Lavaste will drive adoption of the company's innovative authentication technology to protect online services and will be responsible for building on TriCipher's customer base, developing business strategy, and creating new partnerships in the EMEA region. Based in Paris, France, Lavaste will report to TriCipher president and CEO John De Santis, effective immediately.

"We're responding to strong demand in the EMEA market fuelled by our unique ability to provide multiple authentication types from a single system and to protect one time password token deployments from Man in the Middle attacks," said John De Santis, president and CEO of TriCipher, Inc. "Francois joins the team at a great time, when the EMEA region is painfully aware of the need to plan ahead for future attack types. His deep knowledge of global markets will strengthen TriCipher's position internationally and allow us to build our presence quickly."

Lavaste has fifteen years of experience building successful technology companies worldwide. Prior to joining TriCipher, he served as vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy at Mindjet, a leading provider of visualisation and information management software , where he ran communications, lead generation, product management, channel programmes and strategy in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany. Prior to Mindjet, Francois served as vice president of marketing for anti-spam provider Brightmail, where he was instrumental in defining the anti-spam category and in establishing the company as the leader in email security. He successfully launched multiple Brightmail products and services in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, contributing to its June 2004 acquisition by Symantec in a cash transaction valued at approximately $370 million.

Prior to Brightmail, Francois held a variety of senior marketing and strategy positions at Intuit, McKinsey, R.J. R. Nabisco, L'Oreal, and Procter & Gamble. Lavaste holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master's degree from ESCP-EAP European School of Management.

"Authentication is critical to providing a safe environment for people to leverage the benefits of the Internet, and TriCipher's solution introduces a whole new level of security, manageability, and usability that increases the effectiveness of authentication in protecting a users' digital identity," said Lavaste. "I am very excited to join the company and look forward to working closely with our customers and partners to build upon the success already generated in the region. With new forms of attacks happening every day, it is the right time for TriCipher to execute aggressive growth plans in EMEA."