Michael Murphy has left Symantec Canada

CDN has learned that the long-time subsidiary head is no longer with the security vendor

After a career of over 16 years with the security vendor, CDN has learned that Michael Murphy is no longer with Symantec Canada (NASDAQ: SYMC).

A Symantec veteran, Murphy has been a familiar face in the Canadian channel, running the vendor’s Canadian subsidiary as vice-president and general manager for Canada. He has also a regular on CDN‘s Top Newsmakers lists.

The circumstances of Murphy’s departure from Symantec are unclear at this time. His responsibilities will be filled by Brett Shirk, Symantec Corp.’s vice-president of sales for the eastern region. Shirk is based in the Detroit area.

A spokesperson for Symantec Canada confirmed Shirk will be taking over Murphy’s responsibilities, under his current title. It has yet to be determined if this will be on an interim or permanent basis, and whether Symantec Canada will have a new dedicated subsidiary chief or not. Symantec was unwilling to discuss the details of Murphy’s departure.

Murphy joined Canada in April of 1995 and presided over a period of strong growth for Symantec, helping it to become one of the leading security vendors in the Canadian market. He also worked with channel chief Fred Patterson to build and support Symantec’s channel partners in Canada, as the security market evolved from end-point protection to the data centre and virtualization.

CDN spoke to Murphy last year at Symantec Vision 2010):

Author: Jeff Jedras

A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate.He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN.His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.