F5 Global Sales Boss Resigns

Dave Feringa, currently senior vice president of Americas sales for F5, will succeed Anderson, according to the company.

Anderson joined Seattle-based F5 in October 2004 as vice president, Americas sales, and helped grow F5 into the $1 billion application delivery networking powerhouse it is now.

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F5 did not provide details on the reason for Anderson's departure.

"Mark was a key contributor to our growth and success here at F5. We are very appreciative of Mark's efforts on behalf of F5 and wish him well in his future endeavors," John McAdam, F5 president and CEO, said in a statement. "We are also very pleased that Dave Feringa has accepted this position. Dave is an outstanding sales executive and has done a terrific job managing our largest sales territory, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of our worldwide revenue. Dave is very well respected and has strong support throughout the company."

Feringa joined F5 two months after Anderson in 2004. He became regional vice president of North America in October 2007 and assumed the top Americas sales post earlier this year.

Ehud Gelblum, managing director at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a research note to subscribers that F5 has a good track record of managing major executive changes.

"Both executives are long-serving members of F5's executive team, having joined around the same time in 2004," Gelblum said. "We have full confidence in F5's ability to execute given its prior sales transition in 2007 and CFO transition in 2004."

Anderson's predecessor, Tom Hull, resigned in October 2007. The company "went on to post four consecutive quarters of product and total revenue growth before running into the recession-fueled downturn in late '08," Gelblum noted.

Gelblum said Anderson is believed to be headed for a COO or CEO-level position, though "we doubt he ends up at a competitor, as he is likely to have strong non-compete clauses given the lack of a transition period with F5."

Anderson leaves F5 at a critical time in its history, one where it's riding strong notices from channel partners and expanding beyond its application delivery networking strengths into areas such as security and diameter-based signaling products for LTE networks.