Mark McLaughlin
Mark McLaughlin was appointed as VeriSign's CEO in August, 2009, Inc.[1] Prior to that, Mark McLaughlin was VeriSign's President and Chief Operating Officer. He 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.
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Positions and Achievements at VeriSign
McLaughlin previously held a number of key positions at VeriSign from 2000 to 2007, ultimately serving as executive vice president of products and marketing. In that capacity, McLaughlin played a key architectural role in developing VeriSign's strategy to focus the company on its core Internet infrastructure services, while divesting several non-core businesses.
Earlier Mark ran the company's Naming Services business, where he successfully negotiated the current agreements for the management of the .com and .net registries, as well as a number of key strategic alliances with major partners such as eBay and Microsoft.
The Naming and Directory Services Business Unit runs the Internet’s .com and .net system and provides powerful, proven platforms to businesses to support their mission-critical applications across disparate networks, devices, and end points.
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 lead VeriSign 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.[2]
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.[3]
Prior to VeriSign, Mr. McLaughlin was the vice president of sales and business development for Signio, a leading Internet payment company, and was instrumental in the negotiation and acquisition of Signio by VeriSign in 1999.
Prior to joining Signio, Mr. McLaughlin was the vice president of business development for Gemplus, the world’s leading smart-card company. In this role, Mr. McLaughlin was responsible for Gemplus business development and legal affairs and negotiated and closed many strategic alliances and business deals for the company both in the Americas, Asia, and in Europe.
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.
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 lives in Leesburg, Virginia with his two children and wife, whom he met and got to know when he was in the US air force as a pilot. His wife also served in the US air force as a pilot.