Archive for March, 2023

A "maverick" businessman and leading cybersecurity thought leader, Wael Mohamed is the driving force behind the success of numerous emerging technology leaders, including one of the World's top five cybersecurity companies. With a unique combination of cybersecurity, digital transformation, and executive leadership expertise, Wael has been the go-to advisor for boards and executives for more than 30 years. Now, as the co-founder and Managing General Partner of Global Forward Capital, Wael is expanding his investment firm from venture capital to private equity and has assembled a team of cybersecurity pioneers to join him in creating value and doing good at cybersecurity companies globally.

Previously, Wael was an Operating Partner at Advent International and became the CEO of Forescout, an Advent International portfolio company. At Forescout, Wael transformed the 20-year-old organization into a vibrant, fast-paced powerhouse in cybersecurity. Prior to Forescout, Wael served as President & COO, and board member of Trend Micro Group (TMG), one of Japan's Tokyo Stock Exchange 225 index companies. Wael joined Trend Micro in 2009 after the acquisition of Third Brigade, a company he co-founded. While President and COO of Trend Micro, the company saw its share price double, adding over $4B in shareholder value and paying over $1B in cumulative dividends.

Wael’s earlier career included serving as the vice president of global sales and distribution for ZixCorp where he built and transformed the company into a global, high performance and high revenue growth team. He also held senior management positions with internet security company Entrust and boasts a wealth of corporate board experience gained from 20 years of sitting on boards of businesses as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. 

Wael is a frequent international speaker as well as lecturer at the Queen's Graduate School of Business in Ontario, Canada, where he completed an Executive Program in 2004. Wael holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Dalhousie University and the Executive Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School. Wael has been married for 30 years, has five adult children and two grandchildren. In his spare time, he focuses on his hobbies, including judo, chess and meditation.

A dynamic entrepreneur and senior business executive, Partha Panda joins Global Forward Capital as Co-Founder and Managing General Partner. Bringing 25 years’ proven success in the IT and cybersecurity industries, Partha will spearhead Global Forward Capital’s team of cybersecurity pioneers tapped to operate private equity investments in the cybersecurity industry.

Previously, as CEO & Co-Founder of Cysiv, Partha lead this cybersecurity start-up to achieve a 7x return for its principal investors and delivered greater than 11.7x growth in TCV over a three-year period to $40M. A proven CEO and operator in private and public companies, he previously lead corporate strategy and M&A at Trend Micro as well as having responsibility for global alliances and channel partners. He was also a founding partner of Trend Forward Capital, the initial venture capital fund of Global Forward Capital. As a part of his role in the venture fund, Partha was responsible for identifying and investing in early stage growth companies focused on BigData/AI, IoT, blockchain and infrastructure/security.

Partha’s previous experience in corporate development included managing alliances and driving go-to-market initiatives with strategic alliance partners such as AWS, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Vmware, Google, HP and IBM, and global systems integrators including Accenture, Deloitte, Cognizant, Capgemini, Wipro, Infosys, CSC, and CGI. He was also responsible for driving US channel strategy and subsequently global channel strategy including the launch of a new global partner program. Partha joined Trend Micro in 2009 through the acquisition of Third Brigade, where Partha served as the Vice President of Client Services. Partha has also held various senior management positions with Entrust, Encommerce and CMC.

Partha is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from India. Partha also has an MBA in Strategy and Finance from Robert Smith School of Business (University of Maryland). He is a frequent speaker and representative at industry events and forums around the world, and has been recognized as a channel chief by CRN in 2015 and 2016.

Antonio Cano has been the operations partner and expert in international regulations for Global Forward Capital's Fund I since its inception in 2017. As Global Forward has expanded our focus from venture capital to include private equity, Antonio's role has parallel developed to Managing Partner, responsible for firm operations and global associates.

With diverse international business development, finance, sales, and operations experience, Antonio has focused his career on helping businesses grow as a strategist, utilizing his multidisciplinary and multicultural background. Antonio has more than 25 years experience working for large-scale global companies, including in international finance and business operations roles with Trend Micro, Compuware, and Cargill. At Cargill, he also led Mexico's special strategic projects task force, including high-impact, international trading projects such as the Anti-Dumping Investigation of High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) from the United States defense, initiated in Sep 1997 and won in Jun 2001, and the defense of the Jun 1998 Anti-Dumping investigation on Meat importation from the United States.

