Jim McNiel president and CEO, FalconStor …

FalconStor Software, Inc. has named James P. McNiel as president and CEO and has elected McNiel to the board of directors.

 In his new capacity, McNiel is charged with bringing the company into focus on a single, integrated strategy for defining and delivering the next-generation of data protection solutions. In his previous roles as FalconStor’s chief strategy officer and most recently as interim president and interim CEO, McNiel designed the corporate strategy that now drives product development, worldwide marketing initiatives and strategic alliances that will enhance FalconStor’s market leadership and brand recognition.

"This is an auspicious time for FalconStor, with its depth of technical expertise and strong industry partnerships, to lead the way towards addressing IT’s most pressing business continuity challenges," said McNiel. "Traditional methods of backup and recovery are broken, and we have the opportunity to redefine data protection to match the way IT delivers mission-critical services to its users. We are designing the industry’s first service-oriented data protection solution for private data centers and the cloud, and it is upon this foundation that we intend to build FalconStor’s future."

Previously an executive vice president of corporate development at Cheyenne Software, McNiel joined FalconStor in 2009 as chief strategy officer. In addition to his role in building Cheyenne into a billion dollar industry leader, McNiel, as a general partner at Pequot Ventures (now FirstMark Capital), led successful investments in Netegrity, NetGear and OutlookSoft. McNiel brings to FalconStor his broad experience in directing venture capital investments, advising promising startups, designing products that address emerging markets, and orchestrating IPOs in the high-tech industry.

"We invited Jim to join FalconStor’s executive team for his demonstrated ability to recognize market opportunities, articulate a vision and lead teams of highly qualified individuals in the pursuit of building successful businesses," said Eli Oxenhorn, non-executive chairman of FalconStor’s board of directors. "The entire board is behind Jim’s appointment to president and CEO, and we expect to see FalconStor achieve its full potential under his leadership."

As part of McNiel’s companywide initiative for excellence in every functional area, McNiel has recruited former Symantec sales executive John Turner to join FalconStor as vice president of North American sales (see related announcement).

In addition, McNiel has promoted Walter Curti, who oversaw research and development for the last two years, to the position of chief technology officer and has named Bob Daly, formerly vice president of managed services, as vice president of R&D. Curti has more than 25 years of engineering and management experience in the software industry and before FalconStor held senior executive roles at Cheyenne Software and CA Technologies. Bob Daly is a 30-year veteran of the software industry who joined FalconStor in early 2010 and was vice president of engineering at Cheyenne Software before its acquisition by CA Technologies.

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Jim McNiel Chief Strategy Officer at FalconStor
He was executive VP of corporate development at Cheyenne.