SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 10, 2014 – Blue Coat Systems, Inc., a Thoma Bravo company and market leader in enterprise security, today announced it has appointed Michael Fey as president and chief operating officer effective immediately. Fey brings operational and go-to-market expertise that will drive revenue growth and extend the reach of Blue Coat in the market. He will report to Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark.
Fey joins Blue Coat after three years of the company’s strong growth in the security market. During this time, Blue Coat focused its innovation on developing and acquiring leading security solutions for the new threat environment. As president and COO, Fey will bring to Blue Coat a critical focus on aligning the company’s leading web security, encryption management, cloud offerings and advanced threat protection solutions with customer requirements. Additionally, he will be responsible for field and customer-facing business operations, and collaborating on strategy.
“Blue Coat has successfully established itself as a market leader over the last three years by building an integrated portfolio of security solutions, aggressively acquiring companies to enhance that portfolio and delivering best-in-class threat protection,” said Clark. “Now is the time for us to drive expansion in the marketplace, and Mike is the best in the industry to help Blue Coat reach the next level of its growth.”
Fey assumes his new role from David Murphy, who will continue as a strategic advisor to Clark and the Board of Directors. Murphy joined Blue Coat following the privatization of the company and was instrumental in developing the company’s focused security and acquisition strategy to drive success in the market. Under his guidance, the company enjoyed double-digit revenue growth and increased its market share in its core security market segment while building the world’s largest cloud security offering.
“Businesses today are facing significant security challenges as they attempt to leverage new technologies to provide a better customer experience while trying to protect customer data and other confidential information from cybercriminals,” said Fey. “I have long admired Blue Coat’s solutions. Over the last three years, Blue Coat has innovated to deliver advance malware detection capabilities integrated with a strong forensics solution that creates a powerful security offering that is unique in the market place. Blue Coat has also led the market around innovation in cloud security. I look forward to collaborating with the great team in place today to further extend this impressive solution set and drive additional marketplace growth.”
Fey has more than 10 years of field, marketing and operational experience in security. Prior to joining Blue Coat, Fey was executive vice president and general manager of corporate products at McAfee and Chief Technology Officer of Intel Security, where he drove that company’s long-term strategic vision and innovation in the network, endpoint and analytics security segments by focusing on high-growth market opportunities and field execution.
Fey is a recognized thought leader in the industry and a published author. His most recent book, “Security Battleground: An Executive Field Manual” is used by leading consulting agencies to build out risk mitigation strategies. He is also a frequent speaker at RSA, where he has presented main stage keynotes the past two years, and has presented a TED Talk titled “Are You Technically Fit to Parent.” Fey holds a B.S. engineering physics with a minor mathematics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
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