Prior to this time, Antonio founded a management and outsourced backend services firm that had him, since early stages in his career, collaborating with other funders and multiple startups. During this period, Antonio occupied many board seats as an independent, promoted by investors or funders, known for his entrepreneurship experience and empathy as startups work through organizational, governance, compliance, and financial challenges. Antonio is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Mexico and holds a Master of Science in Finance (MS).

Keith Foster has more than 20 years’ experience in building high performing teams and global corporate cultures in software and technology companies. Previously, he served as the interim Chief People Officer at Forescout Technologies Inc. Before that, he was the Chief People Officer at Cysiv Inc that sold to Forescout in 2022.

Prior to joining Cysiv, Keith was a Partner at Trend Forward Capital since 2018. As a Partner, he served as a member of the board and a member of the compensation committee for Interaxon, a neurotechnology company that develops brain computer interfaces and for Affectiva, a software company that builds emotion sensing artificial intelligence.

Leading up to Trend Forward Capital, Keith has held multiple People and Transformation roles at Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, CHEP, and at Trend Micro.

Keith has a passion for transforming organizations by focusing on employee culture, talent, and organization effectiveness. Keith has attended Queens University Smith School of Business for executive education and holds an MA degree in Organization Behavior from Rollins College and a BA degree in Philosophy and Sociology from Hamilton College.

An entrepreneur and co-founder of one Canada’s most prestigious corporate law firms, Debbie Weinstein is a highly valued and much sought after legal counsel, known for taking the lead role in over 300 Mergers & Acquisitions globally. As the General Counsel for Global Forward Capital, Debbie brings over 30 years experience as a business owner, board member and advisor to provide pragmatic business law advice to the firm across our multi-stage investments.

Debbie’s M&A transactions have included the sale of companies to Time Warner, Cisco, Ericsson, Microsoft, Blackberry, and Salesforce.com. Currently, Debbie sits on the Board of Directors of OpenText Corporation (TSX and Nasdaq) and Ross Video, as well as for a variety of organizations including Pallium Canada.

Alessandro Babini, recently appointed to Managing Director, drives growth and sound investment practices on the investment team at Global Forward Capital. Previously Venture Partner at DN Capital focusing on early-stage investments, and the Co-Founder and CEO of Humon, a consumer mobile and wearable technology company sold to WHOOP in 2020, Alessandro brings both investment and operational experience to his role at Global Forward Capital. Alessandro was part of Fast Company’s most creative people in 2019, a Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum in Boston in 2018 and selected as Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2017 in 2 different categories. He completed a Bachelor of Science in business mathematics and statistics from the London School of Economics, a Master of Science in Management from HEC Paris, and a Master of Science in Management Studies from MIT Sloan.

Rita Evdokimova brings extensive experience in global expatriate tax planning, compliance and consulting for multinational companies to the Global Forward Capital investment team. In addition to advising corporate clients, she has acted as a trusted tax advisor to individual clients providing cross-border tax planning and advisory services including assisting with emigrating or immigrating from Canada and the United States. Her clients consisted of multinational corporations in various industries including technology, mining, and construction. She actively gives back to the community by being an active member and VP Finance for the Ottawa Chapter of the non-for-profit Organization of Women In International Trade (OWIT), where she engages with various organizations and businesses to promote women in international trade. Rita holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Carleton University majoring in Accounting and Finance, and is also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA – Ontario, Canada) and a Certified Public Accountant (Illinois, US).

Mary Haggar-Lee is Executive Assistant to Wael Mohamed at Global Forward Capital, based in Ottawa, Canada. An expert admin professional, Mary is the glue holding the Global Forward Capital team together around the world. Having supported Wael since joining Third Brigade as Office Administrator in 2005, Mary has also worked at Trend Micro, Cysiv, Trend Forward Capital and Forescout. Prior to Third Brigade, Mary was the Office Administrator for Celtic House Venture Partners and she began her administrative career at Nortel Networks supporting executives and teams over 11 years of service.

