Mark McLaughlin

Country:	USA
Featured in the ICANN 41 - Singapore playing card deck

Mark McLaughlin was appointed as Verisign Inc.'s CEO in August, 2009. Prior to that, Mark McLaughlin was Verisign's President and Chief Operating Officer. He had held that post since January of 2009. When he became CEO he also retained his title as President and became a member of the Board of Directors. He replaced the company's founder, Jim Bidzos, when assuming the position.

In July, 2011, Mark McLaughlin announced his resignation from his post as CEO. Jim Bidzos once again assumed the role of CEO on Mr. McLaughlin's last day, August 25th. Mark McLaughlin went on to become the CEO of Palo Alto Networks, a technology start-up that is considering an IPO.

Positions and Achievements at VeriSign

Mr. McLaughlin has an extensive and successful career history within Verisign, this includes time running a number of important divisions and involvement in historical developments for the company. He constantly advanced within the company, from 2000 to 2007, ultimately serving as executive vice president of products and marketing. That role saw Mark focusing the company on its primary infrastructure services, while divesting several non-core businesses.

Previously, Mark McLaughlin ran the company's Naming Services business; he was responsible for the immensely important and historic negotiations that awarded the company the management of the .com and .net registries; he was also responsible for strategic partnerships with Industry leaders such as eBay and Microsoft. He was also responsible for acquisitions aimed at bolstering its services and business development, such as the acquisition of Moreover.

Not only does the Naming and Directory Services Business Unit run the .com and .net system, it also provides powerful platforms to businesses to support their applications across disparate networks and devices.

Prior to joining the Naming and Directory Services business unit, Mr. McLaughlin was vice president of Corporate Business Development for Verisign. In this role, Mr. McLaughlin led Verisign's corporate wide business-development efforts and was responsible for strategic Verisign agreements and relationships with IBM, Microsoft, FDC, Inuit, eBay, Sun Microsystems and other leading technology companies.

Before that, Mr. McLaughlin was the general manager of the Verisign Payment Services Business Unit, leading the Verisign Internet payment business.

Other Current Work

In January, 2011, it was announced that Mark McLaughlin was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on his National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Mark works alongside other private sector CEOs and experts, advising the government on developments that impact or threaten the operation of the nation's telecommunications systems. They give an annual report directly to the President.

Mark is also the Director of Vesta, an electronics payment provider, and serves on the board of the largest technology council in the nation, The Northwest Virginia Technology Council. He is also a member of the TechNet Executive Council, which is a non-partisan group of CEOs promoting economic growth through innovation.

Mr. McLaughlin is a speaker on a number of IT issues.

Career History

Mr. McLaughlin started off his career as an army officer, flying Cobra helicopters. He was in for a career as a military officer until an accident changed his life, and led him to take up law.

Before joining Verisign, Mark was the Vice President of sales and business development for Signio, a leading Internet payment company. Verisign's acquisition of Signio in 1999, which Mark negotiated, brought him to VeriSign.

Prior to Signio, Mr. McLaughlin was the vice president of business development for Gemplus, a leading smart-card company; he was responsible for business development and legal affairs, and negotiated important international deals as well.

Prior to joining Gemplus, Mr. McLaughlin was the general counsel of Caere Corporation, the word’s leading OCR software company. Before joining Caere, Mr. McLaughlin practiced law with Cooley Godward, a leading high technology law firm in Silicon Valley, in the firm’s Information and Technology Licensing Group.

Background

Education

Mark McLaughlin received his J.D., Magna cum Laude, from Seattle University School of Law and his B.S. Degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Honors

Army Commendation Medal and Airborne Wings.

Family

Mr. McLaughlin met his wife while he was serving as a pilot in the US air force, his wife was also a pilot. They have two children.