Leadership
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On November 30, 2009, IBM announced it had acquired Guardium, a market leader in safeguarding databases and protecting critical enterprise information.  The acquisition of Guardium will enable IBM clients to maintain trusted information infrastructures by continuously monitoring access and changes to high-value databases.  The combination of IBM and Guardium’s cross-platform technology will help organizations safely realize the promise of business analytics and use trusted information to drive smarter business outcomes. Read the press release.

Guardium’s experienced management team brings decades of business, technical, and project management expertise to the development, deployment, and support of market-leading products.

Ram Metser – CEO
Ron Ben Natan – CTO
David Valovcin – VP, International Sales
Paul Resten– VP, North American Sales
Boaz Barkai – Head of Customer Services & Support
Phil Neray – VP, Security Strategy & Marketing
Mike Castricone – VP, Finance and Administration
Upesh Patel – VP, Business Development
Martin Pejko - VP, Global Channels
Roy Barr – Director, Business Development

Biographies

Ram Metser – CEO
Ram Metser has extensive entrepreneurial and executive management experience, having worked in a broad range of technology-based organizations.

Prior to joining Guardium, Ram served as vice president of Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and general manager of Nokia Intelligent Applications. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Telekol Corporation.  Under Ram’s leadership, Telekol grew to become a leading supplier of intelligent communications software and systems for the enterprise, and was acquired by Nokia. Previously, Ram fulfilled various executive advisory roles with technology start-ups.

Ram holds a bachelor’s degree in management and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts.

Ron Ben Natan, Ph.D. – CTO
Dr. Ron Ben Natan commands more than 20 years of experience developing enterprise applications and security technology for blue-chip companies. 

Prior to Guardium, he worked for Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Intel and AT&T Bell Laboratories.  Ron has also served as a consultant in data security and distributed systems for Phillip Morris, Miller Beer, HSBC, HP, Applied Materials and the Swiss Armed Forces.

An IBM GOLD consultant with a Ph.D. in computer science, Ron is an expert on distributed application environments, application security, and database security, and has authored 12 technical books including HOWTO Secure and Audit Oracle 10g and 11g (CRC Press, 2009) and Implementing Database Security and Auditing (Elsevier Digital Press, 2005), the standard texts in the field.

David Valovcin – VP, International Sales
David Valovcin brings more than 20 years of direct, channel, and international sales and management experience to Guardium.

David previously served as vice president of worldwide sales for several Boston-area startups.  He drove exponential sales growth for Courion Corporation and helped Pegasystems Inc. go public using his business development and sales management skills as vice president of sales for the Americas.  Prior, David held sales management and international operations positions for companies in the security software and IT infrastructure markets.  A frequent speaker at industry events, David has also managed the design and implementation of best-of-breed solutions for leading global organizations.

David received a B.S. in business administration from American International College, with study abroad at the Université de Fribourg, Switzerland.

Paul Resten – VP, North American Sales
With more than 25 years of sales management experience, Paul Resten has built strong technology sales organizations that have sold into a variety of vertical markets.  His extensive sales, marketing, and entrepreneurial expertise has helped him maintain a successful track record of managing both direct and channel organizations.

Prior to joining Guardium, Paul worked for Courion Corporation, where he assumed the management of their North American sales force in 2000. Previously, Paul spent more than 22 years at Motorola, Inc. in a variety of sales leadership roles, including director of business development.

Paul is a graduate of Bryant University and holds a B.S. in business.

Boaz Barkai – Head of Customer Services & Support
Boaz Barkai brings more than 17 years of experience and has a proven track record of managing services organizations and delivering enterprise-class services to organizations worldwide.

He leads Guardium’s Customer Services & Support organization, which is responsible for providing professional services, technical support and training to Guardium customers and partners worldwide.  At Guardium, he started the Professional Services team and most recently served as Director of Professional Services.

During his career, Boaz has successfully implemented complex, multi-year, large-scale deployments for enterprise organizations such as Verizon, Bell Atlantic and Southwestern Bell.  Prior to Guardium, he held a range of technical and managerial positions at Amdocs.  Boaz holds a B.S. degree in computer science.

Phil Neray – VP, Security Strategy & Marketing
Phil Neray brings more than 20 years of experience in successfully introducing advanced technology to mainstream users and organizations.  Phil was previously senior director of worldwide strategic marketing for Symantec’s Application and Infrastructure Management business unit.  He joined Symantec in 2004 as a result of its acquisition of ON Technology, a developer of enterprise security and configuration management solutions.  During his tenure as vice president of marketing at ON Technology, Phil played a critical role in growing the company’s revenue by more than 700%.

Phil has held senior marketing roles at Alias Research, a 3D special effects software company for film, video games, and the Web, and Alliant Computer Systems, a manufacturer of network-based, parallel UNIX supercomputers.  He also served as a product manager for UNIX-based graphics workstations and embedded computing systems at Digital Equipment Corp.  Phil started his career as a field operations engineer with Schlumberger Ltd., working on remote oil rigs in South America.

Phil holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (Honors) from McGill University, where he graduated with distinction.

Mike Castricone – VP, Finance and Administration
Mike Castricone possesses more than 14 years of financial and administrative experience.
Prior to joining Guardium, Mike served as a controller for Nokia Networks.  He also served as a controller for Telekol Corporation, where he managed financial operations, IT, and human resource functions.

Mike holds a B.S. in interdisciplinary mathematics from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree in accountancy from Bentley College. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Upesh Patel – VP, Business Development
Upesh Patel commands 20 years of technology experience, including more than a decade spent on security and compliance.  He is responsible for managing and expanding relationships with Guardium’s technology partners to provide customers with the most advanced and interoperable solution.

Prior to joining Guardium, Upesh was vice president of product partnerships for Network Intelligence (now part of RSA, The Security Division of EMC), a leading security information and event management (SIEM) company.  There he drove partnership and technology integration activities with top security and infrastructure companies including Cisco, Microsoft, Check Point Software, RSA, and Juniper Networks. Previously, Upesh managed business development for Check Point Software, where he spearheaded the award-winning OPSEC (Open Platform for Security) Alliance Initiative.  He has also worked at the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) managing key strategic partnerships and the company’s ISV developer program.

Upesh received a B.S. with honors in computer science from the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK.

Martin Pejko - VP, Global Channels
Martin W. Pejko has acquired more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry.  Prior to joining Guardium, Martin served as vice president of global channel sales at Network Intelligence (acquired by EMC in 2006).  He has held senior business development and legal counsel positions with companies such as Cisco Systems, Quantum Bridge Communications (acquired by Motorola), and GeoTel communications (acquired by Cisco).  Martin is also a former consultant for Lotus Development and BBN Corporation.

Martin holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colby College and a law degree from Northeastern University.

Roy Barr – Director, Business Development
Roy Barr has extensive experience in sales and business development, with a proven record of building sales, channels, customer management, and OEM relations.
Prior to joining Guardium, Roy served as director of business development at Nokia Intelligent Applications.  He was also a cofounder and the director of business development of Telekol Corporation.  At Telekol, Roy was responsible for creating sales and developing channels, territories, and OEM relations.

Roy holds a B.A. in political science from Bar-Ilan University and an M.A. in international political economy from the London School of Economics.