Websense Names John McCormack As CEO

Websense, Inc. has announced that its board of directors has named John McCormack as the company’s chief executive officer and as a board member, effective immediately. He succeeds Gene Hodges, who is retiring after serving as both CEO and a board member since January 2006. Websense also announced record fourth quarter billings performance, Charles Boesenberg’s appointment to the board of directors, and Russ Dietz as the company’s chief technology officer.

“The board and I would like to thank and congratulate Gene for a strong fourth quarter performance and for all that he has accomplished in transforming Websense into a leading content security provider,” said John Carrington, chairman of the Websense board of directors. “We wish Gene the best in his retirement, and we are confident that he leaves Websense well-positioned as we continue to extend our technology leadership and achieve corporate objectives.”

“John McCormack has taken the lead in the successful execution of our strategic initiatives, enabling us to generate solid fourth quarter billings growth amid the continued expansion of our field sales organisation,” said Carrington. “As president, he has demonstrated his executive acumen while leading our worldwide sales and sales engineering teams; our marketing, product management, business development and technical support organisations; as well as the Websense® Security Labs™ and research and development.”

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Websense also announced that Charles Boesenberg was appointed as an independent director.

“We are pleased to strengthen our board with the addition of Charles Boesenberg, a seasoned board member with more than 30 years of experience in accelerating growth for high-tech companies as both a CEO and an independent director,” said Carrington.

Boesenberg is currently a board member for Boingo Wireless, Callidus Software, Keynote Systems and Silicon Graphics International Corporation (SGI). He has previously served on the boards of Symantec, Ancestry.com, Rackable Systems, Onyx Software Corporation, Macromedia, Maxtor and Interwoven. Boesenberg is the former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of NetIQ Corporation; president and CEO of Integrated Systems Inc; and has held senior executive level positions at companies including Magellan Corporation, Central Point Software, Apple Inc., Data General and IBM.

Boesenberg’s memberships on Websense board committees will be determined in the near future.

Websense CEO John McCormack joined the company in July 2006 as senior vice president of product development and was named president in April 2009.

“With more than 25 years of security and industry experience, McCormack’s leadership, vision and technical insight has been a driving force in Websense’s global expansion and ground-breaking innovation,” said Carrington. “Under his guidance, Websense has emerged as a consistent leader in the rapidly evolving content security industry. His vision is reflected in the award-winning Websense TRITON architecture, which unifies the essential components of modern threat defense and data theft prevention into a cohesive content security system that offers best-in-class security effectiveness and pervasive deployment across an integrated appliance and cloud platform.”

In addition to the appointment of McCormack as CEO, Russ Dietz has also been named Websense chief technology officer (CTO).

Russ Dietz joined Websense in November 2012 as CTO and executive vice president of product development. He is responsible for the future of Websense TRITON security technology and product strategy, innovation, and research and development. Dietz will oversee the worldwide Websense engineering, product management and security lab teams.

“Russ has a unique combination of business, market, and technology skills that will prove invaluable as we continue to build upon our innovative TRITON platform,” said McCormack. “Our continued investment in cloud, mobile, data, and internet security will be enhanced by his leadership and proven success in these areas. TRITON has set the industry benchmark for best-in-class integrated content security and I’m confident that Russ can lead our team’s efforts to accelerate our momentum as we enhance this technology platform.”

Dietz brings more than 30 years of experience in the technology and security space to Websense. He has a proven record of success as CTO of multiple hardware, software and systems security companies, and is a recognised pioneer and innovator in cloud computing and virtualisation security solutions. Dietz holds more than 20 patents in encryption, authentication and network traffic behavior and analysis.

“Websense is extremely well-positioned in the marketplace, and I am proud to join the Websense team,” said Russ Dietz, Websense CTO. “I look forward to extending the company’s technology platform as well as expanding its market leadership. My goal is to drive continued innovation in the delivery of integrated content security, both in the cloud and through on-premise appliances, maintaining our corporate commitment that no one stops more security threats than Websense.”