Martin Rutterford

Martin Rutterford is Check Point Software’s channel director for the UK and Ireland, a role he held by June 2022, when CRN UK profiled him. A year earlier he was head of managed channels at Check Point UK, working on partner certifications and on rewards for partners that brought in new customers, as reported by MicroScope.

A channel-only model

Check Point sells entirely through partners, and Rutterford has built his pitch on that. In 2022 he told CRN UK that the vendor worked with more than 270 UK partners, had increased market development funds by more than 45% that year and offered deal registration and margin protection. He described Check Point as having had “a 100 per cent channel model for over 27 years”.

The emphasis on ‘new logos’ – customers new to Check Point – has run through his tenure. In 2021 the UK business rewarded partners with extra discounts and margin for winning new customers and selling newer products, MicroScope reported.

The 2026 awards list

On 19 March 2026 Rutterford and Mark Weir, regional director for the UK and Ireland, opened Check Point’s UK Partner Awards in London. Softcat was named Partner of the Year and also took the New Logo and Workspace awards. Bytes and SEP2 each won two categories, BT was GSI Partner of the Year and Arrow was Distributor of the Year. On the night Rutterford introduced Michael Herman, Check Point’s new head of channels for Western Europe.

Check Point pitched the awards against its own research, which says the UK was the most targeted country in Europe in 2025, with about 16% of attacks in the region.

Why it matters to the channel

Check Point reported revenue of $674m (£505m) in the second quarter of 2026, with security subscriptions up 12% to $333m, according to its results. Chief executive Nadav Zafrir said the company was “significantly expanding sales capacity to capture a growing market opportunity”. In a vendor that sells only through partners, that expansion runs through the channel. Rutterford’s awards list shows where the UK business is concentrated: large resellers such as Softcat and Bytes, specialists such as SEP2 and global integrators such as BT.

Rutterford has kept Check Point’s UK business channel-only and focused on new customers, and he now runs it as the vendor puts more sales capacity behind its subscriptions.