Webroot Bolsters Marketing and Support Leadership

Webroot channel partners should expect a boost in both front-end marketing and back-end service and support for their clients this year after the Boulder, Colo.-based security player added two new executive leadership positions designed to head up these efforts.

Webroot announced yesterday that it appointed Chris Benham as chief marketing officer and Kenton Sieckman as vice president of worldwide service and support to kick off its efforts in 2010 to solidify its position in the security market.

Known best as the man behind Symantec’s yellow corporate identity, Benham built his reputation most during his decade-long tenure in marketing leadership within the security and storage juggernaut. During the full span of his 20-year technology marketing career, he’s headed up marketing campaigns and brand management at Entercept, Wyse Technologies, Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers.

Meanwhile, Sieckman previously served at Computer Associates, where he moved when CA picked up Wily Technologies, for whom he built a worldwide technical services organization that provided 24-hour support in over 20 companies. Sieckman also managed field marketing and sales operations for Oracle and for the systems engineering organization at BEA Systems before it was bought out by Oracle.

"Chris and Kenton both bring to Webroot a level of expertise that will benefit us tremendously as we build a truly world-class organization," said Dick Williams, president and CEO of Webroot, in a statement. "Together, Chris and Kenton have a proven track record for building corporate brands and ensuring companies deliver on their brand promise to customers."

This latest move by Webroot shows that the company isn’t slowing down after spending much of 2009 retooling its leadership roster and its business model to better compete in the enterprise security market, particularly through the channel. Early last year the company brought on Williams to head up its executive team and September 2009 marked the arrival of Jerry Jalaba to re-engage partners as the new channel chief. A seasoned channel-builder, Jalaba hailed from Google, where he’d been brought on after building up Postini as one of the early leaders in SaaS security. This SaaS experience was likely one of the things that likely caught Webroot’s eye about him; last year the company launched a hybrid SaaS product set that it would like the channel to embrace in 2010.