Bill Largent CEO, Veeam Software, Replacing Co-Founder Ratmir Timashev

Veeam Software, Inc. has appointed Peter C. McKay, most recently SVP and GM, Americas with VMware, as its president and COO and promoted William H. Largent, currently EVP, as its new CEO.

Veeam co-founders and directors, Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov, will remain strategic to the company, playing active roles focusing on market strategy and new product development.

“With the appointments of Peter and Bill, we are adding depth, experience and talent to our already world-class executive team. Peter and Bill are seasoned leaders with complimentary skill-sets; they will be instrumental in helping Veeam to continue on its steep growth trajectory,” said Timashev. “Peter will also join our board of directors and serve along with Andrei, Bill and myself. By attracting executive talent such as Peter, Veeam is sending a clear signal to the market that we are a leader and we’ve only scratched the surface of our potential.“

As president and COO, Peter McKay will report directly to Largent and will be responsible for sales, sales operations, marketing, finance and human resources. Prior to Veeam, he held a number of senior leadership roles within VMware‘s Americas organization. He joined VMware as VP sales, end user computing, Americas, and from this position, he was promoted to COO for the Americas, responsible for optimizing the alignment and integration of all go-to-market functions, then to SVP, Americas enterprise, and then ultimately to SVP and GM, Americas. He joined VMware through the acquisition of Desktone where he was president and CEO from 2010 to October 2013. Prior to Deskton, he was president and CEO of two other venture backed companies; Watchfire, a security solutions provider (acquired by IBM in 2007) from 2001 to July 2008 and eCredit (acquired by Internet Capital Groupfrom 1998 to 2001. He also served as ‘Executive-in-Residence’ at Insight Venture Partners.

“Digital Transformation, cloud, social technologies and users’ insatiable appetite for Always-On access to critical data and applications is changing the way enterprises conduct business,” said McKay. “We are at the cusp of a major digital revolution and as enterprises look to harness the power of the cloud and keep pace with changing user demands, 24.7.365 Availability is no longer an after-thought; today, it is a strategic priority. That’s why I am here. Veeam has always been a company synonymous with innovation and customer satisfaction. Not many companies are as exciting as Veeam, and I am honored to be joining the team and helping steer it to the next stage of its growth.”

As CEO, Bill Largent will report to Veeam’s board of directors and will oversee strategic and financial direction. He has been part of Veeam’s growth since its inception in 2006, and has more than 30 years of operations and leadership experience in growth companies. Prior to joining Veeam, he was CEO of Applied Innovation, Inc., a public company previously traded on the NASDAQ – National Market System. He also worked with other members of the Veeam executive team at Aelita Software where he was COO and CFO. Prior to Aelita, he was CFO of Plug Power where he managed the company’s IPO with Goldman, Sachs & Co. as lead underwriter, raising more than $150 million in equity.

“I have spent my entire career building businesses, but Veeam is special,” commented Largent. “Since the company started in 2006, we’ve always been at the cutting edge of innovation and have been disrupting status quo thinking. Our first product was free and within a very short period of time, every virtualization admin knew us! We’ve continued in that disruptive, innovative vein and as we look to the future, our focus is on empowering enterprises to deliver 24.7.365 Availability and leverage the potential of today’s digital economy.”

Largent is in the process of relocating to Veeam’s global HQs in Switzerland.