Kaspersky Lab Announces New Senior Management Appointments

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, announced today key changes in its management leadership intended to further stimulate growth of the company, increase the effectiveness of regional and local operations and business sub-divisions, and expedite business development.

Garry Kondakov will be appointed Chief Sales and Marketing Officer (CSMO), and Andrey Tikhonov will assume the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. The new structure will facilitate entry into new segments of the market, accelerate business development, and also increase the transparency of the company for partners.

Garry Kondakov is one of the most successful and experienced managers of Kaspersky Lab. From 2002 he headed the territory office of Kaspersky Lab for Russia, the CIS and the Baltic States, and in 2011 Garry became Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab Emerging Markets, where he was in charge of the company’s operations in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition to the abovementioned regions, in his new role as CSMO Garry will marshal the company’s business development activities in Western Europe, North America, and the Asian-Pacific region, including Japan, and also supervise the marketing activity of Kaspersky Lab as a whole. Garry’s main priorities in his new position will be fulfilling the company’s ambitious plans for raising the rate of growth of Kaspersky Lab’s business all around the world, and increasing market share, including in the corporate and mobile segments, both of which are strategically very important for the company.

Andrey Tikhonov, first having joined Eugene Kaspersky’s original team as a product developer in 1994 before Kaspersky Lab was founded, held the post of Technical Director from 2004, and in 2009 he was appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the company. In the position of COO of Kaspersky Lab, Andrey’s new responsibilities will also include overseeing the company’s financial operations, IT, human resources and quality management. One of the priority tasks for Andrey in his new position will be perfecting operational processes so as to reach the goals the company has set before itself.

The abovementioned changes represent an important step in the development of Kaspersky Lab, which in the last five years has moved from being a fast-growing second-tier company to one of the world leaders in the IT security market, whose products and technologies protect more than 300 million systems all around the world. Throughout this period, the company underwent rapid expansion in the world markets, simultaneously taking on more staff and reorganizing its structure as per the best international standards of management.

Eugene Buyakin, currently in the position of COO, has decided to leave the company on December 31, 2011 to pursue his personal business interests.

Roger Wilson, currently Chief Marketing Officer of Kaspersky Lab, will also be leaving the company on December 31, 2011. He plans to establish a consulting agency in the field of branding and communications in Europe.

Commenting on the changes, Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of the company, said: “Our company is entering a new and important stage in its development, one which sets before us extremely ambitious goals and tasks. Optimizing our corporate management is an important and necessary step towards successfully realizing these ambitions, and a significant accomplishment for the company as a whole. Andrey Tikhonov and Garry Kondakov are both talented and experienced managers who have repeatedly over the last 10 years demonstrated their ability to reach the most difficult of goals. I am certain that their new appointments will become the next positive chapter in both their success stories.”

“I want to thank Eugene Buyakin, who has been one of the principal executives of the company orchestrating its transformation to one of the main players in the global IT security market. Under his leadership, the company's business has grown four times over the last four years. I also want to thank Roger Wilson, responsible for bringing the marketing practice at the company up to international standards and taking the Kaspersky Lab brand to a new level of awareness. My gratitude goes to both of them for their vital, long-running, professional contributions to the company, and I wish them the best of success in their future endeavors,” continued Kaspersky.