Virtela, a network solutions company, announced the appointment of Steven R. King as president and CEO. King also becomes a member of the company’s board of directors.
 
King assumes leadership as Virtela builds upon its exceptional growth, recently marking its eight-year anniversary with continued record financial and operational achievements. Virtela reached seven consecutive quarters of positive net income, and sales orders jumped 40% in the first quarter over the same period last year.
 
Fueling its momentum, Virtela is setting an innovative new standard for delivering superior agility and global connectivity for today’s enterprises: Network as a Service (NaaS). While Software as a Service (SaaS) has gained traction with enterprises because of benefits such as eliminating the need for extensive IT support, Virtela is applying this on-demand model to transform managed network and security services delivery, and King will help accelerate the charge.
 
As President and CEO, King brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the information technology industry. Most recently, he was president and CEO of ZANTAZ Inc., a pioneer in compliance content archiving and e-discovery leveraging the SaaS model. Under his seven-year leadership, the company grew to be profitable and a recognized market leader, and was acquired in 2007 by The Autonomy Group.
 
”Steve brings a wealth of experience and complementary strengths to Virtela, notably his proven expertise in sales, marketing and financial leadership and ability to execute in highly competitive environments,” said Promod Haque, Virtela chairman and managing partner of Norwest Venture Partners. “His most recent accomplishments in the SaaS space will directly enhance Virtela’s Network as a Service strategy, putting the company in an excellent position to further optimize the delivery of enterprise applications through its premier managed services.”
 
Prior to ZANTAZ, King held a number of executive positions at E*TRADE Group Inc., where he played a key role in growing the company from under $100 million to more than $1.5 billion in revenues. He ultimately became CEO of E*OFFERING, the pioneering online investment bank of E*TRADE, acquired by Wit SoundView Group. Previously, King held senior management positions at the Thomson Corporation and Ziff-Davis. In 2006, he received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.