Pavel Gurvich steps down as managing director of Akamai Israel
Pavel Gurvich steps down as managing director of Akamai Israel
Three years after selling his startup Guardicore to Akamai, Gurvich, a recipient of the Israel Defense Prize, is expected to found a new startup. Ofer Wolf will replace him.
Pavel Gurvich is stepping down from his role as the managing director of Akamai's R&D center in Israel and serving as SVP & GM of the Enterprise Security group at the company, Calcalist has learned. Gurvich held this position for three years, since Akamai acquired his startup, Guardicore, for $600 million in cash. Gurvich, who won the Israel Defense Prize during his military service in an IDF cyber unit, is expected to establish a new startup. He founded cybersecurity company Guardicore in 2013, along with Ariel Zeitlin and Dror Sal’ee, who continue to work at Akamai. At the time of the sale to Akamai, the company employed 300 people, 200 of whom were in Israel, and had raised $110 million.
Akamai's R&D center currently employs 700 people, out of around 10,000 employees worldwide, and it is considered the company's cyber hub. Akamai develops solutions to accelerate internet browsing and manages a distributed cloud platform used in 135 countries across 4,000 locations. Over the years, the company has shifted toward cybersecurity, which now accounts for more than half of its revenue, much of it concentrated in Israel.
Gurvich was a key player in this shift, including the acquisitions of Israeli cybersecurity startups Noname and Neosec. Despite the company's entry into cybersecurity, Akamai's stock has underperformed in the past year, dropping by 10%, in contrast to the tech and cybersecurity stock surge. Akamai currently has a market value of $15 billion. Although Akamai is an American company, it has strong ties to Israel through its co-founder, Daniel Lewin, who was killed during the 9/11 attacks while aboard one of the hijacked planes.
After Gurvich steps down, he will be replaced by Ofer Wolf, who has been appointed SVP & GM of the Enterprise Security Group. Wolf will lead Akamai's cybersecurity products in the Zero Trust category, which originated from Guardicore and have become a key growth driver for the company in recent years. Wolf was previously a VP at Check Point and Comverse and COO at Guardicore.
