John McCormack, who led Symantec's successful anti-virus line, is taking the reins of development and engineering at Internet security software provider Websense.

McCormack, who takes the title of senior vice president of product development, will lead the vendor's growing technical engineering team in "developing relevant and innovative security solutions that meet business demands and return notable value to the customer and profits to the VAR," Websense officials said in a statement released July 19.

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McCormack most recently was responsible for the engineering of Symantec's anti-virus product line, as well as the acquired Sygate security and network access control products. He previously led Sygate's engineering, strategy and product management efforts before the company was acquired by Symantec in 2005. McCormack also did tours with Cisco and Hewlett-Packard.

He was named, in June, senior vice president of technology at Applied Identity, a developer of identity-driven authorization measures to control access to internal networks, but never took the position.

Websense is making plans to become a channel-centric company to compete with McAfee and Symantec.Click here to read more.

McCormack's hire is the most recent in a series of high-profile personnel acquisitions by Websense this year from chief rivals Symantec and McAfee. Other hires include: Ramon Peypoch, vice president of business development, in June, from Symantec, where he led strategic efforts and created industry alliances for Sygate; David Roberts, vice president of sales and channel, North America, in May, from McAfee, where he was vice president of North American Channel Sales; and Gene Hodges, president and CEO, in January, from McAfee, where he was president.

"We are making strategic investments to make this happen," Hodges said, "including enhancing our team with security leaders and delivering more value to partners through training, marketing and other channel-specific programs."