SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Cedar, the leader in enterprise mobile app data security, today announced the appointment of Lars Ronning as vice president and general manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), positioning the company for further international expansion. Ronning, who joined Blue Cedar from mobile software company Helpshift, has a 25-year track record of establishing and growing U.S. startups and mid-size companies’ EMEA operations into multimillion-dollar success stories.
“The time is right for Blue Cedar to leverage the strategic opportunities outside North America, and Lars is the right person to lead the push,” said John Aisien, CEO of Blue Cedar. “We are growing and innovating quickly, and expanding our footprint in Europe is the logical progression of our global business strategy, especially given the growing importance of digitization and compliance with industry and sovereign regulations to organizations across the region. We are delighted to have Lars on board to help us fulfill our customers’, prospects’, and partners’ key missions.”
As Helpshift’s vice president and general manager for EMEA, Ronning spearheaded the company’s business in EMEA. Today, Helpshift’s mobile app customer service solution is installed on more than two billion devices, serving over 400 million mobile customers monthly, including customers of major European brands. Before Helpshift, Ronning was general manager, EMEA, for RingCentral, a leading U.S. provider of cloud business communication systems, where he established and grew the company’s EMEA presence, negotiated and launched a strategic partnership with BT and paved the way to millions of dollars of recurring annual revenue streams. Prior to RingCentral, Ronning held senior EMEA operating positions at Active Network, VMware, Yahoo!, Zimbra, and Openwave.
Ronning’s appointment comes on the heels of Blue Cedar’s introduction in May of a new release of its highly acclaimed mobile security platform—an innovation that redefines enterprise mobility management (EMM) by moving the control point from the device to the app. The new release can extend or completely replace traditional EMM solutions to provide secure mobile data access for all enterprise mobile end users. It secures access to mobile data without having to manage devices and boosts mobile adoption by eliminating the usability, privacy, and other constraints that have plagued traditional, device-centric EMM solutions.
“My goal is to establish Blue Cedar as a frontrunner in mobile app security in the enterprise throughout EMEA, and build on our recent successes and momentum in North America,” said Ronning. “We are seeing strong opportunities in Europe, where the market is adapting to new, more stringent privacy and data security regulations as a result of the EU’s recently enacted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). GDPR highlights the need to protect data beyond the protections offered by device security, as well as the need for mobile enterprises to protect a much greater attack surface—both areas in which Blue Cedar’s platform becomes a big selling point.”
Ronning is the latest in a series of senior-level hires by Blue Cedar in 2017, underscoring the company’s momentum. Earlier this year, the company brought on Chief Product Officer Chris Ford and Chief Financial Officer, Jeanne Angelo-Pardo.
Ronning was educated at Pacific Lutheran University in Seattle and the University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School where he studied computer science and international business management.
About Blue Cedar
Blue Cedar transforms enterprise mobility with the industry’s most innovative mobile security solution. By securing the app rather than the device, Blue Cedar gives enterprises robust, consistent protection of corporate data across both managed and unmanaged devices, without the cost, complexity, or risk to privacy of device-level security. Blue Cedar’s “follow the app” security sets enterprises free to fully realize the benefits of secure mobility for both employees and customers. The company is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco. For information about Blue Cedar, visit www.bluecedar.com.