Versa Networks Names Rob Mustarde New SVP Worldwide Sales
Accomplished Sales Leader Brings 25+ Years of Experience Scaling Fast-Growing Technology Organizations
San Jose, Calif., January 16, 2018
Versa Networks, a leading provider of next-generation software-based networking and security solutions, today announced the appointment of Rob Mustarde as senior vice president, worldwide sales. Mustarde brings more than 25 years of business and technology experience leading and growing global teams of sales professionals. He joined Enterprise and Service Provider Wi-Fi pioneer, Ruckus Wireless, pre-revenue in 2005. As head of worldwide sales, he grew the organization to hundreds of millions in revenue, built an enterprise channel of thousands of partners along the way, and established Ruckus as the number one Wi-Fi provider in the hospitality industry before its eventual IPO on the NYSE.
“Versa’s Cloud IP Platform has taken the service provider and enterprise markets by storm,” said Kelly Ahuja, CEO of Versa Networks. “Rob’s years of experience growing and leading enterprise leaning sales organizations is the ammunition we’ve been looking for to further accelerate our sales efforts.”
Prior to leading global sales at Ruckus Wireless, Mustarde held start-up executive sales leadership positions across EMEA for a variety of start-ups including web server load-balancer pioneer Alteon WebSystems (IPO then acquired by Nortel), early WAN Optimization leader Peribit Networks (acquired by Juniper) and WAN Acceleration specialist Riverbed Technology (IPO then acquired by Thoma Bravo). In each instance Mustarde was responsible for opening channel and sales activities in the region. The combined IPO and acquisition values for these 4 organizations exceeds $13B. Mustarde holds a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering degree from the University of Bristol (United Kingdom).
“Versa Networks is in the sweet spot for organizations looking to accelerate their digital transformation,” said Mustarde. “I love how the technology provides the best of both worlds for enterprises, a ‘do-it-yourself’ and managed through service providers for enterprises to enable WAN modernization. Versa is the leader of the pack when it comes to software-defined networking and security bringing to market SD-WAN, SD-Security and SD-Branch. I look forward to addressing the primary operational and business challenges that enterprises and service providers face with legacy WANs and traditional networking hardware.”
About Versa Networks
Versa Networks, the leader in SASE, combines extensive security, advanced networking, industry leading SD-WAN, genuine multitenancy, and sophisticated analytics via the cloud, on-premises, or as a blended combination of both to meet SASE requirements for small to extremely large enterprises and Service Providers, and via the simplified Versa Titan cloud service designed for Lean IT. Thousands of customers globally with hundreds of thousands of sites trust Versa with their networks, security, and clouds. Versa Networks is privately held and funded by Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Artis Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Princeville Capital, RPS Ventures and Triangle Peak Partners. For more information, visit https://www.versa-networks.com or follow Versa Networks on Twitter @versanetworks.
