Robert (Bob) VanKirk

President & Chief Executive Officer

Bob VanKirk serves as SonicWall’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Under Bob’s guidance, the team is driving continued growth across the business by taking an outside-in approach, delivering products and services that are driven by the market, partners and customers. The team is also focused on continuing its efforts on transforming the business and key offerings to the cloud and offering new value add security capabilities via its extensive partner network.

As the SVP and Chief Revenue Officer for SonicWall, Bob and the team overhauled SonicWall’s go-to-market structure and alignment, increasing sales effectiveness and sales efficiency by focusing on better alignment and support of SonicWall’s partners and customers. Implementing KPIs and new sales processes across the business, the team moved from overlapping quotas and territories to unique, targeted partner and customer accounts, clear responsibility and greater accountability. The global sales team delivered strong quarterly and annual growth.

Bob also held the roles of SVP of Strategic Sales and Chief Marketing Officer at SonicWall, where he led the corporate, product management, product marketing and field marketing teams. The teams successfully launched new product releases, market leading threat reports, and record-setting global marketing programs.

Prior to joining SonicWall, Bob was Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing with Silent Circle, the leader in enterprise privacy. Key accomplishments included establishing updated sales processes, increasing customer retention and implementing Silent Circle’s go-to-market strategy to customers and via channel partners.

Bob also served as SVP of Americas Sales and Service at Entrust for 14 years where he led regional sales and service across the Americas, ran global marketing, implemented Entrust’s Customer Value Analysis initiative and established the inside sales and SSL teams. The team consistently delivered year-over-year growth, surpassing two times the market growth rate, adding a record number of net new Fortune 1,000 customers with world class renewal rates across the installed base.
Bob received a B.A. from Davidson College and master’s degrees from North Carolina State University.

Robert (Bob) VanKirk

President & Chief Executive Officer

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