Mist, the pioneer in self-learning networks powered by Artificial Intelligence, announced it is expanding its seasoned executive team with the appointments of a CFO, VP of Worldwide Sales, VP of Commercial Sales and VP of IT and Security. The addition of these wireless, cloud and SaaS veterans comes at a strategic time for the company, which is coming off a record first full year of shipping product that saw close to 1000 percent growth in sales. These key executives round out Mist’s seasoned leadership team and nicely position the company to achieve its goal of being the leader in AI-driven IT.
Mist’s newest executive hires include:
- Laura Perrone as Chief Financial Officer (CFO):†Perrone is responsible for managing all aspects of finance and administration. She has years of experience as a successful leader, having held CFO positions in various emerging growth companies including Omneon (acquired by Harmonic), Icarian and Rendition (acquired by Micron). Most recently, Perrone served as CFO at Picarro.
† - Tom Wilburn as VP of Worldwide Sales:†Wilburn is responsible for growing Mist’s sales organization globally and expanding the Mist footprint into all verticals. He has a strong history of building sales teams at pre and post IPO organizations and wireless networking companies (including Cisco and Airespace), as well as rapidly growing revenue through effective sales campaigns, channel enablement and execution.†Prior to Mist, Wilburn served as SVP of worldwide field operations at Aerohive Networks. †††
† - Justin Endres as VP of Commercial Sales:†Endres oversees commercial sales at Mist. He brings a significant amount of experience building formidable inside sales teams in high growth software environments to his new role.†Most recently, Endres served as SVP, worldwide sales at AlienVault. Prior to that, he held executive sales roles at Webroot and SolarWinds.
† - Rakesh Bhatnagar as VP of IT, Security and Engineering Programs:†Bhatnagar leads IT, security and engineering programs at Mist.†In his new role, Bhatnagar is responsible for engineering operational excellence and IT security from a product design standpoint. Previously, Bhatnagar served as VP of Software Engineering at Picarro
“Laura, Tom, Justin and Rakesh bring the right experience to our company at the right time, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome them to the Mist executive team,” said Sujai Hajela, CEO and co-founder of Mist. “This type of seasoned leadership will propel Mist through our next phase of hyper growth, and assuredly establish the company as the de facto leader in AI for IT.”
Mist first began shipping the†Mist Learning WLAN†in 2016, the first AI-driven platform for IT.† The subsequent year, the company saw approximately 1000 percent sales growth, with over 250 paying customers as of the end of 2017, including Fortune 100 companies. The company has over 150 reseller partners worldwide, including distributors in North America, EMEA and Japan. Mist has been honored with over a dozen industry accolades in the past two years, including distinction as a visionary in†two recent Gartner Magic Quadrants†(Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure and Indoor Location Services, Worldwide).
