Black Duck Taps Protobrand Chairman and Founder Phil Granof as CMO

Open Source Software Management and Consulting Firm to Expand Brand Footprint

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Jul 01, 2013, 09:05 ET

BURLINGTON, Mass., July 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's top investment banks, electronics and automobile manufacturers, software vendors, movie production companies and social media sites have two things in common: broad use of open source software (OSS), and utilizing Black Duck to manage it. Once nascent, open source has now become common vernacular and an important strategic tool among enterprises, many of whom work with Black Duck to manage their consumption and use of open source. Yet surprisingly, only a handful of OSS-related companies have strong global brand recognition.

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This week, Black Duck announced that Phil Granof has joined its team as Chief Marketing Officer, tasking him with elevating the company's message on the world's stage. The leader in its field with more than 1,100 customers in 24 countries, Black Duck provides software and consulting at the heart of open source use in software development. "In addition," said Granof, "the company is riding a wave comprised of two of the most important cultural trends affecting all areas of life, from business to government to education: the twin pillars of Open and Community.

"When people ask me why I joined Black Duck, I tell them to imagine a company able to marshal the cultural trends of Open and Community to unlock billions of dollars of value for enterprises and improve the creative capacity of nearly every enterprise software team on Earth. Wouldn't you want to be a part of that?"

Chairman and Founder of Protobrand, a branding firm headquartered in Boston, Mass., Granof is no stranger to the technology industry. During his more than 20 years in consumer insights and brand development, Granof has worked with tech giants IBM, Samsung and Sprint; most importantly, he believes his work at Black Duck will also leverage his experience with clients such as Bank of America, Infiniti, Citibank, Deloitte, Lahey Clinic, Mastercard and Reebok. "We have as much to learn from Jet Blue as Cisco from a brand perspective," points out Granof.

"Phil's unique set of skills and track record of success make him the perfect fit for Black Duck as we take our company into the future," said CEO Tim Yeaton. "As CMO, Phil will be instrumental in advancing Black Duck's mission to help our customers increase their strategic use of open source while simultaneously strengthening our collaboration with the greater community. We look to Phil to help Black Duck ultimately become one of the world's most admired technology brands."

Granof holds an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business and a B.A. from UC Berkeley in psychology and organizational behavior. Prior to Protobrand, Granof worked at Lippincott Mercer, Anspach Grossman Portugal (now Brand Union) and Ogilvy & Mather.

"Every now and then in the field of consulting you come across a client with so much to offer it knocks you off your feet. Black Duck is one of those organizations," said Granof. "It not only encourages and enables the use of open source across industries, but also defines the space by championing ideas such as inner-sourcing, a mode of enterprise value creation that truly embraces an open source mindset."

About Black Duck Software
Offering award-winning software and consulting, Black Duck is the partner of choice for open source software adoption, governance and management. Enterprises of every size depend on Black Duck to harness the power of open source technologies and methods. As part of the greater OSS community, Black Duck connects developers to comprehensive OSS resources through Ohloh.net, and to the latest commentary from industry experts through the Open Source Delivers blog. Black Duck also hosts the Open Source Think Tank, an international event where thought leaders collaborate on the future of open source. Black Duck is headquartered near Boston and has offices in San Mateo, St. Louis, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing. For more information about how to leverage open source to deliver faster innovation, greater creativity and improved efficiency, visit www.blackducksoftware.com and follow us at @black_duck_sw.