WANdisco Welcomes Two IBM Veterans to Its Sales Organization

SHEFFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - Jul 23, 2012) -  WANdisco plc (LSE: WAND), a leading provider of global collaboration software to the software development industry, today announces that two former IBM employees -- Paul Hewitt and Scott Rudenstein -- have joined WANdisco's sales management team. As members of this team they will help to support the Company's rapid expansion, focusing particularly on opportunities for large enterprise software deployments.

Paul Hewitt brings more than 25 years of software industry experience to his new position as WANdisco's Sales Director for EMEA. Paul spent ten of those 25 years at IBM Telelogic where he rose from the rank of Principal Account Manager to become UK Managing Director and Senior Vice President for Western Europe. After assuming this leadership position, Paul was able to grow Telelogic's revenue by more than 50 percent. 

After leaving Telelogic in 2010, Paul was appointed Regional Sales Director for the UK and Ireland at Serena Software. Whilst at Serena, he doubled the size of the sales team and closed a number of strategic deals and consistently exceeded targets.

Scott Rudenstein brings over 20 years of industry experience to his new position as Director of Technical Sales and Services at WANdisco. Scott spent over 5 years as a Senior Sales Engineer in the IBM Rational Software Group specialising in software development tools. Scott was a member of the Rational Software team that was acquired by IBM for $2.1bn in February 2003. Scott has also held various Sales Director positions at US-based software companies such as Quest Software and Surgient.

David Richards, Chairman and Chief Executive of WANdisco said:

"We are delighted to have recruited experienced and talented individuals like Paul and Scott. Part of our goal post-IPO is to expand our sales team and our latest recruits are among the best in the industry with proven track records of growing sales in our industry sector. We are putting in place solid foundations for growth."

About WANdisco plc

• WANdisco (LSE: WAND) is a leading provider of global collaboration software to the software development industry and is headquartered in Sheffield. WANdisco's differentiated patent-pending technology provides a cost-effective solution to the problems faced by organisations with globally distributed software engineering teams. By using WANdisco's technology in conjunction with Apache Subversion ("Subversion"), an open source version control system, software developers at globally distributed sites are able to access the same data program at all times which helps improve productivity, and prevent downtime and data loss.
  
  
• WANdisco currently has more than 200 customers globally, a number of which are in the US Fortune 100. Customers include some of the world's most well-known and well-regarded companies across a broad range of industry sectors such as AT&T, Aviva, Barclays, Hewlett Packard, Honda, Intel, John Deere, Johnson & Johnson, Juniper Networks, Motorola, NCR, Nokia, NTT and Walmart.
  
  
• WANdisco's technology and products operate in the Application Development market. According to Gartner Inc. in its report entitled "Market Share Analysis: Application Development Software, Worldwide, 2010" which was published on 21 April 2011 ("Gartner Report"), this market, which is currently valued at $8.64bn in 2011, is forecast to grow to $9.41 billion in 2015.
  
  
• The Group uses an annual subscription licence model to sell its products, providing a predictable revenue stream and a foundation for further expansion. Revenue has increased by 30.0 per cent from $3.0 million in 2010 to $3.9 million in 2011 and EBITDA before share-based payments and exceptional costs has increased from a loss of $0.8 million in 2010 to a profit of $0.2 million in 2011.
  
  
• The Group's success to date has allowed it to grow organically without any venture capital, angel investors or private equity funding. 
  
  
• David Richards, Jim Campigli and Dr. Yeturu Aahlad were the core founders of WANdisco, Inc. in 2005. They were subsequently complemented by Nick Parker, Chief Financial Officer, and by Paul Walker (former CEO of The Sage Group plc) and Ian Duncan (former Group Finance Director of Royal Mail Holdings plc) as non-executive directors. The WANdisco senior team has significant experience of operating in the technology industry and of managing high-growth companies.
  
  
• To date, WANdisco has focussed on exploiting its technology within the software development industry. Going forward, the directors believe that there is potential to apply the technology to other significant markets, including the Big Data market, and thereby continue the Group's strategy of rapid organic growth through product expansion and customer acquisition.