Our leadership

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.