Philip van Gendt

Leading Partner Development for MSPs in the Benelux | Microsoft 365 Security, Governance & AI | Copilot Readiness | DSPM | CSPM

Baarn, Utrecht, Netherlands

About

I enable Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to deliver secure, scalable, and AI-ready Microsoft 365 services through automation, governance, and data security. With 25+ years in partner development and technology leadership, I help MSPs simplify operations, strengthen security, accelerate AI adoption, and build scalable, profitable managed services. Areas of expertise: ✅ Microsoft Purview ✅ Microsoft Copilot ✅ Microsoft 365 ✅ AI Governance ✅ CSPM & DSPM ✅ Operational Automation & Governance ✅ Managed Services Growth The future of work is autonomous. As AI agents act on behalf of users, managing permissions, governance, and data security in Microsoft 365 is becoming too complex to handle manually. Continuous monitoring and strong governance are now business critical. MSPs face growing pressure from rapid Microsoft 365 innovation and rising expectations around security, compliance, Microsoft Copilot, and operational maturity. Managing Microsoft 365 at scale extends far beyond tenant administration. From identity & access governance, lifecycle management, licensing, patching, and deployment to Microsoft Purview, CSPM, DSPM, AI governance, and data protection, MSPs must control an increasingly complex ecosystem while skilled engineers remain scarce. That's where I come in. At AvePoint, I enable MSPs to automate, standardize, secure, and scale Microsoft 365 operations. By replacing manual effort with automation and governance, partners improve security, increase operational maturity, and grow without adding headcount. How I help MSPs: • Operational Automation & Governance • Microsoft 365 Governance & Purview • CSPM, DSPM & AI Readiness • Microsoft Copilot Governance & Oversharing Protection • Tenant Standardization & Lifecycle Management • Managed Services Growth I help partners turn technology innovation into scalable, profitable business outcomes while enabling AI adoption with confidence. Let's connect if you want to: 🚀 Scale your Microsoft 365 business 🤖 Automate governance and operations 🛡️ Prepare customers for AI and Microsoft Copilot

Experience

  • AvePoint ()
    • Manager, Partner Development NL & BE
      Jan 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 7 mos

    • Distribution Business Manager Benelux & Nordics
      May 2021 - Jan 2024 · 2 yrs 9 mos

      AvePoint is the global leader in data security, governance and resilience and the largest independent software vendor for Microsoft 365 Data Management. AvePoint, Inc (NASDAQ: AVPT) was founded in 2001, is headquartered in Jersey City and maintains its primary operations center in Richmond, Virginia. AvePoint has over 3,500 employees in 29 global offices with strong footprints in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore and China. More than 20 million cloud users, including a quarter of the Fortune 500 companies, rely on AvePoint’s solutions.

  • Sales Director at CLB
    Mar 2019 - Feb 2021 · 2 yrs

    CLB founds, structures, and manages residential property funds, is supervised and licensed by the Dutch Authorities for Financial Markets (AFM) and currently manages 8 residential property funds; The funds collectively represent over 1 Billion Euro in invested capital and own more than 3.300 young, sustainable, high quality and low-energy rental homes and apartments in The Netherlands. In November 2019, CLB won the FD Gazellen top-100, the annual award for the fastest growing company in the Netherlands.

  • Commercial Director at Secura
    Jun 2018 - Mar 2019 · 10 mos

    Established in 2000 in the Netherlands, Secura is an independent, specialized security expert with offices in Eindhoven and Amsterdam that helps organizations to take control of their digital security with a holistic security approach to meet their needs in information security from a people, process and technology perspective. With activities in Benchmarking & Certification at NL, EU & Global level, Secura aims to drive industry maturity and provide world-class services to customers to continuously improve their security posture. Since 2021, Secura is a Bureau Veritas (BV) company. Bureau Veritas is a publicly listed company (Euronext: BVI) that specializes in testing, inspection and certification. BVI was founded in 1828, has over 75.000 employees and is active in 140 countries. Secura is the cornerstone of the cybersecurity strategy of Bureau Veritas.

  • Palo Alto Networks (3 yrs)
    • District Sales Director Commercial Western Europe
      May 2016 - Jun 2018 · 2 yrs 2 mos

      Palo Alto Networks (NYSE listed) is leading a new era in cybersecurity by protecting thousands of enterprise, government and service provider networks from cyberthreats. Because of their deep expertise, commitment to innovation and game-changing security platform, thousands of customers have chosen Palo Alto, making it the fastest-growing security company in the market.

    • Sales Manager ISR Western Europe & Sub-Saharan Region
      Jul 2015 - May 2016 · 11 mos

  • Business Manager Networking & Communications at Koning & Hartman
    Jan 2013 - Jun 2015 · 2 yrs 6 mos

    As a specialized system integrator, Koning & Hartman played a vital role in the digital and technical backbone of the Benelux, eventually becoming part of Axians (VINCI Energies) in 2019 to further integrate these capabilities into the modern ICT landscape. Within the Business Unit Networking & Communications I was responsible for developing and managing Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent enterprise business.