Today Box announced that it has picked up another Adult In The Room, increasing its leadership depth as it ramps towards a widely leaked, forthcoming initial public offering. Former Symantec CEO Enrique Salem will take on the role of Special Adviser to the growing company.
According to Aaron Levie, Box’s CEO, Salem will help “to innovate and advance a new model for cloud security” at the firm.
Box, which provides cloud storage products for enterprise-level businesses, recently raised another tranche of $100 million. Its chief rival, Dropbox, recently picked up $350 million more. Box, it has been widely reported, has filed for a yet-secret public offering that should occur this year.
While adding senior help to Box’s current executive group is a fine idea, Salem is an interesting selection. Certainly, he has the experience in hand to advise Box, but his exit from Symantec wasn’t particularly pleasant. When his ouster was made public, Symantec’s stock rose more than 13 percent. Why was he shown the door? As Silicon Valley Business Journal wrote at the time:
[New CEO Steve] Bennett said in a prepared statement that the move was made because the data security company isn’t making progress fast enough and is underperforming.
That’s not to say that Salem won’t be effective at helping Box, but it is interesting context.
According to the White House’s website, Salem is part of the President Barack Obama’s Management Advisory Board. And finally, Salem joined the board of ForeScout in January.