IT Security Specialist Websense Gets New CEO, CTO
Data loss prevention and web, email and mobile security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) has made some changes at the top, promoting John McCormack (pictured) to CEO and board member, effective immediately; Russ Dietz to CTO; and Charles Boesenberg to board member. McCormack succeeds Gene Hodges who is retiring as CEO and board member. Here's a closer look at the changes.
New CEO McCormack joined the company in July 2006 as senior vice president of product development and was named president in April 2009. Over the course of his career he's worked for companies such Symantec and Cisco.
“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 organization,” said John Carrington, chairman of the Websense board of directors, in a prepared statement.
Preview: Quarterly Results
Websense also released its preliminary fourth quarter 2012 results today, saying it expects billings to be approximately $122 million, up 5 percent year-over-year, exceeding its guidance range of $112 to $117 million for the fourth quarter. Also for the fourth quarter, Websense expects revenues of $91.5 to $92.0 million, versus guidance of $90 to $92 million.
Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share are expected to be in the range of $0.27 to $0.28, versus guidance of $0.32 to $0.35, primarily reflecting the increased sales commissions incurred with the higher-than-expected billings during the quarter.
Websense also announced two other appointments.
Russ Dietz joined Websense in November 2012 as CTO and executive vice president of product development, and his previous work includes stints at SafeNet and Hifn. In his new role will oversee the worldwide Websense engineering, product management and security lab teams.
New independent director Bosenberg also serves on the boards of Boingo Wireless, Callidus Software, Keynote Systems and Silicon Graphics International. He previously served on the boards of Symantec, Rackable Systems and Interwoven. He's the former chairman and CEO of NetIQ; president and has held senior executive positions at Apple, Data General and IBM.
