Fairbanks brings decades of IT, marketing and cybersecurity experience as the enterprise browser leader scales for rapid growth and market momentum

Island’s Ellen Roeckl named Chief Communications Officer to further expand the enterprise browser category and Island brand leadership

As Island scales globally in the wake of strong U.S. and International demand for its market-leading Enterprise Browser, Island today announced the addition of Matt Fairbanks to its executive team as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the appointment of Ellen Roeckl, Island’s former head of marketing, as the company’s first Chief Communications Officer (CCO). Fairbanks is tasked with global expansion of pipeline and product leadership; Roeckl will drive category awareness and communicate Island’s vision, capabilities, and perspectives to the company’s growing community of stakeholders and influencers.

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Matt Fairbanks has joined Island as Chief Marketing Officer. (Photo: Business Wire)

Fairbanks, most recently CMO at Sophos, is an accomplished IT and cybersecurity veteran with extensive experience leading marketing for some of the world’s most respected technology and cybersecurity brands, including McAfee, Citrix, Symantec, and Veritas. As head of marketing, Fairbanks was instrumental in the company’s successful IPO and subsequent growth. With Fairbanks as CMO, the Sophos marketing team redefined and reinvigorated the brand, delivered massive increases in marketing pipeline, and helped the company realize a 3X increase in annual recurring revenue.

Roeckl will drive the company’s image and reputation in the market, continuing to build the enterprise browser category and educating on its transformational potential in the modern enterprise. She has decades of experience leading marketing and communications organizations at public B2B technology leaders including Fastly, Symantec and Juniper Networks, as well as multiple executive leadership roles at Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s largest communications firms.

“We’re seeing tremendous demand for Island’s Enterprise Browser across all industries and segments, and we are well ahead of what we anticipated in terms of category creation and market penetration, so we are adding some significant horsepower to marketing in order to maximize the opportunity in front of us,” said Mike Fey, Island CEO and Co-founder. “I’m delighted Matt will be joining us as CMO, bringing to bear decades of experience in driving growth, while Ellen assumes the role of Chief Communications Officer to build on our already stellar image in the market. Matt and Ellen were both core executives who served with several other Island leaders at other companies, so we know the combination of the two of them will be very powerful in driving revenue and Island’s reputation as the enterprise browser category leader.”

“I’ve never been more excited about a company and its technology than I am about Island and its paradigm-changing Enterprise Browser,” said Fairbanks. “Too often workers have had to endure friction and overhead in the name of better security. With Island’s Enterprise Browser, enterprises get security and control, users get a seamless work experience and IT leaders realize the benefits of far greater simplicity and compelling economic advantages. I’m thrilled to join Island to help bring this breakthrough solution to enterprises everywhere.”

“The Island Enterprise Browser is a genuinely novel approach to solving age-old problems and enabling the workplace of the future. That makes world-class awareness, education, and communications a top priority,” added Fey. “With Ellen as CCO, we are very well-positioned to continue to define and lead this market.”

Roeckl’s appointment and the addition of Fairbanks follow Island’s recent raise of $100 million in its Series C financing round, which values the company at $1.5 billion. In addition, Island recently hired Steve Tchejeyan as President; Keith Weatherford as Vice President of Worldwide Channel Sales; and Richard Greene as Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. The infusion of capital and the company’s go-to-market leadership moves are designed to ensure that the Island Enterprise Browser realizes the commercial success that the technology deserves.

The Enterprise Browser

The Enterprise Browser is the desktop of the future, enabling organizations to protect users and data at the very point where they interact with SaaS and internal web applications. By using the Island Enterprise Browser, security teams can fully control the last mile, from basic exfiltration protections such as copy, paste, download, upload, and screenshot capture, to more advanced security demands such as smart network routing and multi factor authentication insertion. This opens up unprecedented opportunities across a growing number of enterprise use cases, including securing critical SaaS and internal web applications from data leakage, safe access for contractors and BYOD workers, and full governance over privileged user accounts. It also delivers a native user experience for the hybrid worker in contrast to costly and poor-performing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), while supporting built-in safe browsing, web filtering, web isolation, exploit prevention, and Zero Trust network access at much lower cost and with a significantly better user experience.

About Island

Island is the pioneer and market leader of the enterprise browser market. Island’s Enterprise Browser is the ideal enterprise workplace, where work flows freely while remaining fundamentally secure. With the core needs of the enterprise naturally embedded in the browser itself, Island gives organizations complete control, visibility, and governance over the last mile, while delivering the same smooth Chromium-based browser experience users expect, boosting both security and productivity. Led by experienced leaders of the enterprise security and browser technology space and backed by leading venture funds – Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Stripes, Georgian, Cisco Investments, Prysm Capital and Canapi Ventures – Island is redefining the future of work for some of the largest, most respected enterprises in the world. Island is based in Dallas with research and development in Tel Aviv and can be reached at info@island.io or (866) 832-7114.

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