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Our leadership

Our leadership team fosters a culture of innovation to unlock new possibilities.

The Leadership Team drives forward our purpose of powering Digital Freedom — synchronizing our technology, brands, people and values to uphold our status as a responsible company that delivers real and positive global impact.

Vincent Pilette

Vincent Pilette
CEO

Vincent is the Chief Executive Officer of Gen, a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom through its trusted Cyber Safety brands, Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner.

In 2019, Vincent was appointed CEO of NortonLifeLock, renamed Gen in 2022 after the acquisition of Avast. As CEO, Vincent led the separation of the consumer assets of Symantec and their transformation into NortonLifelock, the global leader in consumer Cyber Safety. Vincent directed and implemented the strategy that led to the acquisition of Avast and the formation of Gen. As a result of the expansion strategy, Gen now provides digital protection and trust-based solutions to more than 500 million users in more than 150 countries.

Vincent brought to Gen more than 20 years of senior operating and financial experience in the technology sector, with positions at Logitech, Electronics-For-Imaging, and Hewett-Packard.

Vincent serves on the board of directors of SonicWall, a cyber security company for small and medium businesses.

Vincent holds an M.S. in engineering and business from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Ondrej Vlcek
President

Ondrej Vlcek previously served as CEO of Avast, having also served as President of Avast Consumer, the largest business within the company, and directed the development of Avast’s artificial intelligence-based cloud security network. Mr. Vlcek was also a key member of the executive team that took the company public on the London Stock Exchange in May 2018.

Previously, he held the combined position of Executive Vice-President & General Manager, Consumer, and Chief Technology Officer. In this role, he led Avast’s transformation from a traditional PC antivirus vendor to the leading provider of a full portfolio of protection, privacy, and performance products for consumers.

Prior to that, Mr. Vlcek was chief developer, heading the team that developed one of the first ever antivirus programs for Windows. Mr. Vlcek holds an MS in Mathematics from Czech Technical University in Prague. He is a recognized industry speaker having delivered keynotes at several high-profile events including RSA, Web Summit, Black Hat and SXSW.

Ondrej Vlcek
Natalie Derse

Natalie Derse
CFO

Natalie Derse is the Chief Financial Officer at Gen. Ms. Derse’s 22-year career consists of progressive financial management, business performance analytics, and operational excellence across multiple industries including eCommerce, Consumer Products & Service, Manufacturing & Distribution, at General Electric, Stanley Black & Decker, and eBay, Inc. Ms. Derse received a Bachelor of Science in Finance from University of Dayton.

Bryan Ko
Legal & Corporate Development

Mr. Ko leads Gen’s legal and corporate development. In addition to managing Gen’s global legal function, he manages the company’s corporate affairs, global security, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance functions.

Before joining Gen, Mr. Ko served as Logitech International’s general counsel, corporate secretary and head of corporate development. Prior to joining Logitech, he was general counsel and corporate secretary for Fuhu, Inc., a late-stage startup. He received his MBA and BA degrees from UC Berkeley and his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.

Bryan Ko
Kara Jordan

Kara Jordan
People & Culture

Ms. Jordan is a Human Resources Executive with over fifteen years of international leadership experience gained in EMEA and the US. Most recently she led the global strategic business partnering team working closely with the executive leadership team on acquisitions including Blue Coat and divestitures including Veritas, WSS and the recent sale of the Enterprise business to Broadcom.

Prior to this role Ms. Jordan was the global HR leader for Symantec’s Enterprise business and played a key role in the integration of the Blue Coat business, leading talent initiatives, culture and leadership development.

Leena Elias
Product & Ecommerce

Leena leads the product, strategy, design, e-commerce, partner delivery, product marketing and operations functions of the organization, providing cyber safety solutions to consumers globally. Prior to joining the company in 2020, Leena served as the VP of Product & Delivery in the Partner BU at Avast, where she led the implementation and delivery of Avast’s solutions to partners globally. Leena’s more than 15-year career spans consulting, engineering management, client services, operations and customer success. She holds a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Leena Elias
Michal Pechoucek

Michal Pechoucek
Technology

Mr. Pechoucek leads the core technology, innovation and R&D teams driving security engines as well as the company technology vision for human centered digital safety and beyond. He is also responsible for the company’s scientific research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity. He previously served as CTO of Avast.

