Ex-Symantec Consumer Business Taps Vincent Pilette As New CEO

Former HP and Logitech CFO Vincent Pilette joined the company in May as CFO and was promoted Thursday to lead the $2.41 billion former consumer division of Symantec, now known as NortonLifeLock.

Vincent Pilette has been promoted from CFO to lead the $2.41 billion former consumer division of Symantec, now known as NortonLifeLock.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based company announced Thursday that Pilette will take over as CEO for Richard Hill, who had run the company since May on an interim basis and architected the $10.7 billion sale of Symantec’s enterprise security division to Broadcom. The Broadcom-Symantec Enterprise deal closed Monday, and the remaining consumer safety division of Symantec was renamed NortonLifeLock at that time.

Pilette joined Symantec with Hill in May 2019 following nearly six years as CFO of consumer electronics vendor Logitech. Prior to joining Logitech, Pilette spent two years as CFO of the $20 billion HP Enterprise server, storage and network group and three years as CFO of the $3 billion HP software business unit.

[Related: Symantec Enterprise Sales Head Exits In Wake Of Broadcom Deal]

“We have taken important steps to set our company on a successful path forward and now, as we begin our transition to a pure play consumer cyber safety company, we have greater flexibility to expand our consumer business and deliver enhanced value to our stakeholders,” Pilette said in a statement.

Meanwhile, longtime Symantec veteran Samir Kapuria has taken over as NortonLifeLock’s president. Kapuria joined Symantec in October 2004 as the global director of consulting services and worked his way up the ranks, eventually becoming executive vice president and general manager of the company’s consumer business unit in May 2018.

“Cyber safety in today’s connected world is challenging, as the risks one has to manage in their daily life span across device security, identity protection and personal digital privacy,” Kapuria said in a statement. “Our goal is to simplify the complexities of protection from cyber threats.”

NortonLifeLock has tapped Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer Matthew Brown to replace Pilette as CFO on an interim basis. The company said it’s commenced a search process to identify a permanent CEO.

In addition to leaving the interim CEO post, Richard Hill also announced that he’ll be one of six people to retire from the company’s board of directors next month. Hill stepped up from his director position in May to serve as Symantec’s interim CEO after Greg Clark abruptly resigned from the CEO role.