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Company: Secure Computing Corporation
Company Description: Secure Computing (Nasdaq: SCUR) has been protecting the most important networks in the world for over 20 years. With broad expertise in security technology, we develop network security products that help our customers create a trusted environment both inside and outside of their organizations. For more information, see http://www.securecomputing.com.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Product Development or Engineering Executive
Nomination Title: Mike Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Product Development
Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Mike Gallagher, senior vice president of product development at Secure Computing Corporation (Nasdaq: SCUR), the experts in protecting the most important
networks in the world, should be considered ‘Best Product Development
Executive’ for his exceptional leadership of Secure Computing’s Network Security
Division. During the past year, Mr. Gallagher successfully lead the continued
evolution of Secure’s world class Sidewinder® G2 Firewall™ and SmartFilter®
Web filtering products that are meeting the needs of today’s marketplace and
culminating in his promotion to senior vice president of product development on
August 1, 2003. Mr. Gallagher was a key player in ensuring the company
successfully digested the acquisition of the Gauntlet firewall & VPN business from
Network Associates, Inc. and in building its next generation firewall. The number
of customers migrating to Sidewinder G2 from Sidewinder and Gauntlet, the
significant increase in first time Sidewinder G2 customers, and Secure
Computing's revenue growth, clearly demonstrates the success of the acquisition.
Immediately after the completion of the Gauntlet acquisition, Mr. Gallagher
directed the successful combining of two independent firewall teams and facilitated
the development of an aggressive next generation technology roadmap to merge
the best of Gauntlet and Sidewinder in addition to other product enhancements.
Many industry experts were skeptical of Secure’s ability to merge two disparate
firewall lines with different operating systems and customer bases. However, with
Mr. Gallagher’s guidance, the roadmap was fulfilled as promised and on time in
January of 2003. Here are the highlights that immediately followed Sidewinder
G2’s availability.
· March 2003 - Less than 2 months after the product shipped, the
Sidewinder G2 Firewall received the prestigious Editor’s Choice Award from
Network Computing after an exhaustive comparison review for being ‘tops at
combining protection and performance’.
· April 2003 issue – Information Security Magazine praises Sidewinder
G2, stating ‘An impressive security appliance, the Sidewinder G2 Firewall is easy
to configure and provides powerful mechanisms to build secure, distributive,
deployable policy rules. Secure Computing did a fine job merging these two
firewalls to make an even better solution.’
· April 2003 – Sidewinder G2 won the 2003 Well-Connected Award for
best Application Firewall from Network Computing. Secure’s SafeWord®
PremierAccess™ won the Authentication Systems category, making Secure
Computing the only vendor to win two awards.
· April 2003 - Sidewinder G2, including its OS, achieved the most in-
depth Common Criteria EAL4+ certification ever awarded (still is) against a DoD
protection profile and the highest number of security requirements for any
application-level firewall.
· May 2003 – In a standalone report on Sidewinder G2, Gartner
states “Neither Gauntlet nor Sidewinder - as single products - was able to achieve
the status of market leader. However, combined in the form of the Sidewinder G2
firewall, the two products have the potential to grow as a serious competitor within
the coming months, especially since the technology is available as either
appliance or software.”
· June 2003 – In their latest Firewall Magic Quadrant, Gartner
states “The combined product, Sidewinder G2, represents the freshest and most-
advanced software proxy firewall, with central managements and easy of
deployment.”
· July 2003 – Sidewinder G2 attained ICSA Labs' most current and
robust IPSec certification.
· No version of Sidewinder or Sidewinder G2 has ever had a CERT
Advisory.
Mr. Gallagher has also provided outstanding leadership of Secure’s SmartFilter
development effort. SmartFilter’s On-Box™ architecture, now the industry
recognized preferred method for Web filtering, and supporting SDKs, has
facilitated successful partnerships with CA, Cisco, Blue Coat, Network Appliance
and others, significantly increasing the company’s revenues. According to reports
from IDC, SmartFilter’s market share improved from 4th in 2001 to 3rd in 2002. In July 2003, Secure announced the acquisition of N2H2. A primary driver for this
acquisition is Secure Computing's proven capabilities to combine technologies via
their top-notch engineering team. With complementary technology and customer
bases, Secure Computing is poised to challenge Websense and SurfControl for
market leadership in Web filtering. In a recent report on market consolidation,
Gartner states “Secure Computing’s recent acquisition track record should
reassure N2H2 customers: Secure Computing has successfully incorporated the
Gauntlet technology (bought from Network Associates in 2002) into its firewall
product.”
Since the company’s turnaround in 1999, Secure has continued its steady revenue
growth. The company achieved profitability a quarter earlier than expected in Q3
of 2002 and with its highly scalable operating model, is positioned to significantly
increase operating income going forward. Through June 30, 2003, Secure has
achieved 13% year-over-year growth in Product & Services revenue, which is in the top third of our peer group and Q2 sequential revenue growth of 9%, the highest of our peer group.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/aug05,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/jul22,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/jul17,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/jun19,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/jun17,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/may28,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/may13,03usaf.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/may05,03wc.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/apr29,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/apr28,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/apr16,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/apr03,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/pdf/IS-1-435746.pdf
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/feb25,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/jan28,03.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2003/jan28,03sg2em.htm
http://www.securecomputing.com/pdf/IS-1-435746.pdf
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:
Mike Gallagher has over 15 years experience in the networking, cryptography and
Internet industries. He held the position of vice president of software and systems
engineering with Datakey, where he was instrumental in delivering the industry's
first cryptographic smartcard solution to the marketplace. Mr. Gallagher spent over
8 years with Unisys where his roles included product architect and multi-product
management. As senior vice president of product development at Secure, he is
responsible for the strategy of and product development for all products. Mr.
Gallagher holds a bachelor degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from
the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse.
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