Before joining Avast, Mr. Pechoucek spent over twenty years as a professor at the Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, during which he founded the Artificial Intelligence Center in 2001. Mr. Pechoucek has authored more than 400 high impact publications and contributed numerous innovative AI applications to research in computer science.

While pursuing his academic career, Mr. Pechoucek co-founded several technology start-ups including cybersecurity firm Cognitive Security (acquired by CISCO in 2013), AgentFly Technologies, which specializes in controlling autonomous aircraft traffic, and Blindspot Solutions, which develops AI for industrial applications (acquired by Adastra Group in 2017). He directed the R&D Center for AI and Computer Security at CISCO Systems and worked as a strategist in the CISCO Security CTO office. He is also a venture partner with Evolution Equity Partners, a VC firm specialized in cybersecurity. Michal Pechoucek co-founded the prg.ai initiative aiming to transform Prague into a world-class AI super hub. He sits on the board of several AI startups and as an early investor supports Czech AI ecosystem.

Michal Pechoucek graduated from University of Edinburgh and gained his PhD in Artificial Intelligence at CTU in Prague. He also worked as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, University of Edinburgh, State University of New York at Binghamton and University of Calgary.

Michal Pechoucek sits on the boards of several education oriented non-for-profits, is a long-time sponsor of People in Need Foundation and Memory of Nation and sits on the board of Denik N, Czech daily newspaper.

Vita Santrucek
Development

Vita Santrucek leads Development at Gen. Previously, Mr. Santrucek served as Avast’s Chief Product Officer, General Manager, Avast Business, and Avast’s Vice President, Engineering, leading the global engineering and technical support strategy and operations for Avast Business.

Mr. Santrucek has over 20 years of experience leading Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and Java platform engineering teams at companies including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation, a subsidiary of Merck & Co.). Immediately prior to joining Avast in 2018, Mr. Santrucek was Director of Software Development at MSD, before which he was Director of Software Development at Oracle leading a team with responsibilities for the IoT product line. At Sun Microsystems, he led globally distributed teams on projects that included engineering deliverables for Sun’s Java Standard Edition or Solaris.

Vita Santrucek
Judith

Judith Bitterli
Customer Success

Judith is the Chief Customer Success Officer at Gen.

Before joining Gen in 2022, she held roles in the security space as Senior Vice President of Revenue at McAfee and Chief Marketing Officer at AVG Technologies. A data-driven marketer with a passion for building scalable teams, Judith brings over 30 years of executive level experience at technology companies in marketing, sales, and operations with previous roles at SoftBank, RealNetworks, Micron, and CompuAdd.

Judith holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Fayetteville State University and a Master's in Business Administration & Personnel Management from Webster University.

Travis Witteveen
Commercial Operations, Acquisitions & Partnerships

Travis joined the leadership team of Gen through the acquisition of Avira. He was the CEO of Avira since 2013 where he internationalized sales and marketing, established a consumer first strategy, prepared and successfully sold to a private equity company, and acquired the company BullGuard.

Travis is focused on supporting successful integration strategies across the company and improving overall operational excellence as well as supporting various EMEA and APJ country strategies. He is leveraging his expertise to integrate the freemium business model into Gen and strengthen the OEM and Service Provider business models.

Travis has been in the IT industry for over 30 years both in the USA and Europe. Prior to Avira and Gen, Travis held executive and senior sales and marketing leadership roles at AVG, F-Secure, Axent/Raptor Technologies and FTP Software. At F-Secure, he established the first Central European sales office and successfully re-built the North American sales and marketing operation, winning customers, such as; Deutsche Telekom, Kabel Deutschland (now Vodafone), Charter Communications, Frontier Communications, Cogeco, Shaw and other telco’s and ISP’s.

Travis has a degree in International Business and Finance from Northeastern University.

Travis W
Krista Todd

Krista Todd
Marketing, Brand & Communications

Krista Todd leads Gen’s global marketing, brand, and communications team. In her role she is responsible for consumer and corporate marketing, brand strategy and management, creative, consumer insights and strategy, corporate responsibility, government affairs, corporate communications, public relations, and investor relations.

Ms. Todd is a highly experienced storyteller, communicator and marketer who brings leadership experience from global industry-leading brands across consumer and enterprise companies.

