New McAfee leader sees great potential

Dave DeWalt, who takes over as McAfee Inc.'s president and CEO April 2, sees a bright future for the company in the competitive IT security landscape.

Even with new competition from Microsoft Corp. in the consumer space, DeWalt said Tuesday he's confident McAfee can compete there and continue to cater to large businesses shopping for IT security suites. McAfee's board named DeWalt, executive vice president at EMC Corp., as the new president and CEO Monday.

Microsoft began offering its Windows Live OneCare in competition with McAfee and other cybersecurity vendors in early January. But DeWalt said he sees Microsoft as a partner as much as a competitor. McAfee will work with Microsoft and continue to supply IT security products for Windows Vista, he said.

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Dave DeWalt, who takes over as McAfee Inc.'s president and CEO April 2, sees a bright future for the company in the competitive IT security landscape.

Even with new competition from Microsoft Corp. in the consumer space, DeWalt said Tuesday he's confident McAfee can compete there and continue to cater to large businesses shopping for IT security suites. McAfee's board named DeWalt, executive vice president at EMC Corp., as the new president and CEO Monday.

Microsoft began offering its Windows Live OneCare in competition with McAfee and other cybersecurity vendors in early January. But DeWalt said he sees Microsoft as a partner as much as a competitor. McAfee will work with Microsoft and continue to supply IT security products for Windows Vista, he said.

McAfee's consumer products "go way beyond the Microsoft offering," he said. "McAfee's got a huge head start."

DeWalt promoted McAfee's SiteAdvisor product, which protects users from adware and spyware, warns them about dangerous Web sites through a color-coded warning button in their browser toolbars, and can check links in e-mail and instant messages for dangers. The basic package is free to download, and close to 40 million people have tried the software since McAfee acquired SiteAdvisor Inc. last April, he said.

McAfee will also continue to focus on the large-business market, with offerings in policy management and data loss prevention, he said.

"I see a very interesting market segment right now," DeWalt said. "There are lots of large market opportunities."

DeWalt said he's gotten several calls from IT vendors who could be potential partners to McAfee since his new job was announced.

DeWalt joins a company that has run into accounting problems as well as competition. He will replace Dale Fuller, an interim president and CEO who took the job in October following the resignation of George Samenuk as chairman and CEO and Kevin Weiss as president. They left following allegations that they were involved in improperly backdating stock options to McAfee executives.

A federal indictment alleges McAfee executives improperly backdated stock option grants in 2000 and 2002. Last week, former McAfee legal counsel Kent Roberts was arraigned on federal fraud charges in relation to his role in the backdating scandal. He pleaded not guilty before a federal judge in San Francisco.

McAfee's financial restatements resulting from the backdating may not be over yet, DeWalt said. But the company may find some good from the accounting problems, he added. McAfee has taken the lessons from the accounting investigation and poured them into products the company uses itself, he said.

"We've had to build a world-class compliance and audit product because of the sins of the past," he said. "This could be a positive for the company."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.