Yubico, a trailblazer in the field of hardware authentication security keys, has bolstered its sales team in the Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) region with the appointment of two new executives. Derek Lok and Yumi Shimizu will join the ranks in Singapore and Australia respectively, augmenting the company's strategic growth plans across the expansive APJ landscape.

Derek Lok, newly anointed as the Director of Sales for South East Asia, is based in Singapore. With a focus on 11 countries that are home to over 670 million people, Lok's remit is to ramp up Yubico's sales across the region. A seasoned professional, Lok brings with him a rich tapestry of experience. Before his Yubico chapter, he held multiple roles in sales and operations at numerous technology firms including Lumen, IPsoft, NTT, Oracle-Sun, HPE-EDS, and IBM. His credentials also boast of establishing the first User Entity Behaviour Analytics Security Operations Centre in 2019 for Lumen, aimed at shielding enterprise clients across the APAC zone. Multilingual, Lok is fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Teochew.

"There has never been a more exciting time to work in the cybersecurity industry. I am enjoying collaborating with both our existing and prospective Yubico clients in the region, as we work together to tackle the authentication challenges that countless organisations face daily," says Derek Lok.

Based in Sydney, Yumi Shimizu steps into the role of Business Development Representative for APJ. Shimizu will concentrate her energies initially on the Australian, New Zealand, and Japanese markets. She is fluent in both English and Japanese and brings 11 years of business-to-business sales experience to the table, including tenures at Vimeo, Zoom, and Tenable focusing on the Japanese market in the SaaS and cybersecurity sectors.

Geoff Schomburgk, the Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan at Yubico, expressed his enthusiasm about these appointments, which he believes will bolster Yubico's market penetration in the region. "I am thrilled that Derek and Yumi have joined our APJ sales team, to help us grow the adoption of YubiKeys to become the modern secure authentication method of choice across organisations in the APJ region," he says.

According to Schomburgk, both Lok and Shimizu bring "a wealth of specialised skills and expertise" to the team. "They each contribute invaluable assets to the numerous organisations that recognise the requirement to implement phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication to mitigate cybersecurity risks effectively," he adds.

Schomburgk further emphasised Yubico's solid standing in the global cybersecurity arena, saying that the company's innovative vision and capabilities position it favourably to tackle the authentication challenges that many organisations in the APJ region face. The recent appointments reflect Yubico's ongoing commitment to strengthening its presence in this key strategic market.