BitDefender parts ways with UK directors
Simon Geach, Nick Billington and John Hughes all leave as anti-virus vendor restructures
Anti-virus vendor BitDefender claims it remains committed to the UK following the near simultaneous departure of several local management figures.
UK sales director Simon Geach is understood to have left just before Christmas following on from UK managing director Nick Billington’s exit earlier in December.
UK technical manager John Hughes is also known to have departed, while cutbacks to BitDefender’s global leadership team based in the US have also been made.
BitDefender emphasised that the process, which comes hot on the heels of the arrival of a new chief operating officer from Microsoft, is about “restructuring not departures” as it centralises more management functions to its Bucharest headquarters.
The vendor stressed that former AVG and Sophos honcho, Peter Barlow, has joined this week in the post of general manager for northern Europe. He will be based in the UK, but will also look after Dach, Benelux and Nordics.
Vitor Souza, global communications director at BitDefender, said: “We are currently working to redesign our teams with the purpose of maximising productivity and maintaining the highest level of support for our business goals.
“BitDefender has very ambitious goals for the UK market so bringing in an industry veteran like Peter and making some changes is key to our commitment to the UK market and to achieving our goals. Expect excellent staff joining BitDefender in the weeks and months to come.”
BitDefender recently appointed CMI as its UK distributor and sales director Adam Trussler appeared unconcerned by the changes.
“Peter coming on board is a positive," he said. "We are looking to build the B2B channel for BitDefender and as far as we are concerned it is onwards and upwards. It has a good B2B product that is selling well.”
It is understood Geach is already plotting his return to the channel and considering roles at two firms including Symantec.
Souza said: “We can't comment at the moment on details of departed staff, but of course restructuring and changes in personnel happen regularly within companies.”