporate data
• Practice proactive & containment skills to effectively resolve problems from the economic buyer & end-user perspectives
• Establish a structured approach & best practices to include reporting and documentation through utilizing standard methods & proven tools
2017 : 2020
ControlCase
Senior Vice President - Business Development , Sales Engg. and Marketing
Setup the wholly-owned subsidiary of ControlCase LLC as ControlCase Middle East (CCME) LLC within the Dubai free zone to service our growing set of clients within the financial industry in many countries in the MENA region including, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, and Ethiopia.
CCME Trade license issuance, Manage Government regulations, financial audits (GAAP) for American subsidiaries, Met C-level executives at various banks and financial institutions to promote our service offerings, managed project deliverables,
Key Highlights :
• Collaborate with the executives to articulate corporate vision, strategy & goals
• Setting strategy, operational plans, goals, and objectives to support the corporate strategic direction
• Lead/assist in developing business and financial plans for ControlCase Middle East entity
• Identify, assess, and prioritize risks affecting business/financial objectives achievement
• Executed/oversaw business objectives achievement progress
• Assess and report to executive management objectives achievement/performance
• Managing the corporate resources prudently within budget and according to laws, regulations, policies, standards, and GAAP principles
• Aligning & prioritizing corporate resources toward objectives achievement
• Assuring that the services delivered are consistently provided to clients and stakeholders in a positive manner
• Inspiring, growing, attaining, and retaining experts and performers
2010 : 2017
ControlCase
Managing Director
Key Highlights
• Managed the delivery team for our professional consulting and certification practices to produce quality products for our clients.
• Supported solution development with subject matter experts and engineers to build the Cloud Solution Offerings and participates as a Solution Lead for Cloud Proposals and Opportunities.
• Thorough understanding of Government procurement policies and practices
• Developed and performed security compliance in line with Cloud Computing FEDRAMP, FISMA, HIPAA, SARBANES-OXLEY,NSA,ISO 270001, Federal, State, and County- information technology regulations.
• Conducted Privacy Threshold Analysis/Privacy Impact Assessment (PTA/PIA)
• Development of comprehensive risk assessment processes
• Performed numerous risk assessments and IT audits ( in accordance with FEDRAMP, FISMA, NSA,ISO 270001, HITRUST, PCI, GDPR, CCPA and other frameworks/regulations
• Supported numerous clients as a senior consultant and part of red team to work with concerned clients
• Successfully participated in management consulting, subcontracting and subcontract monitoring roles
• Provides strategic focus, leadership, and presides over client engagements to elicit, document, analyze and validate IT security compliance by applying the latest Security Frameworks such as : Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), (CMMC)
• Enterprise-wide review and preparation of Privacy Threshold Analysis/Privacy Impact Assessment (PTA/PIA)
2006 : 2012
ControlCase LLC
Director
As a Senior SOX Compliance Analyst, was responsible for preparing and implementing a risk-based audit plan to assess, report on, and make suggestions for improving the company's key internal controls for operational and finance activities for the largest telecom service provider within the nation
Key Highlight :
• Conduct a security focused IT risk assessment to identify potential weaknesses and create relevant solutions that address internal control needs and business requirements along with providing a value add.
2004 : 2006
Independent Contractor
Independent Contractor
Key Highlights :
• Forming & managing GRC partnerships with leading service providers in the USA and globally.
• Setup partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, ConnectWise, and other solution providers and tier two professional services and consulting organizations.
• Setup a partnership program within ControlCase to broaden our reach to Managed service provider marketplace and successfully achieve MQLs for our business development and account managers
• Use of the pragmatic approach to bring a service offering and build a business case, presenting it to partner stakeholders, internal stakeholders, and the board of directors.
• Uncover strategic opportunities with partners to create a market-driven service offering
• Identify the right product strategies, share the product vision and gain consensus for product plans
• Build and leverage user expertise to foster innovation and de-risk solutions
• Build Targeted solutions with a phased approach, prioritized based on impact and immediate ROI, and deliver on product plans
• Create user groups to measure effectiveness, connect business to buyers, and create marketing canvases for launch
• Identify launch strategies and empower sales
• Create impactful pricing and determine the market value of the service offering.
• Setting up ROI, CBA, Costing, and project planning with internal and outside partners for successfully launching the service offerings
• Drafting and creating content for marketing jointly with partners for the service offering
2021 : Present
ControlCase
Senior Vice President –Product and Service strategy (Cybersecurity) and Partnership channels
A member of the senior leadership/executive team for a $20M private equity-backed company with overall responsibility for Business Development, Sales Engineering, account management, and marketing for Americas and Northern Europe
Key Highlights :
• Forming & managing GRC partnerships with leading service providers in the USA and globally.
• Successful partnership set up in eight Middle East countries resulting in 5X sales revenue increases within the first year of an alliance.
