Mr. Thyregod will be responsible for sales operations, including the company’s go-to-market and channel strategies, to accelerate customer acquisition and partner engagement across the region. Silver Peak currently has more than 600 global production customer deployments of its industry leading Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution. With the SD-WAN market projected to surpass $8B USD worldwide in 2021 according to IDC, Silver Peak is well positioned to empower enterprises to rearchitect their conventional router-centric WAN architectures in favor of a centrally orchestrated application-driven WAN edge. To capture the leadership position in the market, Silver Peak is making strategic investments in regional expansion beginning in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Today’s leadership appointments mark a key milestone in attracting the industry’s most seasoned talent to lead the company through its next phase of growth.
Mr. Thyregod joins Silver Peak from Riverbed Technology where he most recently ran the EMEA business. Mr. Thyregod has worked in technology for more than 20 years, previously serving in sales and marketing leadership positions at Riverbed, CA Technologies, Dell/EMC and IBM. Mr. Thyregod is a graduate of the Copenhagen Business School and Henley Management College with advanced degrees in organisation, strategy and business administration.
“Silver Peak is a company that I have respected for many years as a formidable competitor with integrity and technology leadership. The growth prospects for SD-WAN across EMEA present a tremendously unique opportunity to fundamentally change the way enterprises architect their WANs and connect users to applications. With the most robust and mature SD-WAN solution on the market, I look forward to expanding the Silver Peak team across the region and delivering real business value to customers.”
Mr. Thyregod will be based in Geneva, Switzerland and will report to Chris Helfer, senior vice president of worldwide sales for Silver Peak.
Mr. Paton joins Silver Peak from Riverbed where he most recently served as a regional vice president, driving the overall strategy across the UK, Ireland and South Africa. Mr. Paton has worked in technology for more than 15 years, serving in sales leadership positions at Riverbed and Opnet Technologies. Mr. Paton holds a B.S. from the University of the West of Scotland.
“After competing with Silver Peak in the emerging SD-WAN market over the past few years, it’s clear to me that enterprises are seeking to retire their router-centric WAN architectures in favor of an application-driven WAN edge. With Unity EdgeConnect, customers get the best of both worlds, an SD-WAN that’s centrally orchestrated and managed and a solution that integrates core network functions to simplify and consolidate the branch. It’s a win-win.”
