Acronis appoints general manager to spearhead growth across Northern Europe

SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, 24 September 2009 - Acronis has appointed David Blackman to propel growth and lead channel relations across its operations in Northern Europe.

With over 20 years' experience in leading IT companies in both EMEA and Asia-Pacific, Blackman joins Acronis from VMware where he served as Director of the Partner Organisation for ANZ. Responsible for overseeing relationships with channel partners, he was part of the team which delivered the fastest growing economy for VMWare globally, with consecutive growth every quarter.

Prior to this, he was the Channel Sales Director, Pacific, for Symantec, driving its relationships in the region with channel partners, resellers, VARs and global security partners. Blackman has also held various roles at PentaSafe Security Technologies in the UK, Novell (covering EMEA) and Compaq Computer Australia.

"David comes with a track record at multi-national IT companies and has proven himself to be a high performing and ambitious leader," said Laurent Dedenis, Executive Vice President of Acronis, EMEA. "His global experience and background in company development will prove invaluable to our team, customers and channel partners alike. In addition, his experience at VMware is particularly relevant to our solutions which provide backup, recovery and migration across both physical and virtual environments."

"I welcome the opportunity to join the company at a time when it has just launched new portfolios of backup and recovery software solutions to cater for consumer and corporate customers alike. These launches will be the catalyst to help us drive significant growth and gain market share," comments Blackman. "While growth is a key priority, this can only be done through nurturing channel relationships, ensuring customer and staff satisfaction, and improving operational excellence."

Kevin Moreau, formerly the General Manager for UK & Ireland, has been appointed as Corporate Accounts Director for Northern Europe. Moreau joined the company in 2006 and previously managed business development for Acronis in Asia. Having set up the Acronis UK office in 2006, he has expanded the UK operations to a team of 15. He is now responsible for managing large and cross regional customers across Northern Europe, and supporting partners in identifying and nurturing larger size projects.