Fortinet Adds Veteran Sales Vice Presidents in Financial Services, Healthcare, Cloud, and Federal Government Sectors to Strengthen and Expand Customer and Partner Relationships
SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 4, 2015 – Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in high-performance cyber security solutions, today announced the strengthening of its commitment to key vertical markets with the addition of four new sales leaders who will oversee the company’s go-to-market strategy in the financial services, healthcare, cloud and federal government sectors. The company welcomes industry-veterans Araldo Menegon, Ryan Witt, Chad Whalen and Jim Jasinski to its sales leadership team, to drive Fortinet’s continued growth in these important markets and further solidify its position as an innovative leader for customers who demand the very best in cyber security.
The addition of these four sales vice presidents to the Fortinet team demonstrates the company’s commitment to providing best-in-class cyber security solutions that address the increasingly complex and unique demands in these critical vertical industries. In addition, the investment helps pave the way for Fortinet partners to expand their offerings within these highly specialized and profitable markets with confidence.
“We are excited to add the extensive expertise and outstanding leadership capabilities of these four new executives to the Fortinet team,” said Peter Brant, senior vice president, sales and support for Fortinet. “Their experience and dedication is already at work, moving us forward into these key global enterprise vertical markets where our solutions have become even more critical to securing our customers’ assets and the assets of their customers.”
Fortinet Vertical Sales Leadership
Araldo Menegon, global managing director, Financial Services; Ryan Witt, vice president and managing director, Healthcare Industry Practice; Chad Whalen, vice president of Cloud Services; and Jim Jasinksi, vice president, Federal Business Development, Supply Chain are each tasked with strategy, solutions and sales in their respective verticals, with a focus on building and expanding relations with key customers and partners. All are accomplished veterans in their fields and bring a wealth of experience to Fortinet.
Araldo Menegon: Global Managing Director, Financial Services
Prior to Fortinet, Menegon was Global Managing Director for Juniper Networks, where he built and led the company’s financial services practice. Previously, as vice president of sales for the IBM Global Alliance, he oversaw major growth in revenue, relevance and scale. Menegon also held executive leadership roles at both Nortel and Sycamore Networks, and spent five years at Cisco, where his last role was leading the ATT business. Araldo brings to Fortinet, a proven track record in building global, enterprise and service provider businesses
Chad Whalen: Vice President of Cloud Services
Before joining Fortinet, he was Chief Customer Officer for Jasper technologies where he established a new go-to-market strategy that leveraged a push-pull direct/indirect model to accelerate customer adoption. Whalen also held a number of positions at network solutions firm Ciena, including General Manager, Vice President North America Field Operations and Vice President of Sales, with responsibilities for all sales activities in the U.S. and APAC markets.
Ryan Witt: Vice President and Managing Director, Healthcare Industry Practice
Prior to Fortinet, Witt founded and led Juniper Network’s Healthcare Industry Practice and was the chair of Juniper’s Healthcare Advisory Board. Having working within Health IT for almost 20 years, he also held leadership positions at Hitachi Data Systems, BridgeHead Software and ClearDATA. A testament to his keen interest in technology’s transformative role in healthcare, Witt is a regular speaker, panelist, moderator, and blogger on the importance of Health IT. He is also active in the Workgroup of Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a policy body that advises the Department of Health and Human Services.
Jim Jasinski: Vice President, Federal Business Development, Supply Chain
Jasinski’s early career included several years as an attorney in New York State, preceding 23 years as a Special Agent for the FBI, where he conducted criminal and intelligence field investigations, litigation support, and oversaw automation of the FBI’s fingerprint system, a $1 billion Presidential Priority Program. After FBI retirement in 2000, Jaskinski held leadership positions at DynCorp, Cogent Systems, and Digital Signal Corporation.
