Cloudflare’s new EMEA partnerships chief on the region’s inflection point

Cloudflare has appointed a new VP of EMEA Partnerships, and the mandate is clear: push partner-led revenue past 90% of the company’s total EMEA intake. The hire frames the move as a response to a region that is less a single market than a patchwork of distinct regulatory and industrial landscapes — one that rewards a partner-centric go-to-market model.

The company’s pitch to partners rests on its connectivity cloud platform and its global network, which it bills as among the largest and most interconnected in the world. With enterprise traction growing and products expanding across Zero Trust, AI, and network security, Cloudflare believes it is at a moment where market demand, strategy, and execution are converging.

Priorities for the region

The new leadership is leaning into a partner-first strategy, with four named areas of focus for EMEA:

  • Accelerating partner-led revenue, targeting more than 90% of total EMEA revenue through partnerships.
  • Expanding market penetration, with an emphasis on helping partners unlock large enterprise accounts and new verticals.
  • Supporting partners in building service practices, developing the skills required to deliver value on the connectivity cloud.
  • Improving the partner experience itself, ensuring partners are equipped, enabled, and incentivized — and aligned to the right stakeholders, systems, and processes.

Building the internal team

The push outward is paired with an internal build-out. The stated goal is to assemble a world-class partnerships team across EMEA, which entails hiring industry professionals with existing partner expertise and enterprise sales acumen, investing in ongoing training in partner management and customer success, and establishing a performance culture anchored in clear goals and accountability.

That means aligning internally so that partner-focused teams can both execute well and collaborate effectively, with the larger aim of building long-term relationships and sustained market leadership alongside partners.

The official kickoff

The new regional strategy marked its first public milestone at Cloudflare Connect London last week. The company hosted a day-long Partner Summit alongside its executives there, with more than 130 key partners in attendance for networking and planning sessions. For the incoming VP, it was less an introduction than a starting signal for the work ahead.