Above Security accelerates its growth opportunities by expanding its team
significantly
MONTREAL, Aug. 5 /CNW Telbec/ - Above Security, acquired in May of 2010 by Phil Terriaca and Ray Chehata, is pleased to announce six exciting new additions to its Board of Directors and executive team in order to support its expansion plans into the fast growing market of managed network security services.
"We bought this company with the intention to invest heavily into R&D and enhancing Above Security's customer services", says Phil Terriaca, Chairman of the Board of Above Security.
"I am thrilled that so many successful entrepreneurs have accepted my invitation and have chosen to commit themselves to the success of Above Security," says Ray Chehata, President and CEO of Above Security. "We encourage everyone who thinks they can contribute to Above Security's future success to send us their resume. It is our policy to always make room for the best and most passionate staff in the industry to join our team."
Newly promoted to Executive Vice-President Corporate Affairs, Daniel Gaudreau says "I am looking forward to the new challenges and the opportunity to lead a team of esteemed professionals in order to take Above Security to another level".
"My mandate is to add to our team significant expertise in business and technology development that will help transform Above Security's solutions into a complete portfolio of security services, while leveraging our world class ArkAngel platform," says Mario Venditti, newly appointed Vice-President of Services & Technology. Two new experts have already joined the operations team at Above Security. Stephane Morin, Developer, will contribute to the development of version 5.0 of ARKANGEL while Assan Oumsalem is an important addition to the consulting team.
Biography of new Board of Directors and executive team members --------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Pesner is a new member of the Board at Above Security. Mr. Pesner is also a member on the Board of Directors of four public companies, Bitumen Capital Inc., Mint Technology Corp., Quest Rare Minerals Ltd., and Sand Technology inc., an active board member of several private companies, as well as President of Hermitage Canada Finance Inc. which specializes in financial advisory services, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, financing and restructuring. Mr. Pesner was previously a Partner in the Financial Advisory Services division of KPMG Montreal from 1977 to 2003. Mr. Pesner is a Chartered Accountant, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce, Finance and Administration from McGill University, Montreal. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University in Montreal.
Brendan Dunn is the second new member of the board of directors at Above Security. Mr. Dunn is the co-founder of Holdun Asset Management, a multi-client family office dedicated to providing discretionary asset management services to individuals, families, private corporations, foundations, endowments and a select number of institutions. Before founding Holdun Asset Management, Mr. Dunn worked in Nassau, Bahamas under Jeff Everett, the president of Franklin Templeton Mutual Funds, in the research department. Mr. Dunn holds a Bachelor of Administrative and Commercial Studies, with a focus on finance, from the University of Western Ontario. He is also a Chartered Portfolio Manager (CPM), a Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM), and a Certified Private Equity Specialist (CPES).
Hubert R. Marleau, another new member of the board of directors at Above Security, is the Chairman, co-founder and Director of Palos Capital Corporation. With over 30 years of experience in the business and financial community, Mr. Marleau has raised funds privately and publicly for hundreds of emerging and mature companies, structured many mergers and acquisitions as well as designed and created numerous financial deals in Canada. Mr. Marleau has worked at the senior executive level of several large investment banks, notably Nesbitt Thomson Inc., Levesque Beaubien Inc. and Marleau, Lemire Inc. During his career, Mr. Marleau was a Governor of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Montreal Stock Exchange, and the Vancouver Stock Exchange, a Director of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, and board member for a multitude of publicly traded companies. Mr. Marleau graduated from the University of Ottawa with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Economics.
Matthew Mather, Vice-President, Technology and Business Development, Europe, is a successful serial entrepreneur and technology business development expert with a wide range of industry experience spanning the cloud computing, online, and intellectual property licensing worlds. He was the founder of Immersion Canada, a technology company he sold for $10M, as well as one of the original founders of eFundraising.com which was sold for $27M. M. Mather will be handling the development of new channel partners and the expansion of the Above Security brand within Europe. Mr. Mather holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from McGill University.
Mario Ramirez, Vice-President, Business Development, Latin America, brings a wealth of sales and marketing experience to Above Security. For over 20 years, he has held many positions in diverse fields. With his entrepreneurial spirit, he began his career at a young age by building C.C.H. from the ground up, thus achieving great success in the field of advertising telesales. He also introduced the first pre-paid Visa program in Canada in 2007 as associate vice-president at Atlas Card Corp LLC. Before joining Above Security, he made the Presidents Club at Canpages as Multi Media Sales Consultant and ranked top five out of 250 Sales Consultants in Canada.
Ahmed El-Gillani, Vice-President, Technology and Business Development, Middle East North Africa, is an entrepreneur and a specialist in technology's risk and operations management. He has extensive experience in Software as a Service and Real-Time engineering spanning finance and logistics industries. Ahmed co-founded ViaSafe Inc., a technology company, which he sold for $11M. He will be handling the development of new channel partners and the expansion of the Above Security brand within the Middle East. Ahmed has Bachelor of Engineering from Carleton University and an MBA from McGill University.
Mario Venditti, Vice-President, Services & Technology, has over 10 years of experience in the areas of operational and competitive strategy, technology R&D and marketing. He has been a consultant in the areas of operational strategy and asset management, helping to execute on the M&A plans for clients. He has spent the last three years working on the development, management and implementation of a supply chain services delivered through a cloud computing platform. Mario Venditti has a Master of Science, a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA from McGill University.
About Above Security
Since 1999 Above Security, described by IDC as "the only pure-play MSS provider to be considered as a potential market leader", has been providing peace of mind to hundreds of customers in over 22 countries through its markets-leading solutions in managed security services.
Above Security's strategic consulting capabilities and unique 24/7 managed security services allow its customers to concentrate on their core businesses, safe in the knowledge that they can count on Above Security for their informational asset security needs.
For further information: Ms Marisol Litalien, Marketing and Communications Manager, 450-434-8060, 1-866-430-8166 x 8060, [email protected], www.abovesecurity.com
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