Axcient Unveils New Sales Team Of Webroot Vets Led By Charlie Tomeo

“This is not a security play. I’ve always said that backup is one of the last lines of defense for data, and that data protection vendors should act like security companies. But the real rationale for hiring them is their long expertise in the MSP market,” says Axcient CEO David Bennett (pictured).

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MSP-focused data protection technology developer Axcient Tuesday unveiled a new sales leadership team, one that is now completely filled with recent hires from security vendor Webroot.

[Related: The Heartbeat Of Business: The 2020 CRN Storage 100]

At the top of the list is Charlie Tomeo, Axcient’s new chief revenue officer. Tomeo, a 15-year Webroot veteran, this week left Webroot where he spent the past four years as vice president of worldwide business sales.

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Tomeo is replacing Angus Robertson, who served just over two years as Axcient’s chief revenue officer and chief marketing officer and who has decided to leave the company to pursue new opportunities, said David Bennett, CEO of the Denver-based company.

The big changeover at the top of Axcient’s sales team is part of the natural progression of a smaller company, said Bennett.

“When you think about the life cycle of a business, you get people to come in and build the business,” Bennett told CRN. “Later, you get people who help grow the business.”

Also new at Axcient is Tim Sheahen, who is taking the vice president of U.S. sales role. Sheahan spent almost 19 years at Webroot. He is replacing Michael Goldberg, who has left to pursue new opportunities, Bennett said.

Joining them are Phillip Seigenfeld, a 16-year Webroot veteran who most recently served as manager of channel and MSP sales in North America and as MSP and distribution channel manager. As director of partnerships at Axcient, he will be focused on developing two-tier relationships.

Finally, Jim D’Espinosa has joined Axcient as its new director of OEM and licensing. Bennett said D’Espinosa will be focused on business development and on building out the company’s OEM and licensing business.

Bennett said the hiring of so many people from a security company should not be misconstrued as a plan by Axcient to enter the security industry.

“This is not a security play,” he said. “I’ve always said that backup is one of the last lines of defense for data, and that data protection vendors should act like security companies. But the real rationale for hiring them is their long expertise in the MSP market.”

Tomeo told CRN that, for him, it was time for a change.

Webroot got acquired by Carbonite in March of last year, and then Carbonite got acquired by OpenText in December,” he said. “I wanted to do something different. And this is a level up from a career perspective.”

Tomeo couldn’t talk a lot about his plans for Axcient for the rest of 2020, given that he only joined in the last couple days.

“But first, I want to figure out what’s working, and what’s not,” he said. “I’ve been in the MSP space for a long time. I want to look at what we need for 2021 in areas like messaging and team skills. And I want to look at how to grow the partner space.”