- Bill Conner to take strategic role as Executive Chairman
- CRO Bob VanKirk promoted as new President and CEO to help drive organic, inorganic growth
- Next phase focused on MSP/MSSP enablement, leaning into enterprise and accelerating cloud transformation
SonicWall today announced a change in its executive leadership as President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Conner takes on the role of Executive Chairman of the SonicWall Board. Former Chief Revenue Officer Bob VanKirk has been promoted to President and CEO to lead next growth phase.
“Since divesting from Dell in 2016, we relaunched the SonicWall brand, rebuilt the partner ecosystem, added key virtual and cloud capabilities, released our market-leading RTDMI technology, and successfully delivered our full suite of Gen 7 product and management solutions,” said Conner. “These efforts have paid off, with SonicWall experiencing unprecedented sales growth and profitability, including more than eight consecutive quarters of double-digit top-line and bottom-line growth. I couldn’t be more proud of Bob for being ready for this new role and for the entire team for what we have all accomplished.”
Brian Decker, Deal Partner with SonicWall private equity owner Francisco Partners, noted, “SonicWall has been extremely fortunate to have Bill’s leadership for nearly six years as we navigated the challenges and opportunities of our divestiture from Dell and Quest, and the reestablishment of SonicWall’s brand and business. Bill’s passion for delivering high-quality and world-class cybersecurity solutions that are accessible to organizations of all sizes has helped lead SonicWall to incredible levels of growth and has ensured that we are positioned to move our business to the next level.”
“Bill has built a strong team that will help us continue the momentum he created during his time as CEO,” said Evan Daar, Deal Partner with Francisco Partners. “We feel confident that Bob will effectively lead SonicWall in the next chapter of its growth, extending its momentum as it builds on the successes that SonicWall has achieved to further accelerate its business. Bob will also benefit from Bill’s continued guidance as he assumes the role of Executive Chair.”
The SonicWall sales team, aligned with SonicWall’s global channel partners, delivered a record fiscal year in 2021 while also delivering a strong start to the current fiscal year.
“Thanks to our strong base of trusted partners, our loyal customers, Bill and the extended SonicWall team, we are in an ideal position to continue our momentum. I believe the strong growth we have experienced will only accelerate as we focus on maintaining our SMB leadership, continue our enterprise expansion and deliver key cloud growth by providing value-added services like MDR, XDR, SD-WAN and SASE to SonicWall’s MSP and MSSP partners,” said VanKirk.
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