Previously Ms. Todd was the Vice President of Global Communications at Logitech where she oversaw corporate communications, product and brand communication, public relations, social media marketing, influencer relations, content marketing and employee communications across all of Logitech’s brands.

Prior to joining Logitech, Ms. Todd served as Senior Director of Public Relations at TiVo, the original digital video recorder, where she led corporate and brand communications. Earlier in her career, Ms. Todd worked at McGrath/Power Public Relations agency representing top security companies including RSA Security and Internet Security Systems.

Ms. Todd holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Communications from State University of New York College at Buffalo.

Patrick Schwind
Customer Support and Services

Patrick Schwind leads the global customer experience and support at Gen. He has spent over 25 years supporting customer experience for consumer organizations. At Gen, his team handles millions of live customer interactions a year around the globe. His team has been awarded for their innovation and customer service. The team has also created new government and merchant processes in cybersecurity. Mr. Schwind received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Michigan University.

Patrick Schwind
Sameer Khera

Sameer Khera
IT

Sameer Khera leads information technology at Gen and is responsible for driving the company's information technology strategy and operations. His goal is to drive increased productivity, better efficiency and strategic business partnerships through simple and intuitive experiences for Gen’s global workforce.

At Symantec, he was responsible for the integration of business applications and processes for the $5B acquisition of Blue Coat and $1B acquisition of LifeLock. Prior to joining Symantec, Mr. Khera spent sixteen years at Cisco in several leadership positions, both in Business and IT. He also led many digital transformation initiatives at Franklin Templeton Investments. His career has spanned the globe, working in India, UAE, Australia and the US. Mr. Khera holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology in India.

Mark Giles
Transformation & Integration

Mark Giles is a senior executive with a track record of driving financial and operational improvement and company transformation across Enterprise and Consumer businesses.

Mr. Giles leads Gen’s integration activities, including the recent merger with Avast, and for the prior integration of Avira.

Currently, as Head of Transformation and Integration, Mr. Giles works as a transformational change agent to drive initiatives, M&A, and business process improvement across the company—leveraging his over twenty years of international leadership experience gained in EMEA and the US, working with regional and global teams and customers. He is a key partner to the CEO and Leadership Team, shaping and directing the implementation and cross-functional delivery of business strategies and priorities, focused on the end-to-end experience and outcome.

Through his prior experience at Symantec, Veritas, Novell and WordPerfect; he has driven growth and customer experience initiatives, across the B2B and Order to Cash processes; he has led and executed right-shoring and right-sourcing engagements for IT, Finance, Sales, Customer and Business Operations, including establishing and managing >$100M outsourcing contracts; and he has set-up regional and functional operations to scale and globalize business models for growth.

Prior to joining tech industry positions, Mr. Giles had led FMCG operations for J Sainsbury in the UK at the Corporate and Regional level – his career has been built on the experience learned working directly with customers in retail.

Mark Giles
Sue Barsamian

Sue Barsamian
Former Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for HPE Software

Ms. Barsamian previously served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software, successfully spinning the division out from HPE and merging with Micro Focus International, plc to form the 7th largest software company in the world. From 2006 to 2016, Ms. Barsamian served in various executive roles at Hewlett Packard including SVP and GM of Enterprise Security Products, the company's cybersecurity portfolio and SVP of Worldwide Indirect Sales.

Prior to joining Hewlett Packard, Ms. Barsamian was Vice President, Global Go-to-Market at Mercury Interactive Corporation and held various leadership positions at Critical Path, Inc. and Verity, Inc. Ms. Barsamian serves on the board of directors of Box, Inc. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University and completed her post-graduate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Pavel Baudis
Co-founder of Avast

Pavel Baudis is one of Avast’s co-founders and served as one of Avast’s Directors from the incorporation of AVAST Software a.s. in 2006 until 2014. In 1988, Mr. Baudis wrote the original software program from which our Avast’s current portfolio of security solutions has developed. Since 1991, Mr. Baudis has played a leading role in the development of Avast’s business.

Prior to co-founding Avast, Mr. Baudis was a graphics specialist at the Czech Computer Research Institute (VUMS). Mr. Baudis holds an MS in Information Technology from the Prague School of Chemical Engineering.

