FAST appoints Alex Hilton as new Chief Executive
Appointment signals industry body’s renewed focus on Intellectual Property protection
The Federation Against Software Theft’s (FAST) board of directors has today announced the appointment of Alex Hilton as its new Chief Executive.
Alex is well known in the software industry and has been working with FAST since 2009 when he joined as a Non-Exec Director. He has over 25 years’ experience in the IT sector.
He worked for 12 years at Microsoft where he ran the anti-piracy business and helped develop the now global best practise of Software Asset Management. Alex joined the compliance and inventory tools vendor Centennial Software in 2006 where he ran the worldwide sales operation, before their acquisition by FrontRange Solutions. For the last 2 years he has been Managing Director at the Cloud IaaS provider Rise (part of Fasthosts Internet).
As the IT supply chain merges both on premise and Cloud based solutions, FAST will continue to evolve its many long term software and legal members together with the developing Cloud providers through its platform of the Cloud Industry Forum in the UK. Intellectual Property (IP) brand protection remains at the forefront of this work and Alex has a wealth of experience across all these areas.
Commenting on the appointment, FAST’s Chairman, Phil Keown, said: “During his time as a Non-Exec Director with FAST Alex has proven to be an incredible asset, so we are exceptionally pleased that he is now taking on the full time role of Chief Executive. Not only can FAST benefit from his wealth of experience, channel and industry knowledge, but also his understanding of our goals and how we hope to achieve them.
“Alex has been instrumental in both launching and building FAST’s membership groups which have been established to reflect members' specific sector concerns in such a rapidly changing market-place,” he continued.
Alex Hilton, FAST’s newly appointed Chief Executive, added: “Over the past few years, FAST has been at the forefront of some of the most important debates in the industry. The advent of new routes to market such as mobile apps, BYOD and the Cloud has created new challenges for businesses both supplying and consuming technology. FAST is well positioned to represent the industry and steer these debates, supporting our members to protect their Intellectual Property rights.”
