WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.

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Executive Team


Joe Wang, Chief Executive Officer

Joe Wang

Joe Wang, CEO of WatchGuard Technologies, has a proven track record of growing businesses and generating tremendous returns during his 20 years in the high technology marketplace. Prior to joining WatchGuard, Wang was the CEO of LANDesk Software, an Intel spin-off, where he grew the company by 150% in four years. He successfully sold LANDesk Software for over $400m, generating significant returns for shareholders. Prior to LANDesk, Wang was vice president and general manager of Symantec's Enterprise Administration Division, a business unit with $230m in annual sales. Before joining Symantec, Wang was CEO of 20/20 Software. He built the company from conception to a growing and profitable business and ultimately championed its successful acquisition.

Wang has an M.A. in Communication Management from University of Southern California, an M.S. in MIS from People's University of China, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Beijing University.


Eric Aarrestad, Vice President of Marketing

Eric Aarrestad

Eric Aarrestad, Vice President of Marketing, is a senior business executive with over 18 years of marketing and business development experience in the software and services industry. Prior to joining WatchGuard, Aarrestad served as Director of Product Marketing and Worldwide Marketing for Microsoft in the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division. There he led the global product and business segment marketing strategy and execution from early stage start up to a $300M+ P&L business group. While at Microsoft, he led mobile business application, messaging, and security and infrastructure marketing and execution. As Vice President of Marketing at Sightward, Aarrestad was responsible for the launch of the company's predictive analytics and hosted services solutions. Prior to Sightward, he served as Director of Product Marketing for N2H2 and as a management consultant in the strategy practice at Edgar, Dunn & Company in San Francisco, California.

Aarrestad has an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Portland.


Matt Deichman, Vice President of Business Development

Matt Deichman

Matt Deichman became Vice President of Business Development in 2007, after serving as Chief Information Officer at WatchGuard. In this new role, he is responsible for managing OEM and licensing relationships, developing new strategic relationships, and exploring M&A opportunities to support the company’s long-range growth and profitability objectives. Prior to joining WatchGuard, Deichman was General Manager at RealNetworks, where he successfully negotiated with media companies including ABC, BBC, CNN, NFL, MLB, NBA, Disney, and C-Span to monetize their content utilizing the company platform. Deichman also served as Vice President of Technology Solutions for a leading professional services firm where he was responsible for a $60M line of business and several successful acquisitions. During his extensive career in the high tech industry, Deichman has held positions at McCaw Cellular Communications and AT&T Wireless. An accomplished speaker, he has presented lectures at a number of industry trade shows and conferences, including Digital Hollywood and Consumer Electronics Show.

Deichman is a graduate of Washington State University.


Terry Haas, Vice President of International Sales

Terry Haas

Terry Haas, Vice President of International Sales, joined WatchGuard in May 2007. He brings 20 years of experience in the technology industry, predominantly in the areas of networking, software, and security. Most recently, Haas served as the CEO of Solera Networks. Previously he was Vice President of Sales for LANDesk Software where he was responsible for transforming the sales organization into a scalable and efficient "direct touch" team, contributing to LANDesk's acquisition by Avocent. As Vice President at Phobos Corporation (acquired by SonicWALL), he spear-headed product marketing and management of their SSL accelerator product line. He has also served as Vice President Sales at think3 design and Vice President Channel Sales and Marketing at Novell.

Haas holds a B.S. from Western Michigan University and a M.B.A. in Finance from DePaul University.


Shari McLaren, Vice President, Customer Services and Support

Shari McLaren

Shari McLaren became Vice President of Customer Services and Support after serving three years as Director of LiveSecurity Services at WatchGuard. In that position, McLaren was instrumental in increasing revenue growth, standardizing support offerings across all product lines, implementing critical business applications and programs to help the channel maximize services revenue, and ensuring that WatchGuard's support remained a critical differentiator for all WatchGuard products. Prior to joining WatchGuard, she held a variety of positions in the high tech industry, including Director of North America Channel Services for Computer Associates and North American Technical Marketing Specialist for Legent Corporation.

McLaren has a degree in Business Administration from Washington State University.


Bill Smith, Vice President of Sales for the Americas

Bill Smith

Bill Smith, Vice President of Sales for the Americas, brings more than 20 years of sales and executive management experience to WatchGuard. Smith is recognized as an expert on selling methodologies and has taught Question-Based Selling to sales people and organizations throughout the world. During his 10 years with Novell, as vice president of sales for the Americas, and as vice president of worldwide sales for LANDesk, Smith has managed virtually every aspect of sales operations. Smith's role at WatchGuard is to ensure that all revenue, profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction goals of the Americas' sales teams are met.


The WatchGuard approach to security is different than the others ... Using proxy-based technology, all traffic is blocked except for that allowed by the network administrator. This system provides the most security since all traffic is treated as suspect and not allowed to enter the LAN, preventing the propagation of threats.

"Unify Network Protection" product review,
Communications News, Dec. 2008