Rick Hill Interim President and CEO, Symantec

Symantec Corporation announced the following leadership changes:
• Richard S. Hill, current Symantec director and former chairman and CEO of Novellus Systems, has been appointed interim president and CEO, effective immediately. He succeeds Greg Clark, who has stepped down as president and CEO and as a member of the Board, also effective immediately. The company will commence a search process to find a permanent CEO.
• Vincent Pilette, CFO of Logitech and former VP of finance for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s server, storage and networking business, has been appointed EVP and CFO. He is anticipated to join the company on May 21, 2019. Hiss appointment follows a search process initiated in connection with Nicholas Noviello’s departure as EVP and CFO as announced on January 31, 2019.

Daniel H. Schulman, chairman of the Symantec board of directors, said: “Symantec has a significant opportunity to further enhance shareholder value by continuing to build on the leadership and momentum of both our enterprise and consumer cyber safety segments. As we enter into a new financial year, Greg and the board agreed that now is the right time to transition leadership, and we are confident in Rick’s ability to drive the company forward while we work to identify a permanent CEO.”

He continued: “Rick is a highly-regarded technology executive with a track record in enterprise computing solutions, and decades of experience leading public companies in the semiconductor and systems industries. His years of relevant leadership experience coupled with his familiarity with our organization make him a natural fit for the interim CEO role and will allow him to seamlessly take on the responsibilities.”

Hill said: “I’d like to thank Greg Clark and the full team at Symantec, who have done an outstanding job of building a strategy and solutions that defend enterprises and consumers from the ever increasing cyber threat landscape. Symantec is the only company in the world with a platform built on extensive cyber telemetry and advanced cyber analytics to dynamically defend and inoculate its customers against sophisticated cyber attacks. I look forward to working closely with the board and management team in executing on the market opportunity within cyber security and am proud to lead Symantec during this interim time while we transition to permanent leadership in the company.”

Schulman added: “The board extends its deep appreciation to Greg for his leadership and contributions to our company since becoming CEO. He has led Symantec through a time of great transformation, including the combination with Blue Coat and the acquisition of LifeLock, which redefined the cybersecurity landscape. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Clark, who has served as CEO since Symantec’s acquisition of Blue Coat in 2016, said: “It has been a privilege to lead this great organization and I am proud of all that the team has accomplished in nearly three years. Together, we’ve built a large installed base of customers and brought to market some of the world’s most powerful cyber defense solutions. As Symantec enters its next phase of growth and value creation, it is the right time for the board to identify the next generation of leadership. With Rick as interim president and CEO and a world class team in place, I have no doubt this will be a seamless transition for our customers, partners, employees and shareholders.”

Pilette said: “I join Symantec with a deep background in operations and as an investor in the company. Symantec is known for its R&D strengths, its iconic brands, and the breadth of its portfolio, and I am eager to work with the management team to drive growth across our Enterprise and Consumer segments and deliver value to our customers, partners and shareholders. Having met Rick three years ago, I continue to be impressed by his focus on operational excellence and strong record of execution. I am very pleased to be joining him and the entire team as we work to enhance our financial and operational discipline, and improve our results and margins.“

Hill continued: “Having participated in the CFO search process in my capacity as a board member, I am delighted to welcome Vincent to Symantec. In addition to his financial and operational acumen, he brings a proven track record of driving results throughout his decades-long career as a financial executive in the technology industry, across our Enterprise and Consumer segments. I look forward to working with Vincent and know he will be an excellent partner to me and the management team both during this interim period and for the long term.”

He added: “During the CEO search process and beyond, we will benefit from our deep bench of leaders, including Art Gilliland and Samir Kapuria, to help maintain continuity and leadership across our enterprise and consumer organizations. As Symantec continues to execute our strategy for these pivotal business segments, I can think of no two better leaders than Art and Samir to continue driving results and ensuring we achieve the goal of making our cyber world a safer place.”

Following the changes announced, the size of Symantec’s Board has decreased from 13 to 12 members, 11 of whom are independent.

Richard S. Hill
He has been a member of Symantec’s board since January 2019. He has served as COB of directors of Marvell Technology Group Ltd., a semiconductor company, since May 2016 and as a member of the boards of directors of Arrow Electronics, Inc., an electronic components and enterprise computing solutions company, since 2006, Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, a chemical mechanical planarization supplier, since June 2012, and Xperi, an electronic devices development company, since August 2012 and as its chairman since March 2013. Previously, he served on the boards of directors of several technology companies, including Autodesk, Inc. from March 2016 to June 2018, Yahoo! Inc. from April 2016 to June 2017, Planar Systems, Inc. from June 2013 to December 2015 and LSI Corporation from 2007 to May 2014. He also served as CEO of Novellus Systems, Inc. from December 1993 to June 2012 and held the title of chairman/CEO at Novellus from May 1996 to June 2012. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois in Chicago and a Master of Business Administration from Syracuse University.

Vincent Pilette
He has substantial expertise as a senior financial executive of technology companies. He brings over 20 years of financial management experience in the U.S. and EMEA, most recently as CFO of Logitech International S.A., from September 2013 to May 2019. During his tenure at Logitech, he was responsible for the company’s financial strategies and WW finance organization, managing consolidated revenues of almost $3 billion, tax, treasury, accounting, financial planning and analysis, and communication with an international base of shareholders trading Logitech shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the Nasdaq Global Market. In addition, he was a partner to Logitech’s CEO to shape and direct the implementation of all aspects of the company’s business strategies. Prior to Logitech, he served as CFO of Electronics for Imaging (EFI), a global technology imaging company, and as VP of finance for Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s multi-billion dollar server, storage and networking business. He holds an M.S. in engineering and business from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.