We are very pleased to welcome Eric to our Board of Directors", said John Watkins, Akoura's Chairman. "Eric brings an extraordinary wealth of knowledge and experience to Akoura. His insights and contributions will be extremely valuable as we enter an aggressive grow stage for our business".

"Akoura is among a group of leading technology companies that are having a profound impact on the information security industry", noted Engstrom. "With their innovative combination of super-block key encryption, obfuscation and strong authentication, Akoura solutions protect sensitive information wherever it is, inside and outside the enterprise perimeter. Akoura is helping define how enterprises can protect their most valuable asset, sensitive information. I am excited to lend my experience to such a talented company."

Prior to his role at Wildseed, Engstrom served in several key roles at Microsoft. During his tenure, he co-invented DirectX, one of the most rapidly adopted technology in Microsoft history and an inspiration for Microsoft's Xbox. He subsequently became the General Manager of DirectX Media and ChromEffects. Engstrom later assumed the role of General Manager for MSN Internet Access where he helped energized the business, tripling the subscriber base and placing the business on a sustainable growth course. Engstrom's journey at Microsoft is chronicled in the book "Renegades of the Empire."

Engstrom also serves as Chairman of the Boards of Directors of Catalytic Software, Ltd., a software services company, and Xoucin, a software intellectual property think tank.