Leadership

Vincent Pilette

CEO & President

Vincent Pilette

CEO & President

Vincent Pilette 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.

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

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

Vincent holds an MS in Engineering and Business from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Natalie Derse

CFO

Natalie Derse

CFO

Natalie Derse is Chief Financial Officer at Gen. In this role Natalie oversees the Gen's financial strategy, ensuring robust financial planning, reporting and risk management. Natalie leads budgeting, forecasting, and capital allocation while providing strategic insights to drive growth and profitability. In addition, Natalie ensures regulatory compliance and manages investor relations, fostering transparency and aligning financial goals with Gen's long-term objectives.

Natalie’s 26-year career consists of progressive financial management, business performance analytics, and operational excellence across multiple industries including eCommerce, Consumer Products & Services, Manufacturing & Distribution. Prior to joining GEN, she held positions at General Electric, Stanley Black & Decker, and eBay, Inc.

Natalie received a BS in Finance from the University of Dayton.
Bryan Ko

Legal & Corporate Development

Bryan Ko

Legal & Corporate Development

Bryan 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, Bryan served as Logitech International’s general counsel, corporate secretary and head of corporate development. Prior to his tenure at 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 JD from Rutgers University School of Law.
Kara Jordan

People & Culture

Kara Jordan

People & Culture

Kara Jordan leads the People & Culture at Gen. In this role Kara leads the development and execution of the company’s overall People strategy, with a focus on aligning talent initiatives with business objectives. She oversees a broad portfolio of responsibilities, including talent acquisition and management, leadership development, organizational design, employee engagement, compensation and benefits, inclusion and belonging, and People operations, together with workplace, workplace experience and procurement.

She is an Executive with over 20 years of international leadership experience gained in EMEA and the US with significant exposure to M&A from diligence to integration and enterprise transformation and change. Former roles include leading global Business partnering and Talent Acquisition functions

Kara earned a BS with honors at the University of Plymouth.
Howie Xu

AI & Innovation

Howie Xu

AI & Innovation

Howie Xu leads AI & Innovation at Gen. In this role, Howie is responsible for creating new products and business for the Company’s long-term vision both in Cyber Safety and beyond.

Prior to joining Gen, Howie was the Senior Vice President of Engineering and AI/ML at Palo Alto Networks and the VP of AI/ML at Zscaler. He was the CEO and Co-founder of the AI security startup TrustPath before it was acquired by Zscaler. He was also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners, head of R&D for Cisco’s Cloud Networking and Services Group, and the founding VP of Engineering at Big Switch Networks. During his decade-long tenure at VMware, Howie founded and led VMware’s networking team.

Currently, Howie is also the host of “Byte Into Future,” a guest lecturer at Stanford University, and an investor and board member/advisor for various AI companies. Howie is an alum of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a frequent speaker at technical and investment conferences worldwide.
Leena Elias

Cyber Safety Product & Ecommerce

Leena Elias

Cyber Safety Product & Ecommerce

Leena Elias 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 NortonLifelock 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.

Leena holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Víťa Šantrůček

Development

Víťa Šantrůček

Development

Vita Šantrůček leads Development at Gen. Vita 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 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation (MSD), a subsidiary of Merck & Co.

Vita served as Avast’s Chief Product Officer, General Manager of Avast Business, and Avast’s Vice President of engineering, leading the global engineering and technical support strategy and operations for Avast Business. Before joining Avast in 2018, Vita 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 attended Anglo-American University, Prague, and Minerva University.
Sigurður (Siggi) Stefnisson

Cyber Safety Technology

Sigurður (Siggi) Stefnisson

Cyber Safety Technology

Siggi Stefnisson leads Technology at Gen, including core technology as well as the teams driving the security engines that shape the company’s vision for Cyber Safety. Prior to his roles as Cyber Safety CTO, Siggi served as the head of the Threat Labs team and transformed the organization with over 100 security experts focused on developing new methods to counteract malware threats.

Before joining Avast in March 2021, Siggi was the Vice President of Threat Research at Cyren, where he spent over 7 years honing his cybersecurity expertise. With more than 25 years in the industry, he started as a virus researcher in 1996 at FRISK which was acquired by Cyren (formerly Commtouch) in 2012. His work involves advanced threat analysis and the development of best practices in cybersecurity. Throughout his career, he’s had a passion for mentorship and building high-performance teams while using technology as an enabler to bring the best out of people.

Siggi is a member of the Computer Antivirus Research Organization (CARO), an organization established in 1990 to research and study malware.
Travis Witteveen

Trust-Based Solutions, Commercial Operations, Acquisitions & Partnerships

Travis Witteveen

Trust-Based Solutions, Commercial Operations, Acquisitions & Partnerships

Travis Witteveen leads trust-based solutions, commercial operations and acquisitions at Gen. In this role, Travis is focused on shaping the product strategy of Gen’s identity, financial wellness and overarching trust-based solutions segment. In addition, he is responsible for the global commercial operations across all go-to-market channels, which includes direct to consumer, partnerships, and customer success. These include freemium and premium business models, marketplaces, the employee benefit channel, internet service providers, retailers, financial institutions and syndication partnerships.

Travis joined the Gen leadership team through the Avira acquisition. Since 2013, he was the CEO of Avira 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 has been in the Technology and Security 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 telcos and ISPs.

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

Marketing, Brand & Communications

Krista Todd

Marketing, Brand & Communications

Krista Todd leads the 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 communications, and partner marketing.

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

Previously, Krista 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, Krista 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, Krista worked at McGrath/Power Public Relations agency representing top security companies including RSA Security and Internet Security Systems.

Krista holds a BA in Public Communications from the State University of New York College at Buffalo.
Patrick Schwind

Customer Support and Services

Patrick Schwind

Customer Support and Services

Patrick Schwind leads Gen’s global customer experience and support. Patrick has spent over 25 years supporting customer experience for consumer organizations. At Gen, his team handles millions of live customer interactions each 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.

Patrick was previously Vice President of Member Experience at Symantec and prior to that, President of Hivewy. He spent over two years as Chief Revenue Officer at FetchBack, an eBay Company, and gained leadership experience as director of various enterprise sales positions.

Patrick received his BBA from Western Michigan University.

Sue Barsamian

Former Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for HPE Software

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

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.
Eric K. Brandt

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

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

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.
Nora Denzel

Former Interim Chief Executive Officer of Outerwall Inc.

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

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.
Emily Heath

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

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

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.
Sherrese Smith

Global Managing Partner, Paul Hastings LLP

Sherrese Smith

Global Managing Partner, Paul Hastings LLP

Sherrese Smith is the Global 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 Vice Chair 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

Former President of Gen

Ondrej Vlcek

Former President of Gen

Ondrej Vlcek previously served as former President of Gen, having also served as CEO of Avast and Preside 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.

Vincent Pilette

Natalie Derse

Bryan Ko

Kara Jordan

Howie Xu

Leena Elias

Víťa Šantrůček

Sigurður (Siggi) Stefnisson

Travis Witteveen

Krista Todd

Patrick Schwind

Sue Barsamian

Pavel Baudis

Eric K. Brandt

Frank E. Dangeard

Nora Denzel

Peter A. Feld

Emily Heath

Vincent Pilette

Sherrese Smith

Ondrej Vlcek

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