AppSense appoints new CEO

APPSENSE the Daresbury-based provider of user virtualization solutions for enterprises, has appointed Darron Antill as its new chief executive officer.

Antill will be based at the company’s New York base in the US and until recently had been the firm’s chief operating officer.

He replaces the company’s founder Charles Sharland, who will continue as chairman of the board of directors.

“Since Darron joined AppSense as COO, he has been dedicated to the company’s growth and has played a huge role in the outstanding market position we are in today,” said Sharland.

“The user virtualization market has gone from education to widespread acceptance and understanding fairly quickly. User virtualization is now accepted as a crucial layer of the desktop, and as the only way to ensure user adoption in a desktop estate that is rapidly becoming a combination of physical and virtual technologies.”

Appsense is based at Daresbury Business Park. It said that it built “significant” momentum in 2010, growing sales by 60% to almost £29m last year. Staff numbers also grew by 43 percent to 285.

During the year, the firm also announced partnerships with a number of major vendors including Microsoft and McAfee.

“The user virtualization space is at a tipping point, with major technology companies and analysts now validating the category. I am excited by the market opportunity ahead of AppSense and am dedicated to continuing the company’s growth as I take on my new role,” said Antill.

“We have successfully expanded into new global territories, and we have grown orders by 80% during the past quarter. This is an incredibly exciting time for AppSense, and we expect this rapid expansion to continue as we research and move into new and emerging markets including the increasing importance of user virtualization on cloud and mobile device platforms.”