Executives

Bill Conner

With a career that spans more than 25 years across numerous high-tech industries, Bill Conner is among the most experienced security and infrastructure executives worldwide. As a corporate turn-around and cybersecurity expert, Conner has achieved a number of milestones since he joined Entrust as president and CEO in April 2001, the latest of which was engineering the acquisition of Entrust by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in July 2009.

Upon leading Entrust, Conner immediately reset the company's priorities in order to regain momentum and return to profitability, while also changing the business model by reorganizing the organizational structure and products to focus on extended governments and the global 1,000 extended enterprises. These strategies enabled Entrust to regain competitiveness as a global leader in securing digital identities and information.

Under Conner's leadership, the company has delivered more new products, capabilities and solutions than in any period in the company's history, while also creating an industry-leading service and support organization. Conner has been recognized with the Corporate CEO of the Year Award as part of the annual Tech Titans Award program.

Part of an ongoing effort, Conner is a leader in the push to elevate information security to a corporate governance issue and fashion a public-private partnership to protect America's critical infrastructure. He launched and co-chaired the Business Software Alliance Information Security Governance Task Force, which released an informative security management framework for the industry. He was a driving force behind the EastWest Institute Worldwide Security Forum, which hosts an international dialogue on security innovation and thought leadership within the industry. And he co-chaired the Corporate Governance Task Force of the National Cyber Security Partnership, which released its report "Information Security Governance: A Call to Action." In addition, Conner was recognized with the Federal 100 award, which the government bestows to the top 100 individuals and organizations impacting the U.S. government.

Before Conner joined Entrust, he held various senior executive positions at Nortel Networks, including president of Nortel Enterprise Networks and e-Business Solutions, where he successfully turned around the global $5 billion business. Conner also served as president of Nortel's first Enterprise Data Networks line of business, where he orchestrated Nortel's $9 billion acquisition of Bay Networks. In addition, he served as Nortel Networks' first chief marketing officer and spearheaded the integration and alignment of the corporation's strategic communications, branding and marketing, including its global "Come Together" and "What Do You Want The Internet To Be?" marketing campaigns. This work had a dramatic increase in brand recognition and business results. He was named "Marketer of the Year" in 2000. Conner joined Nortel Networks in 1992 from AT&T, where he served in various leadership positions.

Conner is a member of the DFW Wharton Club Advisory Board and previously served on the boards of Travelocity, Williams Communications, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Conner graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He also earned a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Interviews:

Interview with Richard Stiennon

Executives

Bill Conner

Interviews:

In his words:

Entrust Authentication and Information Security Solutions