Red Sift Adds Mike Hedger and Michel van der Bel to Board

Global cybersecurity company brings on two proven tech industry leaders as it accelerates growth

On the heels of news of significant growth in its U.S. operations, global cybersecurity company Red Sift has announced two additions to its board of directors: Mike Hedger and Michel van der Bel. Hedger, who joins as chairman, brings with him decades of experience building market-leading companies. Van der Bel, who joins as a non-executive director, is a Microsoft veteran of more than 20 years. Both are proven leaders with deep experience who will help the company continue to scale globally.

“We are grateful that we will be able to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of Mike and Michel and so pleased that they share a passion for our mission,” said Red Sift CEO Rahul Powar. “We’re doing something important, and they both understand how to help us grow and scale. I’m excited about what we’ll be able to accomplish together.”

Before joining the Red Sift board, Hedger was the chairman of internet security company AVG and chairman of the web-based unified email management company Mimecast. He witnessed both of these companies transition to public listings on the NASDAQ. Previously, Hedger was CEO of email archiving company Kvault Software Limited (KVS), which was sold in 2004 for $225 million to Veritas (now Symantec Enterprise Vault). Before that, he was executive vice president of worldwide operations at Forte Software, where he expanded the business globally until its acquisition by Sun Microsystems in 1999. He was also the vice president of marketing operations EMEA for Oracle and the managing director, U.K. and Northern Europe, for INGRES/ASK, among other roles at WANG and IBM.

“Red Sift is in an incredibly hot space with potential to grow rapidly, and I want to make sure we take advantage of the opportunity in front of us,” said Hedger. “Security concerns aren’t going away. Red Sift’s products are easy to implement, and they address real problems. We need to recruit the right people and set up the right processes to have a successful global expansion. There’s a lot of work to be done, and I’m excited to help get it done right.”

Van der Bel spent more than two decades in leadership roles at Microsoft, most recently as president of the EMEA region, where he led more than 20,000 employees across 29 subsidiaries and 70 languages. Before that, he was CEO of Microsoft UK. He also served as Microsoft COO of the Greater China region and as Microsoft International’s vice president for public sector, concentrating on the implementation of a global public sector strategy. His career at Microsoft started in 1999, where he stayed on as general manager of Microsoft Netherlands from 2001-2006.

“It’s exciting to be involved with a company that has such a clear sense of purpose, especially with Rahul at the helm. He’s a dynamic leader with a true understanding of the business,” said van der Bel. “The cybersecurity market is evolving and growing—not just in terms of the quantity of opportunities but also in terms of their complexity. The challenge of taking a sophisticated product like Red Sift and figuring out how to scale it globally was irresistible.”

About Red Sift

Founded in 2015, Red Sift is a global company making vital cybersecurity products easily accessible to organizations of any size. The Red Sift Open Cloud is a data analysis platform that is purpose-built for the challenges of cybersecurity. Red Sift’s OnDMARC and OnINBOX products work together to block outbound phishing attacks and analyze the security of inbound communications for company-wide email threat intelligence. Find out how Red Sift is delivering actionable cybersecurity insights to its global customers at www.redsift.com.

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