Symantec announces appointment of Michael Fey as president and chief operating officer upon closing of Blue Coat acquisition

Symantec Corp.of Mountain View, CA announced on July 11 that Michael Fey will join Symantec as President and Chief Operating Officer upon closing of the previously announced acquisition of Blue Coat, Inc. He will report to Greg Clark, Symantec CEO-designate.

“Mike, like Greg, has a proven ability to accelerate turnarounds and ignite significant revenue growth inside organizations,” said Dan Schulman, Chairman of the Symantec Board of Directors. “His initial focus will be on merging the go-to-market functions of the combined companies to take advantage of the tremendous cross-sell and upsell opportunity formed by the powerful combination of these two market leaders.”

“Mike is a security industry visionary with significant experience in sales and operations and deep knowledge of the endpoint market. He played an integral role in driving Blue Coat forward, including defining our open platform strategy and leading our technology alliance partnership, and I am delighted that he will join Symantec as President and COO,” said Greg Clark, Symantec CEO-designate. “Mike has a proven track record of driving and maintaining profitable growth while achieving operational excellence at scale. This, along with his substantial go-to-market expertise, will be instrumental as we complete the Symantec-Blue Coat transaction. Mike has been deeply involved in the integration planning and will continue to work closely with planning teams from both companies to ensure a thoughtful and seamless transition.”

Fey is an accomplished enterprise security executive with a highly technical background and more than a decade of cybersecurity experience. As President and COO of Blue Coat, he has focused on aligning the company’s leading web security, encrypted traffic management, cloud security, and advanced threat protection solutions with customer requirements, and was responsible for all aspects of sales, marketing, support, services and product management. Prior to joining Blue Coat, Fey served as CTO of Intel Security and General Manager of McAfee Corporate Products, where he drove its long-term enterprise strategic vision and innovation in the endpoint, network and security analytics segments.

“The joining of these two companies is unprecedented in the cybersecurity industry, and I couldn’t be more energized by this amazing opportunity,” said Fey, currently President and COO of Blue Coat. “By combining Symantec’s leading threat telemetry with Blue Coat’s network and cloud security, we will provide customers with unrivaled threat protection and unmatched cloud security. The scale and portfolio of the combined companies will best protect customers’ users, endpoints, emails, servers and data, both on premises and in the cloud. I look forward to collaborating with the exceptionally talented people at both Symantec and Blue Coat as we set the pace for innovation industrywide.”

The companies expect an efficient and successful integration given their complementary product offerings and distinct customer footprints, as well as Blue Coat’s management team’s track record of integration. As part of integration planning, Symantec and Blue Coat leaders are working on identifying the combined company’s complete executive team post-close.

About Michael Fey

Michael Fey joined Blue Coat in 2014 as President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Blue Coat, Fey served as executive vice president, chief technology officer, and general manager of corporate products for Intel Security. In this role, he drove the company’s strategic vision and security innovation. Fey also managed business operations and strategy for all corporate product business units at McAfee, part of Intel Security. Previously, he was senior vice president of advanced technologies and field engineering at McAfee, where he oversaw corporate acquisitions and engaged with global customer executives and prospects to develop, build, and implement strategic security solutions. An industry veteran, Fey has held leadership positions with Opsware, Mercury Interactive, and Lockheed-Martin. Fey graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Source: Symantec