Rob Zecha EVP and Chief Product Officer, FalconStor

FalconStor Software, Inc. announced that Robert Zecha has joined the company as EVP and chief product officer, a newly formed strategic position.

In this role, he will be responsible for all aspects of product development, product management, quality assurance and program management.

An industry veteran with engineering and business management experience, he will drive the development of new solutions that address the data protection and business continuity issues faced by enterprises. He will articulate and execute the company’s product strategy and ensure the continued evolution of FalconStor’s suite of data protection products.

"The new position of chief product officer demonstrates our commitment to designing and bringing to market original solutions that solve today’s complex data protection challenges," said Jim McNiel, president and CEO of FalconStor. "With his entrepreneurial spirit, executive business leadership and a proven ability to execute, Rob will further our mission to develop innovative technology and promote new best practices that will ensure FalconStor’s position as the industry’s most trusted data protection partner."

 Before joining FalconStor, Zecha was VP of engineering and operations for Altior, where he led the delivery of compression storage and networking solutions for big data. Prior to that, he held the positions of VP of business development, engineering and marketing at SMSC and VP of engineering as founder of Afide. In 1993, he founded NetVision Corporation and, as president, led it to an acquisition by Network Peripherals, where he served as corporate officer and VP of WW engineering.

Zecha is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York.

"Today’s storage and data protection market is undergoing a major shift as legacy solutions prove inadequate in the face of unabated data growth, broad adoption of virtualization, cloud-based services and big data," said Zecha. "In addition, recent events have turned a spotlight on the need for continuous business operations and automated disaster recovery solutions that will eliminate costly downtime. Organizations need to migrate to new ways of managing and protecting critical business information and IT services – and FalconStor is uniquely qualified to meet that need and take advantage of a huge market opportunity."