Pavel Baudis
Eric Brandt

Eric K. Brandt
Retired Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Broadcom Corporation
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dentsply Sirona Inc

Mr. Brandt served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Broadcom Corporation, a global supplier of semiconductor devices, from February 2010 until February 2016, and he served as its Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from March 2007 until February 2010. From September 2005 until March 2007, Mr. Brandt served as Chief Executive Officer & President, member of the Board of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Beginning in 1999, he held various positions at Allergan, Inc., a global specialty pharmaceutical company, including Executive Vice President of Finance and Technical Operations and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Brandt spent ten years with The Boston Consulting Group, a privately held global business consulting firm, most recently serving as Vice President and Partner.

Mr. Brandt serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dentsply Sirona Inc., a dental product solutions company, and as a member of the Board of Directors of LAM Research Corporation, a semiconductor equipment company, and The Macerich Company, a real estate investment trust. Mr. Brandt has also served as Chairman of the Board of Yahoo! and Altaba, as well as a member of the Georgia Tech President’s Advisory Board. Mr. Brandt earned an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Frank E. Dangeard
Chairman of the Board of Gen Digital Inc.
Managing Partner, Harcourt

Frank E. Dangeard was appointed Chairman of the board of directors of Norton LifeLock in December 2019, having joined the board of Symantec in January 2007. He is Managing Partner of Harcourt. From September 2004 to February 2008, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thomson S.A. From 2002 to September 2004, he was Deputy CEO of France Telecom/Orange. He joined Thomson multimedia in 1997 as Deputy CEO, and was appointed Vice Chairman in 2000. Prior to joining Thomson multimedia, Mr. Dangeard was managing director of SG Warburg & Co. Ltd from 1988 to 1997, and Chairman of SG Warburg France. Before joining SG Warburg, Dangeard was a lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and London.

Mr. Dangeard also serves on the board of the NatWest Group (UK) and chairs NatWest Markets (UK). He is on the board of IHS Towers (Cayman) and chairs Spear Investments, BV (The Netherlands).

Mr. Dangeard graduated from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, the Paris Institut d'Etudes Politiques, and from Harvard Law School. Mr. Dangeard splits his time between Europe and the United States.

Frank Dangeard
Nora Denzel

Nora Denzel
Former Interim Chief Executive Officer of Outerwall Inc.

Ms. Denzel previously served as interim Chief Executive Officer of Outerwall Inc, an automated retail solutions provider, from January to August 2015. Prior to Outerwall, Ms. Denzel held various executive management positions from February 2008 through August 2012 at Intuit Inc., a cloud financial management software company, including Senior Vice President of Big Data, Social Design and Marketing and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the QuickBooks Employee Management business unit. From 2000 to 2006, Ms. Denzel held several executive level positions at HP Enterprise (formerly Hewlett-Packard Company), including Senior Vice President and General Manager, Software Global Business Unit from May 2002 to February 2006 and Vice President of Storage Organization from August 2000 to May 2002.

Prior to that, Ms. Denzel held executive positions at Legato Systems Inc. and IBM Corporation. Ms. Denzel serves on the board of directors of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Ericsson and Talend S.A. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Santa Clara University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York.

Peter A. Feld
Managing Member and Head of Research, Starboard Value LP

Peter A. Feld has served as a Managing Member and Head of Research of Starboard since April 2011. Mr. Feld has served on the board of directors of Magellan Health, Inc. ("Magellan"), a healthcare company since March 2019. Mr. Feld previously served on the boards of directors of several technology companies, including Marvell Technology Group Ltd. ("Marvell") from May 2016 to June 2018, The Brink's Company from January 2016 to November 2017, Insperity, Inc. from March 2015 to June 2017, Darden Restaurants, Inc. from October 2014 to September 2015, Tessera Technologies, Inc. (n/k/a Xperi Corporation ("Xperi")) from June 2013 to April 2014, Integrated Device Technology, Inc. from June 2012 to February 2014.

Mr. Feld received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University.

Peter Feld
Emily Heath

Emily Heath
Former Senior Vice President, Chief Trust and Security Officer, DocuSign, Inc.

Previously, Ms. Heath was Senior Vice President, Chief Trust and Security Officer at DocuSign, Inc., an eSignature transaction management company, from October 2019 to March 2022. Prior to that, Ms. Heath served as Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer at United Airlines, Inc. from February 2017 through October 2019. Before joining United Airlines, Ms. Heath held numerous positions at AECOM, an infrastructure consulting firm, from 2013 through 2017, including Vice President, Chief information Security Officer. Ms. Heath was also a former Detective with the British Police where she led investigations into large scale investment frauds, identity theft and money laundering cases working with London’s Serious Fraud Office, the FBI, and the SEC.

