BlackBerry has appointed John Giamatteo as President of the Cyber Security business unit. Giamatteo will join the company on October 4th and report to Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen. He will be responsible for business unit strategy, engineering, and go-to-market.
Giamatteo brings to BlackBerry over 30 years of experience with technology companies. Most recently he served as President and Chief Revenue Officer of McAfee, where he was responsible for sales, marketing, and customer success.
During his time with McAfee, he delivered strong double-digit growth across its Enterprise, SMB and Consumer businesses as well as significant margin expansion across the portfolio. Prior to that he served as Chief Operating Officer at AVG Technologies, a leading provider of Internet and mobile security. Giamatteo also held leadership positions with Solera Holdings, RealNetworks, Inc. and Nortel Network Corporation.
He left McAfee on Jan. 10, 2020, just weeks before longtime McAfee CEO Chris Young was replaced by former Polycom and BMC Software CEO Peter Leav. Giamatteo received $4 million of compensation from McAfee in fiscal 2020, $2.1 million of compensation in fiscal 2019, and $6.8 million in fiscal 2018, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“I’m excited to be joining BlackBerry and to be leading the Cyber Security business unit. Never has the threat of cyberattacks been higher, nor more in the minds of management,” said Giamatteo.
“BlackBerry’s AI-driven, prevention-first technology is well placed to scale to meet the constantly evolving cybersecurity needs of companies everywhere. I’m very positive about the opportunities that we have as a company.”
Thomas Eacobacci, BlackBerry’s President and COO, has decided to pursue other opportunities and will leave the Company on October 29th. BlackBerry thanked Tom for his hard work and contributions in his time at the Company.
Eacobacci joined BlackBerry in June 2020 after two decades at Citrix, where we worked his way up to president of the Americas for two-and-a-half years. In BlackBerry’s 2021 fiscal year, which ended Feb. 28, Eacobacci received $8.6 million of compensation, according to regulatory filings.
Giamatteo will report directly to Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen, who in a statement praised the new executive for his “leading industry expertise.
