Bekim Protopapa GM North America, Mimecast

Mimecast Services Ltd appointed Bekim Protopapa as GM, North America.

He will replace Mark Bilbe, who is now responsible for worldwide customer operations.

Mimecast’s U.S. business opened in 2008 and has experienced a CAGR of 113%, increasing revenue in the last financial year alone by 59% to $30 million locally out of global revenues of $88.3 million. The company has also seen U.S. customer growth upping its base by 118% in the same period. It also grew staff numbers in the U.S. and opened larger premises in Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA and new sales offices in Chicago, IL and Dallas, TX.

Commenting on the opportunity ahead at Mimecast, Protopapa said: “The rate at which Mimecast has expanded in North America and globally is impressive. Now, with the company’s latest services for Microsoft Office 365, and the blended cloud approach that it enables, the company brings an even more enticing offering to market. I look forward to working alongside the rest of the executive team to accelerate enterprise organizations’ move to the cloud for critical systems, like email.”

 Protopapa is an experienced senior executive, having spent 20 years in leadership roles at companies within the networking, security and unified communications sectors. He brings with him domain experience scaling both private and public technology companies, including NetIQ, BladeLogic, Blue Coat Systems, Logitech and most recently as the president and CEO of Cymtec Systems. During his tenure at Blue Coat, the company experienced a period of growth, as it went from roughly $100 million in annual revenue to over $400 million annually in under four years. His track record of guiding companies through periods of growth will be integral in growing Mimecast’s U.S. presence and market share in the email management space.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University in Houston, TX.

“Bekim joins us at an exciting time,” said Peter Bauer, CEO, Mimecast. “Cloud is rapidly going mainstream, but the complexity of migrating from mature legacy infrastructures, data redundancy, security and availability are still major concerns. As a result, many companies are yet to fully exploit their cloud opportunities.”

Bauer continued: “With Mimecast’s unique and proven cloud platform, enterprises have some very effective options to leverage the cloud more seamlessly. Our platform has become an important part of our customers’ and partners’ security, infrastructure consolidation, compliance, information management and BC capabilities. Bekim’s specific industry experience is an ideal fit to help enable our North American customers and partners to capitalize on these opportunities.”