• Set up channel partnerships to drive sales leveraging their clients and internal sales resources
• Part of restructuring efforts for the organization to develop Sales, Sales Engineering, and Marketing as distinctive functions within the organization structure.
• Setting up Sales Engineering process and creating a knowledgebase of our service offerings and technical discussions for Account managers and sales engineers
• Understanding the unique client requirements and business needs and consulting them for the best path approach on their journey to cybersecurity maturity and compliance.
• Develop/maintain processes, standards, and tools for gathering/reporting consolidated corporate data
• Practice proactive & containment skills to effectively resolve problems from the economic buyer & end-user perspectives
• Establish a structured approach & best practices to include reporting and documentation through utilizing standard methods & proven tools
2017 : 2020
ControlCase
Senior Vice President - Business Development , Sales Engg. and Marketing
Setup the wholly-owned subsidiary of ControlCase LLC as ControlCase Middle East (CCME) LLC within the Dubai free zone to service our growing set of clients within the financial industry in many countries in the MENA region including, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, and Ethiopia.
CCME Trade license issuance, Manage Government regulations, financial audits (GAAP) for American subsidiaries, Met C-level executives at various banks and financial institutions to promote our service offerings, managed project deliverables,
Key Highlights :
• Collaborate with the executives to articulate corporate vision, strategy & goals
• Setting strategy, operational plans, goals, and objectives to support the corporate strategic direction
• Lead/assist in developing business and financial plans for ControlCase Middle East entity
• Identify, assess, and prioritize risks affecting business/financial objectives achievement
• Executed/oversaw business objectives achievement progress
• Assess and report to executive management objectives achievement/performance
• Managing the corporate resources prudently within budget and according to laws, regulations, policies, standards, and GAAP principles
• Aligning & prioritizing corporate resources toward objectives achievement
• Assuring that the services delivered are consistently provided to clients and stakeholders in a positive manner
• Inspiring, growing, attaining, and retaining experts and performers
2010 : 2017
ControlCase
Managing Director
Key Highlights
• Managed the delivery team for our professional consulting and certification practices to produce quality products for our clients.
• Supported solution development with subject matter experts and engineers to build the Cloud Solution Offerings and participates as a Solution Lead for Cloud Proposals and Opportunities.
• Thorough understanding of Government procurement policies and practices
• Developed and performed security compliance in line with Cloud Computing FEDRAMP, FISMA, HIPAA, SARBANES-OXLEY,NSA,ISO 270001, Federal, State, and County- information technology regulations.
• Conducted Privacy Threshold Analysis/Privacy Impact Assessment (PTA/PIA)
• Development of comprehensive risk assessment processes
• Performed numerous risk assessments and IT audits ( in accordance with FEDRAMP, FISMA, NSA,ISO 270001, HITRUST, PCI, GDPR, CCPA and other frameworks/regulations
• Supported numerous clients as a senior consultant and part of red team to work with concerned clients
• Successfully participated in management consulting, subcontracting and subcontract monitoring roles
• Provides strategic focus, leadership, and presides over client engagements to elicit, document, analyze and validate IT security compliance by applying the latest Security Frameworks such as : Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), (CMMC)
• Enterprise-wide review and preparation of Privacy Threshold Analysis/Privacy Impact Assessment (PTA/PIA)
2006 : 2012
ControlCase LLC
Director
As a Senior SOX Compliance Analyst, was responsible for preparing and implementing a risk-based audit plan to assess, report on, and make suggestions for improving the company's key internal controls for operational and finance activities for the largest telecom service provider within the nation
Key Highlight :
• Conduct a security focused IT risk assessment to identify potential weaknesses and create relevant solutions that address internal control needs and business requirements along with providing a value add.
2004 : 2006
Independent Contractor
Independent Contractor
Company:
ControlCase
About
Business-focused and growth-driven global C-level executive leader with a successful track record of building ControlCase (an IT Security and Compliance company) from inception to a well-recognized brand with expansion growth of 15% annually and more than 1000 plus customers in 40 countries. Afy has more than 20 years of experience spanning many responsibilities including Executive strategic management, Product management, Business Development, Sales and Sales Engineering, marketing with a focus on accelerating growth and leading enterprise-wide, high profile, and complex multi-year transformation through business, partnership alignment, strategic thinking, and technology leadership in the world of cybersecurity, compliance, and governance. Afy excels at launching a suite of impactful products in the security and compliance arena with proven success to establish new product markets, influencing solutions as a service to maximize operations efficiency and drive long-term revenue.
Specialties: Executive management, product strategy, management & presentation (end to end), Pragmatic product approach, cyber security markets, cyber security and privacy, privacy regulations, payment regulations, healthcare regulations, global partnerships, people management, cloud infrastructures, security products market, log management, security Information and event management (SIEM), network security, identity management, and data protection.
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