AI-powered cellular IoT platform company Aeris has named Aziz Benmalek as its new CEO and board director.

Benmalek, a seasoned tech executive, brings to Aeris more than two decades of global business, cloud, cyber-security, software and go-to-market expertise. His track record of increasing market opportunities, developing high-performing organisations and building multibillion-dollar businesses positions Aeris to accelerate its already rapid growth.

Aeris is one of the largest IoT connectivity management platform (CMP) SaaS providers, in a market category Berg Insight reports is poised to reach $1.8bn by 2029 (www.berginsight.com/iot-connectivity-management-platforms-and-esim-solutions).

Aeris’ IoT platform and AMS mobility suite serves 7000 enterprises, 30 mobile operators and more than 80 million IoT devices in nearly 200 countries. Aeris counts among its partners many of the world’s top communications service providers, including Orange, KDDI, Swisscom, Verizon, Bell, SingTel, Telia, Ooredoo and Bridge Alliance, and other global businesses such as Mitsubishi Motors. and Volkswagen.

“I am proud to have Aziz, a veteran industry executive, to lead the next phase of Aeris as CEO and board director,” said Marc Jones, who will continue serving as co-CEO during the transition and remain as Aeris board chair. “We are growing and profitable, and now have an amazing new leader in Aziz, who has scaled businesses at some of the world’s biggest, most successful companies.”

Before joining Aeris, Benmalek was president at Sage North America, a multibillion-dollar software firm. Prior to that, he was vice president and channel chief for worldwide indirect sales, partners and business development at Splunk. Benmalek also spent 22 years at Microsoft. He was Microsoft’s vice president of worldwide cloud services and hosting, an organisation he was instrumental in creating and growing into a $4bn business.

At Aeris, Benmalek is focused on expanding the company’s reach, bringing to market value-added services to the IoT accelerator platform and enhancing the connected vehicle experience to meet the needs of customers and partners looking for innovations that simplify management, enhance security, optimise performance, provide sustainability and drive RoI.

“I couldn’t be more excited to lead the amazing team at Aeris,” said Benmalek. “IoT represents one of the most dynamic opportunities in technology today, and Aeris has established itself as an IoT innovator and market leader. Our IoT platform delivers security, insights and analytics to enable many of the world’s biggest companies to unlock new opportunities. We’re now doubling down on our IoT platform investments to secure and enable differentiation for our customers and partners while increasing Aeris’ competitive advantage.”

For more than three decades, Aeris (aeris.com) has been a cellular IoT company enabling IoT programmes and opportunities across automotive, utilities and energy, fleet management and logistics, medical devices, and manufacturing.