Dr. Husam Kinawi is a seriel entrepreneur, co-founding multiple companies, most recently Wedge Networks where he served as President and Chief Scientist. With a Ph.D. in Distributed Shared Memory Architectures from the University of Calgary, Canada, Master of Science from Queen Mary University of London, UK, a Bachelor of Science from Cairo University, and patents in network security (USPTO: US7630379B2) and applying machine learning techniques (USPTO: US11349852B2) to cybersecurity, Husam’s career in computer and security technologies reflects the global imperative facing the cybersecurity industry. Prior to Wedge Networks, Husam also co-founded Mpower Technologies Inc., a wireless telecommunications software company, in 1997 and ActiveIq.com (NASDAQ: AIQT), a Boston-based e-Business applications firm, in 1999. Dr. Husam Kinawi is an innovator with more than 20 years of research and development experience working with industry leaders such as Newbridge (Alcatel), Siemens, United Technologies, and Apple in the areas of distributed information systems, embedded applications and wireless Internet solutions. Husam has been a guest speaker at numerous major conferences, published several research papers and is the holder of multiple patents in the area of mobile and wireless devices. He also plays an active role in mentoring technology startups and recently lent his experience as a Director for Trusted Positioning, a pioneer in infrastructure-less, indoor positioning technology, from its inception to its successful acquisition by InvenSense Inc. (NYSE: INVN).

For more than 25 years, Laura Maio has been translating complex security and compliance requirements into actionable best-practices for Fortune 100 companies, governments, and individual users. At Global Forward Capital, Laura continues her career focus on cybersecurity and leverages experience working alongside private equity firms Advent International and Crosspoint Capital in her roles as Chief Communications Officer and Chief of Staff at Forescout Technologies, Inc. Throughout her career as a marketing executive, Laura has had a front row seat to advancements in cybersecurity working with leading experts at the forefront of security technologies. At Forescout, Trend Micro, Third Brigade and Entrust, Laura bridged gaps between product teams, marketers and customers to launch products, companies and spin-offs, and drive improvements in operations and revenue. Laura holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) Degree from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Steve Quane is global executive with 15 years of cybersecurity experience and more than 25 years of product management and service creation in software and SaaS services. In several executive roles including Chief Product Officer and EVP/GM Commercial, Network and Cloud business units, he was an integral part of a small executive team that grew Trend Micro from $250M to almost $2B during his tenure. He led the creation of the company’s Worry-Free product and SaaS lines which have generated over $1.5B in cumulative revenue. He also led Trend’s server, network and cloud acquisitions, resulting in growth from $150M to $550M recurring annual revenue among those product lines.

Prior to joining Trend Micro, Quane held product management and business development roles at Intel Corporation’s innovation labs, software and hosting business units where he also led the creation of Intel’s first commercial SaaS applications. Steve supported air combat operations as an Air Battle Manager for the US Air Force, including two tours of combat operations supporting the Bosnian War and a Commendation Medal. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Sciences from the United States Air Force Academy.

Zhengyu Liu has spent the majority of his 30+ year career focusing on cross-culture business expansion at multinational high-tech enterprises. Guiding global companies and investors in areas such as business development, business operations, government relations, policy analysis, and go-to-market strategy, Mr. Liu developed a rich expertise in China market entry, technology advocacy, subsidiary formation, and corporate leadership. Starting his career in academia, Mr. Liu lectured in electrical engineering at the Department of Radio Electronics at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology before transitioning to corporate technology. Over the last three decades, he has held senior roles in industry leaders including Chairman and General Manager of RIM Beijing, successfully bringing the maker of BlackBerry devices and services into the Chinese market, Country Manager and Chief Representative of the Beijing Office for Entrust Inc., CTO of Appconomy, and CEO of a video-conferencing joint venture between Cisco and Chinese electronics giant, TCL. As corporate advisor for Chinese, Canadian and US corporations, Mr. Liu’s shared his expertise as a business consultant with numerous multi-national companies including Shopify, where he advised their China go-to-market strategy.

Mr. Liu has Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications from Shanghai University of Science and Technology. He also completed the Executive Development Program at Guanghua Business School of Peking University.

Motofumi (Mike) Onishi’s extensive executive and entrepreneurial career has been focused bridging Western and Japanese business cultures to aid global companies and entrepreneurs enter and expand their businesses in Japan. Prior to joining Global Forward Capital, Mike founded as CEO, Next Chapter Inc which mentors foreign startups as well as provides advisory services to Japanese companies in area such as management, strategy, marketing, ecommerce and retail operations. Mike started his career working more than a decade at Itochu Corporation before serving in a series of senior executive roles at Dell, Amazon.com, Trend Micro and Johnson & Johnson and was notably the Japan GM at IPLocks, Crocs and Avery Dennison. Mike holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and is a lecturer of Marketing at Globis Executive School.

