Rubrik gains Bill Gates' successor and former Symantec CEO John W. Thompson

John W. Thompson replaced Bill Gates as Microsoft’s chairman and will sit on Rubrik’s board as lead independent director

Cybersecurity vendor Rubrik has appointed former Microsoft chairman and Symantec CEO John W. Thompson as the lead independent director of Rubrik's board.

Thompson brings more than 40 years of leadership experience in the technology industry.

He succeeded Bill Gates as chairman of Microsoft's board and now serves as its lead independent director.

Previously, Thompson was the chairman and CEO of Symantec and currently serves as the chairman of Illumina's board.

He joined Rubrik's board of directors in 2018. In this expanded role, he will continue to help facilitate Rubrik's mission to secure the world's data.

"We've built an elite leadership team of cybersecurity experts across public and private sectors to better equip our customers in the ongoing battle against data threats such as ransomware," said Rubrik co-founder and CEO, Bipul Sinha.

"John is a cybersecurity pioneer. His proven leadership and experience building iconic companies will help us continue to deliver data security innovations and define the future of cybersecurity."

According to the recent Rubrik Zero Labs State of Data Security report, more than 98 per cent of organisations experienced a cyberattack in the past year, and more than half faced a ransomware attack.

The vendor says that as ransomware attacks continue to grow in volume and sophistication, relying on infrastructure security alone has become insufficient.

To effectively defend against cyberattacks Rubrik says organisations must prioritise data security as part of a holistic cybersecurity strategy to help ensure they can quickly recover business-critical operations in the event of an attack.

"No company, regardless of size or industry, should be without a data resilience plan. Cyber criminals continue to target our schools, our hospitals, our government, and other critical infrastructure. Rubrik helps organisations quickly get back up and running after an attack," said Asheem Chandna, partner at Greylock and a founding investor of Palo Alto Networks.

"John is an industry legend and we are excited to welcome him to the lead independent director role on Rubrik's board of directors."