John Zanni President, Acronis

Acronis International GmbH announced the appointment of John Zanni as president.

Gaidar Magdanurov, Acronis VP and GM of consumer and small business, will replace Zanni in the position of CMO.

In this new role, Zanni will lead global marketing, business development, product management, university and government relations, and strategic partnerships, representing the company and reaffirming its leadership position on the global market. He will be based at the Acronis Corporate HQs in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and report to CEO Serguei Beloussov.

In his three years with Acronis, Zanni was instrumental in reshaping partner ecosystem and transforming the company into a global vendor of cloud-based data protection services. The latest product line, which includes complete backup, Acronis Backup 12.5, Acronis True Image 2018, and Acronis Cloud Platform for service providers, has triggered rapid growth, readying the company for partnerships and scale expansion.

Zanni will continue to drive the company growth with the support of Acronis Singapore-based R&D, sales, and market organizations. Together with the company’s CEO, he will oversee the work of Acronis chief strategy and operations officer Mark Shmulevich, managing strategic partnership relations in Acronis’ home country Singapore and globally.

Acronis VP of product management Dmitry Martynov, will also report to Zanni to ensure alignment of all business development efforts.

“I count on John’s expertise and experience to represent Acronis’ capabilities on the global market. With the release of Acronis Backup 12.5 for small business and enterprise, Acronis True Image 2018 for home users and the upcoming Acronis Cloud Platform for service providers, Acronis is best positioned to win new markets and extend the company’s global footprint,” said Beloussov.

Prior to becoming Acronis president, Zanni held the position of CMO, managing brand messaging, worldwide marketing activities, external communications and channels. He also has an international experience working in multicultural multidisciplinary teams and taking frequent speaking engagements at various IT industry forums around the world.

Commenting his new appointment, Zanni said: “I look forward to the new challenge representing Acronis as the second in command. Acronis has the best products in the market that have been validated by world-wide award recognition and third party independent lab tests. Our innovative data protection technology based on Acronis AnyData engine and hybrid cloud architecture makes all other backups obsolete. We already see strong adoption rates from small and large businesses leaving competitors’ in favor of Acronis to protect their entire infrastructure.”

Following Zanni’s promotion, Magdanurov will take the role of a CMO, adding Zanni’s former responsibilities to the existing portfolio of managing consumer online marketing organization. He will report to Zanni and will be responsible for overall Acronis marketing strategy, including all product lines.

Zanni started at Acronis in October 2014 as a SVP of cloud and hosting sales, following two decades of senior role experience with Parallels and Microsoft.

Magdanurov joined Acronis in 2013 as a business manager to CEO, becoming VP and GM for consumer and online business in 2016, and consumer and small business in 2017.