Mike Brown Stepping Down as President and CEO of Symantec

Symantec Corp. announced that Michael A. Brown will be stepping down as president and CEO.

He will continue to serve as CEO and as a director of the company until a successor has been appointed.

The board of directors has begun the search for the company’s next CEO.

To facilitate a continued focus on the company’s strategic priorities throughout the CEO search and transition, the board has created an office of the president composed of Ajei S. Gopal, who is joining the company as interim president and COO, Thomas J. Seifert, EVP and CFO, and Scott C. Taylor, EVP, general counsel and secretary. This office of the president is expected to remain in place until a new CEO has joined the company.

On behalf of Symantec’s board, chairman Daniel H. Schulman said: “We thank Mike for guiding Symantec through a critical period of transition as president and CEO. Under his leadership, Symantec has successfully executed against the five priorities of its transformation, including divesting Veritas, developing a new product roadmap in enterprise security, improving our cost structure, strengthening our executive team, and continuing to return significant cash to shareholders. Given our solid financial foundation and clear path forward as the leader in cybersecurity, this is the right time to transition leadership for Symantec’s next chapter of growth. We appreciate Mike’s continued support as the board conducts a thoughtful and comprehensive search for Symantec’s next CEO.”

He added: “The formation of the office of the president will allow Symantec’s management team to focus on product development and operational excellence while the CEO search is underway. In addition, the team will continue implementing strategic cost-efficiency measures to deliver on our goal of reducing costs by $400 million over the next two years. The Board and management team are committed to driving Symantec’s cybersecurity strategy forward and creating meaningful value for shareholders.”

Brown said: “I am extremely proud of what our team has accomplished. I look forward to supporting this transition as we continue executing on our unified security strategy, building our enterprise security sales pipeline, improving our cost structure and efficiently allocating capital.“

Gopal said: “I am excited to rejoin Symantec and look forward to bringing my technology and business experience to bear in helping Symantec improve its operations. I am especially looking forward to helping drive forward Symantec’s unified security strategy and product portfolio by leveraging my enterprise background.”

The board has formed a search committee to oversee the CEO selection process with the assistance of a leading executive search firm to assist with identifying and evaluating candidates. This committee is composed of three independent directors, Ken Hao, David L. Mahoney and Suzanne M. Vautrinot, with Mahoney serving as chair.