Asigra Announces Significant Leadership Team Expansion as Company Centers on Ransomware Threat to Backup

Company Appoints Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Revenue/Marketing Officer, and Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Asigra Inc., a leader in cyber-secure backup and recovery, announced top executive appointments to the company’s senior management team as the ransomware threat to backup data takes center stage in 2022. Moving the company into the new year are industry veterans Eric Simmons, CEO; Val Silva, CTO; Pete Nourse, Chief Revenue Officer/Chief Marketing Officer, and Chris Gilkes, VP of Worldwide Sales. The new team reflects the beginning of a new chapter for Asigra by adding significant experience in key areas to address growth objectives and the evolving cybersecurity landscape.

“Ransomware is resulting in revenue and data loss, compromised data, reputational damage, significant operational disruption and more,” said Zachary Ginsburg, Research Director for the Gartner Audit and Risk practice. “Regardless of their size or revenue, organizations should assume they will be targeted with ransomware, and they should examine their prevention, detection, mitigation, response and recovery measures.”

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“With a highly skilled team of senior executives and software engineers, we are pleased to embark on this new journey as we advance our technological excellence and global presence”

— Eric Simmons, CEO, Asigra

Taking on this challenge head-on is Eric Simmons, Asigra’s new CEO. Eric brings more than two decades of strategic enterprise IT experience to the company and is making it his mission to elevate the company’s position in secure backup and recovery as businesses defend against the reach of ransomware into backup data. Prior to Asigra, he held the post of Chief Strategy Officer for IMC, the parent company of artificial intelligence/analytics provider Scaled Insights, where he refined the software vendor’s strategic direction, resulting in a stronger market presence and increased revenues. Before that, he was CEO of Altum Health, a division of the University Health Network where he developed a 5-year strategic plan and diversification strategy that led the organization to focus on timely execution of strategic priorities. Simmons has also held senior executive positions at Dell, Rogers Communications, Canadian Tire and other leading organizations going back to 1996. Company founder and former CEO of Asigra, David Farajun, moves to Chairman of the Board.

Spearheading platform development is Val Silva, the company’s newly announced CTO. With three decades of engineering and software development expertise, Val is setting the company’s sights on advancing its core value to the user and enhancing customer experience metrics in terms of usability, interoperability, scalability and next-generation security to ensure exceptional resilience to malicious cyberattacks. Prior to Asigra, Val was CTO of IMC, an established artificial intelligence company which won numerous awards including “Best New AI Startup” in the 2018 Global AI Awards. Val has a deep knowledge of computer science and development coupled with an understanding of how to organize people to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Managing revenue growth and marketing for Asigra is Pete Nourse who holds the position of CRO/CMO for the company. Pete will be centered on amplifying awareness for the company and its AI-based anti-malware backup and recovery platform in support of enterprises and the company’s IT channel. Prior to Asigra, he was CMO for Veriato, a world-class AI-based security software provider where he grew the company’s market position over a three-year period. Before Veriato, he was director of market strategy for Bitdefender, a leading cybersecurity vendor and director of marketing for nCipher where he defined target markets, developed positioning, and played a critical role in market development.

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Leading international sales operations for Asigra is Chris Gilkes who joins the company as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Chris is an experienced technology sales executive and is responsible for sales strategy and execution at Asigra. Based in London, he has spent much of his career delivering technology solutions across public and private sector organizations. Prior to Asigra, he managed EMEA sales and operations at Veriato, and was part of the senior management team at Canon, focusing on cybersecurity. Additionally, he worked at Blackthorn Technologies where he worked with many high-profile commercial and government organizations. With Chris’ extensive experience in technology sales management, business development and channel expansion, he will play a critical role in the company’s accelerated growth strategy.

“Ransomware has come a long way since its emergence and it now attacks data backups which had previously been the last line of defense,” said Eric Simmons, CEO, Asigra. “With a highly skilled team of senior executives and software engineers wielding the most secure backup platform on the market, we are pleased to embark on this new journey as we advance our technological excellence and global presence.”