Avast†(LSE: AVST), the global leader in cybersecurity products, announced it has bolstered its Avast Business leadership team with a number of strategic hires and promotions in three key areas: engineering, product management, and operations.
“Although data breaches and cyber-attacks for small businesses may not always make headlines, SMBs are increasingly falling victim to the latest security threats, and the loss of data and downtime can be disastrous for them. Industry figures estimate that cyber-attacks cost small businesses between†$84,000 and $148,000†and as many as two-thirds of small businesses go out of business within six months of an attack. Avast Business is committed to protecting small and medium businesses worldwide, and investing in the right team to deliver the right solutions is central to this goal,” said Kevin Chapman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Avast Business Division.
Vita Santrucek†joins the team as Vice President, Engineering, with immediate effect. With almost 20 years’ experience at companies including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and most recently, MSD, Mr. Santrucek brings a wealth of experience in leading Big Data, IOT, and Java development teams. Based in Prague, one of Mr. Santrucek’s key responsibilities will be more closely aligning engineering with technical support to enhance Avast Business’ partners and customers’ experience in terms of user feedback, speed of response, and quality. He reports directly to Kevin Chapman.
Arne Uppheim†joined Avast Business in January as Director of Product Management. Originally from Norway but now based in Prague, Mr. Uppheim will work closely with Mr. Santrucek to maintain an equal and strong partnership between product management and engineering, ensuring future products and updates meet the evolving needs of Avast’s business customers. With over 20 years of product management and engineering experience in security, online, and mobile services, Mr. Uppheim excels at building and leading teams and driving effective product strategy and execution. Prior to joining Avast, he was VP of Storage and Security at Telenor Group, a major global mobile operator.
A further promotion is†Ashley Isaak†who has been appointed Director, Avast Business Operations, to lead all aspects of project management, business processes, analytics, and sales operations for the Avast Business product portfolio and global channel partner program. With over 12 years’ experience in security software operations, Ms. Isaak brings expertise managing front-end and back-end business processes, product launch readiness and deployment, and analytics for data-driven decision making. Ms. Isaak was previously at AVG Technologies, which acquired Bsecure in 2011, where she was responsible for product launches and channel partner engagement. Ms. Isaak is based out of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Earlier this year, Avast’s commitment to the SMB sector was acknowledged by business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, which named Avast Business as the Growth Excellence Leader in the Endpoint Management market. The award recognizes companies that maintain consistently high standards for delivering customer value, which translates into growth above the industry average.
