Parallels has announced the promotion to CEO of current company President Birger Steen.
Parallels founder and outgoing CEO Serguei Beloussov will continue his full-time role as Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Architect driving the company’s strategy and innovation.
Steen has been charged with managing and accelerating the growth Parallels has experienced in recent years. The profitable company generates more than $100 million in revenue.
Steen joined Parallels from Microsoft in September 2010. Since joining the company, Steen has overseen sales, marketing, product management, and customer support and services. He has also been integral in working with Beloussov to prepare the company for its next stage of growth.
As company president, Steen oversaw the launch of Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac and Parallels Plesk Panel 10.
In his expanded role, Steen will also be responsible for all day-to-day execution including engineering sales, partner relationships, support, marketing and deployment services.
Steen will work to further the company’s leadership in Cloud services enablement and desktop virtualization, where it has 78 percent market share according to NPD Group.
Prior to joining Parallels, Steen was Vice President of Small and Medium Business and Distribution at Microsoft. He held several other senior positions at the company since joining in 2002. He started his Microsoft career at as General Manager in Norway and then moved on to serve as General Manager and Vice President of Microsoft Russia.
Before Microsoft, Steen was CEO of Scandinavia Online AB, which was listed on the Stockholm and Oslo Stock Exchanges in 2000 under his leadership. Birger holds a Master of Science in Computer Science and Industrial Engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim and earned his MBA from INSEAD in France.