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Bethany Mayer, CEO - Ixia

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2014 American Business Awards

Company: Ixia, Calabasas, CA, USA
Entry Submitted By: Voce Communications
Company Description: Ixia provides application performance and security resilience solutions to validate, secure, and optimize businesses’ physical and virtual networks. Founded in 1997, Ixia has over 1,800 employees in 23 countries, and is focused on serving a broad set of customers including 74 of the Fortune 100 companies.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Executive of the Year – Business Products –11 to 2,500 Employees

Nomination Title: Bethany Mayer, CEO

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

September 16, 2015 is the one-year anniversary for Bethany Mayer, CEO of Ixia. During her first year as CEO, Mayer has delivered on her goal: Grow the business. A few examples of this include the Ixia stock, which is up approximately 60% since Mayer took over as CEO, and quarterly revenue which has grown year-over-year in each of her first full three quarters, with record revenues reported in Q4 of 2014 and then again for the Company’s most recent quarter (Q2 of 2015).

Under Mayer’s leadership, Ixia has built the customer roster up, bringing in 450 new Enterprise customers in Q414 and Q115, as well as 40 new virtualization and security partners over the same time period. Named to the “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Tech” in March 2015, Mayer has stabilized Ixia’s business and grown revenue, yet remained disciplined from an investment standpoint to drive profitability and cash flow. Case in point: Ixia’s Non-GAAP operating profit in the first half of 2015 grew by approximately 250 percent over the same period in 2014 - and the company reported cash flow from operations that was the second highest in the company’s history in Q115.

Mayer has plans to grow and diversify the company in the years ahead, forging forward with new product strategies, which increase differentiation and target new buyers.

Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 125 words):

Ixia CEO, Bethany Mayer, brings more than 25 years of technology experience to Ixia. Joining the company from HP where she held several key roles since 2010, serving as HP’s senior vice president and general manager of its Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) business. Previously, Mayer was senior vice president and general manager of HP’s Networking Business unit. Under her leadership the business unit delivered 12 consecutive quarters of growth. Prior to that, Mayer was vice president, marketing and alliances for HP’s Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking Group. Prior to joining HP, Mayer served as senior vice president, worldwide marketing and corporate development at Blue Coat Systems. Mayer holds a BS in Political Science from Santa Clara University and MBA from California State University, Monterey Bay.