SAS Institute appointed Geoff Beynon as New Zealand Country Manager in August 2007.

He is based at the Company’s Wellington office and is charged with the overall management of the Company’s New Zealand operations including the winning of new business and the ongoing development of existing SAS customer accounts. The brief extends across both the private and public sectors where SAS has long been a leading provider of Business Intelligence solutions to leading New Zealand companies and Government agencies.

Before joining SAS, Geoff Beynon spent eight years in senior management roles with IBM New Zealand. Earlier, he worked for three years for Unisys, also in New Zealand, in technical support positions.

His last role with IBM was that of Operations Executive, working across both the Sales and Services organisation, country-wide. Prior to that, he was IBM’s Southern Region Sales Manager for three years. The Region comprised the whole of the South Island, plus the lower North Island, including the all important Wellington market. Geoff’s achievements during this period included year-on-year revenue growth in excess of 25 per cent and a significant upgrade of IBM’s objective client satisfaction measurement.

The sales team led by Geoff Beynon during the period accounted for major wins with financial institutions, Government Agencies and in the commercial SME sector.

An earlier IBM assignment saw him responsible for the integration of IBM’s acquisition of Sequent Computer Systems.