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At F5, we have embraced a ‘‘human-first’’ approach to the way we conduct our business, guided by our principle that we do the right thing for each other, our customers, our shareholders, and our communities. Reflected in our commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), human-first extends from the environmental sustainability of our products and operations to the well-being of our employees and our communities.
F5, Inc. holds itself to the highest standards of corporate governance. Under the oversight of our Board of Directors, we seek to protect our shareholders and optimize economic results while still honoring our responsibilities to customers, employees, partners, public officials and regulators, and the environment and communities in which we conduct business.
The Board and its committees outlined below administer all aspects of corporate governance for F5, evaluating the performance of management, promoting responsible and ethical decision-making, and providing an independent and objective source of advice and oversight as we pursue our corporate goals.
Mr. Higginson has served as F5’s Board of Directors chair since April 2004 with the exception of the period of July 1, 2015 to December 13, 2015 when he served as our Lead Independent Director, and as one of our directors since May 1996. He served as Chairman of Hubspan, Inc., an e-business infrastructure provider from 2009 to March 2012. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Hubspan from August 2001 to September 2007. From November 1995 to November 1998, he served as President of Atrieva Corporation, a provider of advanced data backup and retrieval technology. Mr. Higginson served as a director of Pivot3, Inc., a privately held company that develops and markets shared storage and virtual server appliances from December 2011 until February 2020, and Clarity Health Services, a privately held company that provides web-based healthcare coordination services. Mr. Higginson holds a B.S. in Commerce and a M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.
Marianne Budnik joined F5’s board of directors in October 2022. Ms. Budnik has served as Chief Marketing Officer for Talon Cyber Security since March 2022. She is an accomplished leader with extensive marketing and cybersecurity expertise. Ms. Budnik served as Chief Marketing Officer for CrowdStrike from December 2020 through March 2022, where she also oversaw the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. From May 2017 through December 2020 Ms. Budnik’s served as Chief Marketing Officer for CyberArk, a leader in Privileged Access Management and Identity Security solutions. Her previous experience includes leadership roles with SimpliVity, Acme Packet, CA Technologies, and EMC Corporation. Ms. Budnik earned an M.B.A. from Boston University and holds a bachelor’s degree from Babson College. She also serves on the Board of publicly traded Cerence, Inc.
Elizabeth Buse joined F5’s Board in 2020. Ms. Buse served as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Monitise PLC during 2014 and 2015, after retiring as Executive Vice President of Global Services for Visa, Inc., a position she held from 2013 to 2014. Ms. Buse held various other senior leadership positions at Visa during her 16-year tenure, including Group President for Asia-Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa. In addition, Ms. Buse has served on the board of U.S. Bancorp since 2018. She also served on the board of directors of eNett International, a privately held payment services company specializing in B2B international payment solutions, from March 2016 until June 2019, and Travelport Worldwide Limited, a publicly traded travel technology company, from September 2014 until June 2019. Ms. Buse holds a B.A. in Spanish Linguistics from UCLA and a M.B.A. from University of California – Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
Michael Dreyer joined our board of directors in October 2012. Mr. Dreyer retired in 2019 as Chief Operations Officer for Silicon Valley Bank, a high-tech commercial bank. Previously, Mr. Dreyer served as Chief Operating Officer at Monitise, a technology leader in mobile banking. Prior to joining Monitise, he was the Chief Information Officer at Visa Inc. from July 2005 to March 2014 where he was responsible for the company’s systems and technology platforms. Before joining Visa Inc., he was Chief Information Officer of Inovant, where he oversaw the development and management of Visa’s global systems technology. Mr. Dreyer previously served as Senior Vice President of processing and emerging products, and Senior Vice President of commercial solutions at VISA USA. He also held senior positions at American Express, Prime Financial, Inc., Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Downey Savings, Bank of America, and the Fairmont Hotel Management Company. Mr. Dreyer serves as a director of II-IV Incorporated, a publicly held company that supplies engineered materials, optoelectronic components and optical systems solutions, and Deep Labs, a private company specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Mr. Dreyer earned a M.B.A. and a B.A. in psychology from Washington State University.
Mr. Klein joined our board in 2015. He has almost 25 years of experience as a senior finance executive. He served as Chief Financial Officer of WME, a global leader in sports and entertainment marketing, from January 2014 until June 2014. Prior to that, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Corporation from November 2009 until May 2013. Mr. Klein spent over 11 years at Microsoft, including roles as Chief Financial Officer of the Server and Tools and Microsoft Business Divisions. From 1990 until 2002 Mr. Klein held senior finance roles with McCaw Cellular Communications, Orca Bay Capital, Asta Networks and Homegrocer.com. He currently serves on the board of directors of Denali Therapeutics, a publicly traded biotechnology company, and Accolade, a publicly traded health care technology and services company. Through January 2019, he served on the board of directors of Apptio Inc., a publicly traded software company, and is a director to a number of private companies. Mr. Klein holds a B.A. from Yale University and a M.B.A. from the University of Washington.
