Parallels promotes former Microsoft boss to CEO

Founder of virtualisation software vendor to step down in April

The chief executive of virtualisation specialist Parallels has used the firm's partner conference to announce that he is standing down in April after eight years at the company's helm.

Serguei Beloussov announced during the event's keynote speech in Orlando yesterday that he is handing the reins of the company over to the current president Birger Steen.

Beloussov, who founded Parallels in 1999, will continue to chair the company's board of directors and remain the firm's chief architect.

During a conference call with the press earlier this week, Beloussov said Steen, who joined the firm from Microsoft six months ago, will be tasked with transforming Parallels into a $1bn vendor.

"The reason behind it is to grow the company to $1bn and Steen is the person to do that. A company of that size is a completely different kind of beast," he explained.

Beloussov added that the company was in rude health, thanks to the growing popularity of cloud computing and its Parallels Desktop product, which allows PC applications to run on Macs.

The company claims to have achieved a 50 per cent compound annual growth rate over the past six years and to be generating annual revenues of over $100m.

"It is a time of big growth and opportunities for the company and we are very excited about having a new chief executive," said Beloussov.

In his new role, Steen said one of his priorities will be tapping into the SMB market's appetite for cloud.

"I am laser focused on serving our customers and enabling our partners to quickly capitalise on the growing opportunities in cloud services for SMBs worldwide," he explained.