Censys has appointed Meriam ElOuazzani as its first Vice President for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region.
The appointment, announced on Tuesday in Dubai, will see ElOuazzani lead the company’s regional growth strategy, including revenue, partnerships and market expansion.
She will also oversee efforts to strengthen Censys’ presence with governments and enterprises across the region.
Sarah Ashburn, chief revenue officer at Censys, said: “We are delighted to welcome Meriam ElOuazzani as Vice President for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. This deepens our investment in a region where Censys has established strong momentum and is strategically positioned for accelerated growth.
“Meriam’s proven track record of scaling cybersecurity markets across META, combined with her deep regional insight, makes her the right leader to grow our market presence and meet rising demand for trusted internet intelligence.”
ElOuazzani has more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and enterprise technology. She previously served as Senior Regional Director at SentinelOne, where she built the company’s regional go-to-market operations.
Before that, she held several leadership roles at VMware across the Middle East and North Africa. She also led regional product sales for mobility in the Middle East at Cisco Systems.
In her new role, she will focus on building strategic partnerships. These include government bodies, enterprise customers, managed security service providers and hyperscale cloud partners.
She will work with Rajaee Al-Dalgamouni, appointed Regional Sales Lead for META, and Ahmed Ehlayel, named Solutions Engineer for the region.
ElOuazzani said: “The META region is at an inflection point in cybersecurity maturity. Across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, governments and commercial organisations are moving beyond perimeter defence and demanding real-time threat detection and operational visibility into their digital footprint.
“Over the past two decades in this region, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the right intelligence transforms the security operations entirely.
“Censys’s internet intelligence platform equips security teams with authoritative, real-time insight into exposure and adversary activity, replacing assumptions with actionable confidence. My mission is to establish Censys as a trusted partner across META, enabling the shift from reactive defence to proactive intelligence.”
Censys provides internet intelligence tools that help organisations identify exposed assets, monitor changes and detect threats. The platform, which continuously maps internet-facing systems and infrastructure, is used by governments, large companies and security providers.
The company says it scans all 65,535 internet ports and supports more than 26 industrial protocols, including Modbus, DNP3, Siemens S7 and BACnet. It also provides historical data on internet-connected assets to help track long-term exposure.
Censys has partnered in the Middle East with Rilian Technologies to deliver its capabilities to sovereign and critical infrastructure organisations. With this appointment, the company is increasing its focus on the region and expanding its local leadership team.