Ms. Heath currently serves on the Board of Directors of Wiz, a cloud security innovator that helps companies secure their cloud infrastructure at scale, and LogicGate, Inc., a private cloud-based governance, risk, and compliance management company. She went to school in the United Kingdom and is trained in multiple areas of investigations, risk, and security.

Vincent Pilette
CEO

Mr. Pilette has substantial expertise as a senior financial executive of technology companies, with over 20 years of financial management experience in the U.S. and EMEA. As Chief Financial Officer at Symantec, Mr. Pilette played a key role in the sale of the enterprise business to Broadcom and led key restructuring initiatives at the company. Prior to joining Symantec in May 2019, Mr. Pilette served as Chief Financial Officer of Logitech International S.A., a consumer electronics company listed on the Nasdaq Global Market and the SIX Swiss Exchange.

From September 2013 to May 2019, he was responsible for the company’s financial strategies and worldwide finance organization, managing consolidated revenues of almost three billion dollars (U.S.).

In addition, Mr. Pilette was a key partner to Logitech’s CEO to shape and direct the implementation of all aspects of the company’s business strategies. Prior to Logitech, Mr. Pilette served as Chief Financial Officer of Electronics for Imaging (EFI), a global technology imaging company, and as Vice President of Finance for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s multi-billion dollar server, storage and networking business.

Mr. Pilette holds an M.S. in engineering and business from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Vincent Pilette
Sherrese Smith

Sherrese Smith
Managing Partner, Paul Hastings LLP

Sherrese Smith is the Managing Partner of Paul Hastings. As Managing Partner, Ms. Smith helps direct the growth, management, and strategy of the firm.

Ms. Smith previously served as the Vice Chair of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice. She is known as one of the country’s preeminent Data Privacy and Cybersecurity and Media and Technology attorneys. Consistently ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA and Legal 500, she is recognized throughout the legal, media, communications, and technology industries for her leadership, business acumen, and dedication to clients. Her work includes data privacy, cybersecurity and breach response issues, crisis response, regulatory investigations, and enforcement proceedings, as well as counseling on global privacy and cybersecurity matters.

Ms. Smith is also renowned for superior advisement on crisis issues and, as a result, is regularly sought after by corporate board members and the C-suite.

Before joining Paul Hastings, Ms. Smith served as Chief Counsel to Chairman Julius Genachowski at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). She was responsible for determining the agency’s business and policy agenda on a multitude of media and technology matters and for leading the FCC’s cross‑agency efforts to refine and implement new rules on data privacy and cybersecurity for multinational companies navigating complex data and privacy rules in the U.S., EU, and Asia. Ms. Smith’s work also involved extensive interaction with external stakeholders, including wireless, media, cable, and telecommunications companies; industry groups and trade associations; federal and state agencies; and Congress.

Prior to joining the FCC in 2009, Ms. Smith was Vice President and General Counsel of Washington Post Digital. She was in charge of all legal and policy matters across 10 different business units in this role.

Ms. Smith also serves on the Board of Directors of Gen (NASDAQ:GEN) and Cable ONE (NYSE: CABO). She is also member of the Northwestern University’s Law School board, a member of the University of Maryland’s Journalism School board as well as America’s Public Television Stations executive board.

Ondrej Vlcek
President

Ondrej Vlcek previously served as CEO of Avast, having also served as President of Avast Consumer, the largest business within the company, and directed the development of Avast’s artificial intelligence-based cloud security network. Mr. Vlcek was also a key member of the executive team that took the company public on the London Stock Exchange in May 2018.

Previously, he held the combined position of Executive Vice-President & General Manager, Consumer, and Chief Technology Officer. In this role, he led Avast’s transformation from a traditional PC antivirus vendor to the leading provider of a full portfolio of protection, privacy, and performance products for consumers.

Prior to that, Mr. Vlcek was chief developer, heading the team that developed one of the first ever antivirus programs for Windows. Mr. Vlcek holds an MS in Mathematics from Czech Technical University in Prague. He is a recognized industry speaker having delivered keynotes at several high-profile events including RSA, Web Summit, Black Hat and SXSW.

Ondrej Vlcek