Cato Networks has appointed Stephan von Gündell-Krohne as Area Sales Director for enterprise sales in Germany. The former Crowdstrike executive is tasked with growing the SASE vendor’s enterprise business and strengthening its regional partner network.
Munich, July 15, 2026. Cybersecurity vendor Cato Networks has appointed Stephan von Gündell-Krohne as Area Sales Director for enterprise sales in Germany. In this role, he is responsible, according to the company, for expanding the enterprise business, realigning the go-to-market strategy, and strengthening and expanding the enterprise partner network in the region. Von Gündell-Krohne reports directly to Tuncay Eren, Area Vice President for Central Europe at Cato Networks.
Von Gündell-Krohne moves to Cato Networks from Crowdstrike. At the security vendor, he was responsible, by his own account, for enterprise sales and for aligning his team with the company’s global sales strategy. He previously held leadership roles at Forescout, Palo Alto Networks, and Cisco. According to the company, he built sales organizations, established partner networks, and led teams that exceeded their targets in these positions. He holds a degree in business administration from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the International Institute of Management in Technology (iimt) in Fribourg, Switzerland.
The appointment comes against the backdrop of a market for secure access service edge (SASE), in which vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, and Cisco are also active alongside Cato Networks. Cato Networks was founded in 2015 by Shlomo Kramer and Gur Shatz and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company is among the early providers of converged SASE architectures that bundle network and security functions on a cloud-based platform. Following a funding round in October 2021, Cato Networks reached unicorn status; according to market tracker Tracxn, the company was most recently valued at roughly $4.8 billion as of summer 2025. Research firm Gartner expects the global SASE market to grow at a compound annual rate of about 26 percent through 2028, reaching approximately $28.5 billion; the appointment thus falls in a period in which, according to Gartner, competition among vendors is also intensifying. Independently verifiable figures on Cato Networks’ current customer base in Germany are not available.
Commenting on the appointment, Tuncay Eren said: “We are delighted that Stephan is strengthening our team at this pivotal time for the industry and for Cato Networks’ development,” he is quoted as saying in the statement. The company has already achieved growth in the region and positive customer response to its SASE platform, Eren added. According to Eren, customers value the ease of use of the cloud platform combined with its security capabilities, as well as regular updates intended to protect against current cyberthreats. Eren also expressed the expectation that von Gündell-Krohne, together with the company’s partners, will contribute to its future growth.
Von Gündell-Krohne himself explained the move in terms of market developments: “Joining Cato Networks at this point in time is a logical career step for me,” he said, according to the statement. Given the rise of autonomously acting AI systems, he said, companies need a converged cybersecurity platform designed for modern threats. Together with his team and the partners, he said, he intends to help companies in Germany benefit from Cato Networks’ offering and protect themselves in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
Cato Networks describes itself as a provider of SASE and AI security solutions offering zero-trust access for customers worldwide. According to the company, the Cato SASE Platform combines network, security, and access functions for cloud and hybrid environments via its proprietary Cato Cloud, which the company says is modularly expandable. Cato Networks positions the platform as an alternative to approaches that manage individual security and network components separately.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de