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Avast has bolstered its Business leadership team with a number of strategic hires and promotions in engineering, product management, and operations.
“Although data breaches and cyberattacks for small businesses may not always make headlines, SMBs are increasingly falling victim to the latest security threats, and the loss of data and downtime can be disastrous for them,” said Kevin Chapman, senior vice president and general manager, Avast Business Division.
“Industry figures estimate that cyberattacks cost small businesses between $84,000 and $148,000 and as many as two-thirds of small businesses go out of business within six months of an attack. Avast Business is committed to protecting small and medium businesses worldwide, and investing in the right team to deliver the right solutions is central to this goal.”
Ashley Isaak has been appointed as director of Avast Business Operations, and will lead all aspects of project management, business processes, analytics, and sales operations for the Avast Business product portfolio and global channel partner program.
With over 12 years’ experience in security software operations, Isaak brings expertise managing front-end and back-end business processes, product launch readiness and deployment, and analytics for data-driven decision making. Isaak was previously at AVG Technologies, which acquired Bsecure in 2011, where she was responsible for product launches and channel partner engagement.
Vita Santrucek joins the team as VP of Engineering, with immediate effect. With almost 20 years’ experience at companies including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and most recently, MSD, Santrucek brings a wealth of experience in leading Big Data, IOT, and Java development teams.
Based in Prague, one of Santrucek’s key responsibilities will be more closely aligning engineering with technical support to enhance Avast Business’ partners and customers’ experience in terms of user feedback, speed of response, and quality. He reports directly to Kevin Chapman.
Arne Uppheim joined Avast Business in January as director of Product Management. Originally from Norway but now based in Prague, Uppheim will work closely with Santrucek to maintain an equal and strong partnership between product management and engineering, ensuring future products and updates meet the evolving needs of Avast’s business customers.
Uppheim has over 20 years of product management and engineering experience in security, online, and mobile services. Prior to joining Avast, he was VP of Storage and Security at Telenor Group, a major global mobile operator.
Earlier this year, Avast’s commitment to the SMB sector was acknowledged by business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, which named Avast Business as the Growth Excellence Leader in the Endpoint Management market.
