I got my first computer for Christmas in 1982. It was a Texas Instruments 99-4a and I used it to teach myself BASIC programming. During high-school, I took a part-time job at a data processing center in Los Angeles. I spent my free time reading Unix manuals and teaching myself to program in Pascal and C.

During the summer of 1988, I took a summer job in an organization that got hit hard with computer infections. This was about the time when the first computer viruses were being discovered, and since I was the only person at work with any real knowledge of computers, I traded in my data input position for an exciting job traveling around the world chasing viruses and doing system cleanup and recovery. Not only did this provide a terrific adventure for me as a 16 year old kid, but it also helped imbue in me a passion for security technology - and as I was stuck using the primitive McAfee tools of the time – it also helped drive my desire to develop stronger and more effective anti-virus technology.

I continued to work on computers throughout high-school, and after graduation, I took a position in technical support at Peter Norton Computing Inc. in Santa Monica, CA. This was a choice job for the time - and one step closer to my goal of becoming a software engineer. It was 1992, and the growth potential of the company and industry was obvious. Peter Norton had just been acquired by Symantec, and was releasing Norton AntiVirus 1.0. The company had just over 120 employees - and everyone was excited to be a part of this burgeoning industry.

After joining Symantec, until 1995, I held various positions in both Quality Assurance and Engineering. I learned an incredible amount while in QA, and still feel that an understanding of QA is fundamental to truly understanding our products. My first role as a programmer on the engineering team was a terrific thrill, and I was privileged to work on products like Norton Utilities, and, with great mentorship and a lot of reading, became an expert at low-level file systems and system utilities.

Between 1996 to 1999, I was fortunate to move up the ranks of the Software Engineering organization. I started as Development Manager for Norton Utilities for Windows NT in 1997, and moved through various management positions in the Norton engineering organization. I was promoted to VP in 1999, and I spent the next four years helping drive Consumer product development and delivery.

In the summer of 2003, I completed an executive management course at Stanford University, and was asked to move to the Enterprise side to manage the Security Management business. This was a great challenge for me, but I was fortunate to bring some terrific talent with me in this transition. Through my team's collective efforts - which equaled a ton of hard work - we were able to drive the successful release of Security Information Management Appliance, and integration of Bindview Corp.

In December of 2005, I returned to the Consumer business to lead the team building Symantec's consumer product lineup. Our first set of releases included Norton Internet Security 2007 and NAV 2007, followed by Norton 360.

In my past 16 years at Symantec, I have seen our company grow from a 100 million dollar PC tools business, into the world's largest internet security company. Together with my colleagues, I have seen our company through extreme highs, and lows, and through it all have been proud to be associated with Symantec and what we fundamentally stand for - keeping our customers and their data safe and protected online!

On a more personal level - I have been married to my incredible wife, Stephanie, since 1991, and we have one son, Perry, who is currently in high school. Stephanie and I also have a chocolate lab, Brooklyn, and a cat.