Former WatchGuard executive Thom Linden named Senior Vice President of Global Research and Development.

Linden will be responsible for M86's global R&D organisation, which includes a development centre in New Zealand. He will focus on delivering products and cloud-based services for a world-wide market.

Prior to joining M86 Security, Linden served as WatchGuard Technologies’ VP of Engineering. He will now report to M86 Security’s COO, Bruce Green.

"There’s a great opportunity to expand our offerings globally through cloud-based infrastructures,” Linden said. "With a top-class research and development team, we will continue to implement the best strategies to further grow our market share by taking advantage of our already extensive portfolio of products as well as through technology innovations in the future.”

Linden has also served as Chief Architect and Senior Director at Oracle.

In April M86 offered its partners a "free and convenient way" to learn more about the benefits for its integrated solutions.

Last week the company named Jason Pearce as Director Sales Engineering in Asia Pacific.