Palo Alto Networks, the network security company, today announced that Punit Minocha has been appointed vice-president of business development and corporate development. Minocha brings more than 18 years of senior-level business development experience working for technology companies such as Trend Micro and Intel Corporation.

As Palo Alto Networks' first vice president of business development, Minocha will oversee its business and corporate development activities, including the development of strategic alliances, OEM relationships, and technology acquisitions and partnerships. Minocha joins the company at a time of extremely rapid growth and growing interest from customers, channel partners, and technology companies. The company recently passed the 1,600 customer mark in three years of product availability and continues to expand its presence in enterprise networks worldwide ahead of the global economic recovery.

"Punit Minocha joins Palo Alto Networks at a time where the interest in the market in working with us is at an all-time high," said Lane M. Bess, CEO, Palo Alto Networks. "His experience is a perfect match for Palo Alto Networks at this stage in our development, and the relationships he'll develop with technology partners will be of immense value when the company enters the public markets."

Minocha joins Palo Alto Networks from Trend Micro, where during his 8-year tenure he most recently served as senior vice-president of corporate development, data center solutions, and cloud computing. Previously he held roles in business development at Nexsi Systems and Intel Corporation, where he was for more than 8 years.

"Palo Alto Networks is on the radar of every major technology vendor as it continues to pursue its strategy to revolutionize the network security space," said Minocha. "I am excited to join the world-class team at Palo Alto Networks and look forward to helping accelerate its growth as it continues to expand globally."

Minocha received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, a master's degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of New Hampshire.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks™ is the network security company. Its next-generation firewalls enable unprecedented visibility and granular policy control of applications and content – by user, not just IP address – at up to 10Gbps with no performance degradation. Based on patent-pending App-ID™ technology, Palo Alto Networks firewalls accurately identify and control applications – regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or SSL encryption – and scan content to stop threats and prevent data leakage. Enterprises can for the first time embrace Web 2.0 and maintain complete visibility and control, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership through device consolidation. For more information, please visit http://www.paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks, "The Network Security Company," the Palo Alto Networks Logo and App-ID are trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.