Executive Bios

D. James Bidzos, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

James Bidzos is president and chief executive officer of Verisign. He also serves as chairman of the board of directors and has been executive chairman since August 2009.

As the founder of Verisign, Bidzos is an Internet and security industry pioneer whose accomplishments include building RSA Security into the early standard-bearer for authentication and encryption, and launching Verisign as a company in 1995 to develop the digital certificate infrastructure for Internet commerce.

Before returning to the president and chief executive role in August 2011, Bidzos served as Verisign's first president and CEO and also served as Verisign's chairman of the board of directors from April 1995 until December 2001, as vice chairman from December 2001 to July 2007, and as interim CEO from July 2008 to August 2009. Bidzos served as president and CEO of RSA Security from 1986 to February 1999, and then served as RSA's vice chairman from 1999 to May 2002.

Bidzos was named one of Time Magazine's "Digital 50," and is in CRN's Computer Industry Hall of Fame.

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John Calys, Interim Chief Financial Officer

As Verisign's interim chief financial officer since September 2011, John Calys is responsible for all aspects of the company's financial operations. He also serves as the company's controller, a position he has held since joining Verisign in December 2010.

Previously, Calys was vice president and controller for XO Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded telecommunications services provider.

Prior to joining XO Holdings, Calys served as vice president and assistant treasurer for Sprint Nextel Corporation and as vice president and assistant controller for Nextel Communications, Inc. Calys' career began as an auditor with Ernst & Young, serving clients primarily in the manufacturing and financial services industries.

Calys earned a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in accounting and business administration from the University of Kansas.

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Mark Gathje, Senior Vice President, Technology Services

As senior vice president of technology services, Mark Gathje leads the development of Verisign's technology infrastructure and how new products best fit within that infrastructure.

Before being named to his current position in November 2010, Gathje led the company's overarching infrastructure strategy as vice president, architecture and technology services. He also served as executive leader for all systems selection and architecture activities, ensuring the company optimizes the effectiveness of its infrastructure.

Gathje began his Verisign career in 2000 as director of technical operations for the company's Naming services business, leading daily operation of Verisign's products at their Northern Virginia facilities and 20 other locations worldwide.

Prior to joining Verisign, Gathje held technical roles with American Management Systems and TRW, Inc.

A 20-year Air Force veteran, Gathje earned a Bachelor of Science in management from the University of Maryland.

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Richard H. Goshorn, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

As senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Rick Goshorn is the executive officer responsible for Verisign's legal affairs and for providing legal and business counsel to the executive chairman and chief executive officer, the executive leadership team and the board of directors. Goshorn leads Verisign's global law department, is Verisign’s compliance officer under its code of conduct and serves as secretary to the board. Goshorn joined Verisign in June 2007.

Goshorn previously served as general counsel of international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, from October 2004 to May 2007. From 2002 to 2003, Goshorn was corporate vice president, general counsel and secretary of Acterna Corporation, a public communications test equipment company. From 1991 to 2001, Goshorn held a variety of senior executive legal positions in London, Brussels, Singapore and Washington with Cable and Wireless PLC, a British telecommunications company, including the position of senior vice president and general counsel, Cable & Wireless Global. Prior to his tenure at Cable and Wireless PLC, Goshorn was a senior attorney at Fort Howard Corporation, a paper and plastics manufacturing company.

In addition to his corporate positions, Goshorn spent six years in private practice, first with Frost Brown Todd LLC in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later with Gottesman Jones and Partners in London.

Goshorn holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from The College of Wooster and a J.D. degree from Duke University's School of Law.

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Atish Gude, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Strategy

As senior vice president of marketing and strategy, Atish Gude is responsible for all aspects of Verisign's corporate marketing and communication activities in addition to corporate strategy and corporate development.

Before being named to his current position in 2011, Gude most recently served as chief marketing officer at Clearwire Communications, a leading provider of wireless broadband services. Prior to that, he held a number of executive leadership positions at Sprint Nextel, including head of operations for its 4G business unit and head of strategy for the entire company.

Gude began his career with Deloitte Consulting, leading numerous client engagements with Fortune 1,000 companies in a wide range of industries.

Gude earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, and Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from Syracuse University.

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Dr. Burt Kaliski Jr., Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

As Verisign’s chief technology officer, Dr. Burt Kaliski is responsible for the company’s long-term technology vision. He is the leader of Verisign Labs, which focuses on applied research, university collaboration, industry thought leadership, and intellectual property strategy. He also facilitates the technical community within Verisign.

Prior to joining Verisign in 2011, Kaliski served as the founding director of the EMC Innovation Network, the global collaboration among EMC’s research and advanced technology groups and its university partners. He joined EMC from RSA Security, where he served as vice president of research and chief scientist. Kaliski started his career at RSA in 1989, where as the founding scientist of RSA Laboratories, his contributions included the development of the Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS), now widely deployed for internet security.

Kaliski has held appointments as a guest professor at Wuhan University's College of Computer Science, and as a guest professor and member of the international advisory board of Peking University's School of Software and Microelectronics. He has also taught at Stanford University and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Kaliski is a trustee emeritus of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and Tau Beta Pi.

Kaliski received his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research focused on cryptography.

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Patrick Kane, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Naming Services

Mr. Kane is responsible for the management, policy and operations of all Top Level Domains operated by Verisign under contract with the ICANN. These include .com, .net, .name, and .jobs as well as supporting tools and services created to support Verisign's channel partners. He has been instrumental in the development and deployment of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) at Verisign and is a member of the Presidential Advisory Board of ICANN for IDNs. Mr. Kane has been with Verisign since 1999. Previous to Verisign, he was a Senior Principal with American Management Systems (AMS) for three years serving as an Engagement Manager deploying tax fraud identification systems for state and local governments. Prior to AMS, Mr. Kane spent fifteen years with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) as an Account Manager, Systems Engineering Manager and Systems Engineer managing outsourced IT engagements in the Oil and Chemical industries, Healthcare Services and Federal, State and Local Governments. Mr. Kane holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Ben Petro, Senior Vice President, Network Intelligence and Availability

Ben Petro is a proven leader who has earned his outstanding reputation by repeatedly creating sustained value in a number of high-growth businesses. Ben Petro joined VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) in April 2010 from Teneros, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer from May 2008 through April 2010. During his time at Teneros, Ben completed a business overhaul on behalf of the Board of Directors. He repositioned the company from a hardware provider to a service provider earning Microsoft Partner of the year for SaaS disaster recovery and moving gross margin from -8% to 63%. He also instituted a high growth direct sales team successful in penetrating F500 and SME market segments.

Prior to Teneros, Ben was SVP for Ultra Services, for NeuStar, Inc. (NYSE: NSR), following Neustar’s acquisition of UltraDNS Corporation in April 2006. Ben was President and CEO of UltraDNS from 2001 and he grew UltraDNS into a profitable, high-growth company that provided infrastructure solutions to over 20% of the Internet and thousands of global enterprises.

Ben was Vice President of Marketing at Edge Connections prior to joining UltraDNS, where he was responsible for creating and implementing its national brand and deploying a strategy for its service offering. He forged key strategic alliances necessary for the company's subsequent long-term growth. As Director of Marketing for Logix Communications, Ben successfully launched the Company's CLEC/broadband services in over 20 markets. He has also held highly successful leadership positions in marketing and strategy at MCI Communications and communications consulting firm QSI. Ben Petro serves on the Board of Directors for a range of messaging and service companies including Teneros and 3jam, Inc.

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