Joachim Weber is a global technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and global services. Prior to joining Global Forward Capital, Joachim was the Chief Technology Officer of Paessler, German-based experts in monitoring complex IT, OT and IoT infrastructures. Throughout Joachim’s career, he has balanced technical expertise with business operations acumen, holding a variety of global and EMEA leadership positions, including VP of Technical Solutions, Director of Global Services and Global Technical Council Leader. While at Trend Micro, Joachim was responsible for all technical areas such as presales, post-sales, consulting, training, technical support, and product management. At EMC Corporation, Joachim developed global services across channels and marketing, focusing on virtual data center practices. Joachim has a Diplom-Ingenieur, Electronics from Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences and has completed the Executive Program from Queen’s University, Canada.

Paul Tsaparis served as President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Canada for 12 years of his distinguished 30-year career in technology. In addition to joining Global Forward Capital as Senior Advisor, Paul continues to contribute to both industry and community, governing on public, private and not-for-profit boards. Numerous current board positions include: Chair of the Council of Ontario Universities; Chair of the Board of Governors for York University; Director for Ontario Health; Board Member at Metrolinx, an agency of the Government of Ontario; Director at Teranet Inc. and, Board Member at Indspire, an Indigenous national charity that invests in the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people for the long-term benefit of these individuals, their families and communities, and Canada.

Past Chair of the Information Technology Association of Canada Board of Governors, past Chair of Third Brigade, and past Board Member of Humber River Hospital and Greenwood College School, Paul is also a member of the WPO/YPO and Dean’s Advisory Council of the Schulich School of Business at York University, where he was honoured in 2004 with an alumni award and in 2013 as their ‘Executive-in-Residence’. He holds an MBA from York University and an undergraduate degree in science and economics from the University of Toronto. Paul was one of 100 people recognized in the University of Toronto’s 175th Anniversary ‘Great Minds for a Great Future’ Campaign, is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Mary Aradamis is the Administration Manager for Global Forward Academy, based in Alexandria, Egypt. A proficient admin professional, Mary brings 24 years’ experience in office and project management and team support to Global Forward Academy. Prior to Global Forward Academy, Mary was the Regional Offices Manager for Trend Micro in Cairo Governorate after spending more than 15 years in the Travel industry, including nine years as a Travel Operations Supervisor at American Express Travel Services Egypt. Mary has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Alexandria University.

Antonio Cano Estrada joins Global Forward Capital following his entrepreneurial work as the CEO and Co-founder of Heebe, Inc., a startup that supports high school students in achieving a higher education. Previously, he worked as a Cloud Business Analyst Intern at Trend Micro, Inc., focusing on analyzing cloud startups for M&A purposes and as a Supply Chain Intern. With experience as a financial analyst and having lived and studied in over five countries, Antonio brings a young global investment perspective to the Global Forward Capital team. Antonio graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Business Administration from Baylor University in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation, with a focus on financial investments and marketing. The same year, he was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame for his work supporting Texan communities through Heebe. In 2023, Antonio also completed the Summer Leadership Course at the European Business School INSEAD.

Mohamad Kasem joins Global Forward Capital building on his previous experience in both cybersecurity and finance industries, while also completing his Chartered Financial Analyst certification at American University in Cairo. Prior to joining Global Forward Capital, Mohamad spent four years in finance and operations roles at Trend Micro in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He also spent two years working in Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance Services at KPMG in Egypt. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management, double major in Financial Management and Accounting, from The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport.

Andrew Labib is a distinguished cybersecurity technical engineer bringing over seven years’ industry experience to the Global Forward Capital team. His career began at Trend Micro, followed by two years at Forescout, where he helped engage customers, performing product demonstrations and conducting proof of concept (POC) deployments. Andrew has captivated audiences at numerous events sharing in-depth knowledge of security challenges and solutions. He has also demonstrated commitment to advancing cybersecurity knowledge and practices as a security researcher at TELUS Labs Canada, where he engaged in critical vulnerability and malware research. Andrew has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt and numerous cybersecurity certifications.

Abeer Swelam brings more than 10 years’ experience across technology, sales and marketing roles in the cybersecurity industry to Global Forward Capital. A seasoned and entrepreneurial professional specializing in cloud and cybersecurity solutions, Abeer’s career has been marked by a series of strategic roles, from spearheading the global expansion of SOC-as-a-Service at Cysiv to driving business growth at Trend Micro. Her expertise in developing and selling advanced cybersecurity solutions has been demonstrated across various markets, including the MENA region. She holds a Master’s degree in Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Queens’ University, Canada and a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from Cairo University, Egypt.