François Locoh-Donou is F5’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors. He joined F5 in April 2017, bringing to the office nearly two decades of enterprise technology experience building a wide range of products, teams, and operations around the world. Locoh-Donou previously held successive leadership positions at Ciena, including Chief Operating Officer; Senior Vice President, Global Products Group; Vice President and General Manager, EMEA; Vice President, International Sales; and Vice President, Marketing. Prior to joining Ciena, he held research-and-development roles at Photonetics, a French opto-electronics company. Locoh-Donou serves on the board of Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF). He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Cajou Espoir, a social enterprise focused on cashew processing that employs several hundred people in rural Togo, 80 percent of whom are women. He holds engineering degrees from École Centrale de Marseille and Télécom ParisTech in France and a M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Nick Mehta joined F5’s Board in 2019. Mr. Mehta has been Chief Executive Officer of Gainsight, a leading customer success SaaS platform provider since February 2013. Prior to Gainsight, he served as Chief Executive Officer of LiveOffice, which was acquired by Symantec in January 2012. Before joining LiveOffice, Mr. Mehta served in several product management and engineering leadership roles at Symantec. Mr. Mehta also serves on the board of Lead Edge Growth Opportunities, Ltd. He holds a B.A. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and a M.S. in Computer Science from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Michael Montoya joined F5’s Board in 2021. Mr. Montoya serves as Chief Information Security Officer at Equinix, a role he has held since October 2019. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Digital Realty and in numerous leadership roles at Microsoft, including as Chief Cybersecurity Officer, Asia, where he led security initiatives and operations for the development and delivery of Microsoft cloud security products and services. Montoya also held leadership positions at FireEye, EMC Corporation, and Avanade Inc. He currently serves as an advisor for several early-stage security companies. Mr. Montoya earned a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of New Mexico and holds advisor roles for several early-stage security companies.
Marie E. Myers joined F5’s Board in 2019. Ms. Myers became Chief Financial Officer of HP, Inc. in 2021. Previously she served as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Chief Transformation Officer with HP, Inc. From January 2019 through December 2019 Ms. Myers was Chief Financial Officer of UiPath, Inc., a robotic process automation company. Ms. Myers served as the Global Controller for HP, Inc., from November 2015 to December 2018 and held the role of HP’s Vice President of Finance for the Personal Systems Group, Americas from May 2012 to October 2015. Ms. Myers currently serves on the board of directors of KLA Corporation. She holds a B.A. and a B.S. in Economics from University of Queensland and a M.B.A. with a focus in Marketing and Finance from the University of St. Thomas.
James Phillips joined F5’s board of directors in January 2022. Phillips served as the President of Microsoft’s Digital Transformation Platform Group, a product development organization, from 2020 through April of 2022. His team built and operated Microsoft’s business applications and services; and the application, integration, data, and intelligence platforms beneath them - collectively powering the digital transformation initiatives of some of the world’s largest organizations. Phillips joined Microsoft in 2012 as a strategy advisor to Satya Nadella, then president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise division. Prior to joining Microsoft, Phillips co-founded and served as CEO of multiple software companies; held engineering, product management, corporate development, and marketing leadership roles at Intel, VMware, and Synopsys; and spent two years as a technology investment banker with UBS PaineWebber advising public and private software companies on M&A strategy and execution. Phillips holds a BS in Mathematics from Louisiana State University and earned his MBA with honors, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Sri Shivananda joined our Board in 2020. Mr. Shivananda is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of PayPal Holdings, Inc., a global leader in digital payment technologies. Prior to PayPal, he served as Vice President, Global Platform and Infrastructure of eBay, Inc., a publicly traded global ecommerce company, from November 2013 until June 2015, and prior to that, in other positions during his 14-year tenure with eBay. Mr. Shivananda holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in India, and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio University, Russ College of Engineering.
| Audit & Risk Oversight Committee | Talent & Compensation Committee | Nominating and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Committee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alan J. Higginson | |||
| Marianne Budnik | |||
| Elizabeth Buse | |||
| Michael Dreyer | |||
| Peter Klein | |||
| François Locoh-Donou | |||
| Nick Mehta | |||
| Michael Montoya | |||
| Marie E. Myers | |||
| James Phillips | |||
| Sri Shivananda |
