Boss splits as Symantec UK consciously uncouples

The expected jostling for senior positions at Symantec continues ahead of the divorce between the security and storage wings, with UK boss Simon Moor exiting the business.

The conscious uncoupling scheduled to occur by the end of this year – which will effectively undo the 2004 acquisition of Veritas – will leave two independent publicly traded organs: Security and Information Management (IM).

In a note to channel partners seen by El Chan, Symantec confirmed the exec churn had already started with Huw Owen, head of EMEA operations, who is set to move to regional sales veep for IM from April 2015.

“Huw will also be interim regional vice president of sales for the UK and Ireland up until the April transition as Simon Moor has decided to leave Symantec,” the memo revealed.

Moor joined Symantec via the Veritas acquisition and ran global accounts until 2006, when he became director of specialist sales in EMEA. He was made veep for the UK and Ireland in January 2013.

The opposite number to Owen on the Security side of the house has yet to be confirmed, Symantec stated.

In specific channel developments, Mark Nutt, veep for EMEA partner management at Symantec, is confirmed as the global lead for channel for the IM wing.

Nutt is a channel man through and through, having worked with Morse for years until it was acquired by 2e2... the rest of history.

Symantec decided last October to carve the business in two: the $4.2bn security business will retain the Symantec brand and be led by Michel Brown as CEO and president.

The $2.5bn IM operation has yet to be renamed and includes John Gannon as general manager, not CEO.

In the most recent set of numbers for the second fiscal quarter ended September 2014, revenues dipped to $1.62bn from $1.64bn a year earlier, and from $1.74bn in the prior quarter. Net profit was up one per cent to $244m. ®