BRSD.L Regulatory News (BRSD)

27 July 2021

BrandShield Systems plc

("BrandShield", or the "Company")

Board Changes / PDMR dealing 

BrandShield Systems plc (AIM: BRSD), a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions from brand protection to online threat hunting, is pleased to announce the appointment of Harel Kodesh as a Non-Executive Director with effect from 27 July 2021. Non-Executive Director Zar Amrolia will leave the board at the same time.

Harel, who is based in Silicon Valley, brings a wealth of experience to BrandShield, particularly in terms of driving the rapid growth and expansion of technology companies. Harel served as Operating Partner at Silver Lake Partners, a global leader in technology investments with $74 Billion in combined assets under management and committed capital. Prior to Silver Lake, Mr. Kodesh served as Vice President at Predix and Chief Technology Officer at GE Digital. He was responsible for driving the technical strategy behind Predix, GE's cloud platform for the Industrial Internet, and the applications developed by GE for the industrial sector. Before joining GE, Mr. Kodesh co-founded and served as CEO at Nurego, a spinoff of EMC Corp. At EMC, he acted as Executive VP for Cloud Business Systems and as CEO of Mozy, its wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to Backup as a Service. He is currently a partner at BiologyWorks, which develops at-home molecular tests for viral infections.

From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Kodesh served as Chief Product Officer at Amdocs, transforming the organization from a professional services company to a product driven offering. He also served as CEO of Wingcast, the Ford Motor Company Qualcomm telematics joint venture. Until 2000, Mr Kodesh held various executive positions at Microsoft, including VP of the Information Appliances Division leading, the development of the Microsoft Windows CE - or Windows Mobile - operating system, and pioneered its mobility business.

Mr Kodesh holds a BS in computer engineering and a MS in electrical engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. He has served on boards for Mobilitec, DreamBox Learning, BSquare and Modern Systems. Mr Kodesh also sits on the Board of Councillors for USC's Viterbi School of Engineering. Mr. Kodesh was the 2017 recipient of the USC Viterbi School's Daniel J. Epstein Award for Engineering Management.

Granting of Director Options

Mr Kodesh has been awarded 240,000 options to subscribe for one ordinary share each with an exercise price of 25 pence per share (the "Director Options"). 50% of the Director options will vest after 12 months from the date of grant and 50% will vest on the second anniversary of grant. There is no overall increase in the number of Director options in aggregate due to those granted to the outgoing Director lapsing. The issue of Director options is outlined below:

Yoav Keren, co-founder and CEO of BrandShield, commented:

"BrandShield is delighted to welcome Harel to the Board of the Company. He brings a wealth of experience in growing successful technology companies and we view his addition to the Board as a huge vote of confidence in what BrandShield is doing and its potential in the short term. Harel intends to be particularly active in driving further US expansion for BrandShield within his extensive network of contacts.

The Board would also like to thank Zar Amrolia for his unstinting support as a Director of the Company through what has been a very busy 12 months and will continue to value his advice and input going forwards."

Further information in relation to Harel Kodesh (aged 63)

In addition to his appointment to the Board, Mr Kodesh holds or has held the following directorships or partnerships in the past five years: 

Current directorships Previous directorships

Biology Works, Inc. Silver Lake Partners

GE Digital

Tignis Inc

Bsquare EMEA Limited

Red Loop Media

Mr Kodesh has a beneficial interest in 1,381,761 ordinary shares of the Company, representing 1.17% of the issued share capital.

Save for the information above, there are no further disclosures to be made in accordance with Rule 17, Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in respect of the appointment.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Market Abuse Regulation (Regulation 596/2014) (as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended).

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For further information please visit https://www.brandshield.com/ or contact: 

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About BrandShield

BrandShield is a leading cybersecurity company founded in Israel by cybersecurity experts that protect the world's largest brands and consumers from phishing attacks, online fraud, and other online threats posed by dangerous cybercriminals. Through its AI/ML platform, BrandShield identifies, tracks, and eliminates online threats for global brands and organizations, including Bristol Myers Squibb, Levi's, NewBalance, Swisscom, and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute. BrandShield is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM under ticker symbol BRSD. To learn more about BrandShield, please visit the company website at www.BrandShield.com.