Abaca Expands Executive and Management Teams with Secure Messaging Veterans

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaca Technology™, an award-winning innovator of email protection and messaging security, today announced a series of executive appointments to extend its leadership as a new breed of cloud protection services. The team includes Byron Lee, vice president of engineering; Frank Basso, vice president of online operations and Andy Morris senior director of product management. These appointments, effective immediately, round out the company's executive management team, as it continues to build market momentum through new customers, strategic partnerships and an expanded portfolio of new and enhanced solutions.

"We are committed to delivering a portfolio of products that guarantee unparalleled messaging protection from spam, virus and phishing attacks," said Steve Kirsch, CEO and Founder of Abaca. "To further this momentum, Abaca has created a team with powerful, tested leadership that will be critical as the company moves aggressively to build on its lead in this market. With deep email security and messaging operations experience, these new additions to the Abaca team will be instrumental in attaining our overall business objectives."

Byron S. Lee leads Abaca's research and development team and is responsible for delivering the high quality software that drives Abaca's cloud protection services and gateway servers. Lee is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of engineering experience in the high technology market. Prior to joining Abaca, he served as vice president of engineering at M-Factor, acquired by DemandTec, where he led the development of their SaaS deployed marketing and predictive analytics solutions, including software development, QA, tools and infrastructure and data management. Byron previously held executive positions at LogLogic, AlphaDetail, Inc. and engineering positions at EPocrates, Inc. and Telleo. Byron holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.

Frank Basso brings over 20 years extensive experience in the information technology and service industry and is responsible for architecting and operating Abaca's highly reliable messaging infrastructure. He founded and remains a principal at Total Solutions Group, assisting companies in all aspects of network design, implementation, maintenance and expansion. While working at Proofpoint, Basso managed information technology and operations including SaaS services that consisted of 24/7 non-stop security applications delivered from three geographic disparate datacenters. He acted as an advisor for technology for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and oversaw the management of all datacom and telecom services and has held key positions with Zscaler, Inc., TKO Software, AirFlash, Webraska and Creative Computer Applications.

Andy Morris is the voice of Abaca's customers. He is responsible for ensuring that Abaca's products and services exceed customers' current expectations and future needs. Andy Morris' career in security and system management spans more than 20 years, having held influential positions at Clearswift, IBM, CA, LogLogic and Micro Focus. Andy joined Abaca from Clearswift, where he transformed the company from a software vendor to one of appliances and managed services, shipping the world's first AJAX based security device and the first email and web dual security appliances to share common management and user policy. Mr. Morris obtained his BSc Honors from DeMontford University, England, in Computer Science.

About Abaca Technology Corporation

Abaca Technology Corporation, a Steve Kirsch company, has developed and marketed the world's most accurate spam filter. Since 2005, Abaca's hybrid appliance gateway servers leverage its patent-pending ReceiverNet's cloud reputation to deliver unprecedented accuracy. Abaca's private cloud offering is a best of breed spam filter in a VMware-ready virtual appliance. Abaca solutions are guaranteed to deliver 99 percent spam filtration, as well as protection against viruses and phishing attacks. Abaca solutions are designed to fit into any size environment, including network appliances, virtual appliances and distributed servers. Abaca enables SMBs, enterprises, large email service providers, colleges and universities to keep spam out of their inbox the way Yahoo! does. Abaca is a privately held company headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information about Abaca, please visit www.abaca.com.

SOURCE Abaca Technology Corporation