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IGEL Strengthens Product & Engineering Leadership with Appointment of Ash Chowdappa as Chief Product & Development Officer
Category: Enterprise Technology | Executive Leadership | Endpoint Security | Digital Workspace
IGEL has expanded its executive leadership team with the appointment of Ash Chowdappa as Chief Product & Development Officer (CPO), reinforcing the company’s focus on scaling innovation across its secure endpoint OS and cloud-managed workspace platform.
The move comes at a time of sustained global growth for IGEL, as enterprises increasingly prioritize secure, simplified endpoint strategies to support hybrid work and Zero Trust security frameworks. In his new role, Chowdappa will oversee the company’s global product and engineering organization, including product strategy, development, design, and execution. His mandate centers on accelerating innovation while ensuring the platform continues to meet the evolving needs of enterprise customers worldwide.
Scaling Leadership for Global Growth
Over the past year, IGEL has made several strategic leadership additions to support expansion across key markets and business functions. The company appointed Jeff Mitchell as Chief Revenue Officer and John Walsh as Field CTO for Critical Sectors, while also strengthening its presence in EMEA with Peter Goldbrunner as VP of Sales for the DACH region.
This executive expansion aligns with broader company momentum. In 2025, IGEL increased its global workforce by 20%, supported in part by the integration of Stratodesk, which is now part of IGEL. The company also expanded its geographic footprint, opening a new office in Romania and accelerating hiring across the United States and Europe.
According to CEO Klaus Oestermann, the leadership investments are designed to ensure operational excellence and customer-centric execution as IGEL continues to grow. He emphasized that Chowdappa’s track record in building high-performing global product organizations makes him well-positioned to guide the company’s next phase of innovation.
Deep Enterprise Product Experience
Before joining IGEL, Chowdappa held senior leadership roles at Aruba Networks (HPE), Citrix, and ChargePoint. Across these organizations, he led global business units generating multi-billion-dollar revenues, managing distributed teams and delivering enterprise-grade solutions across networking, security, cloud computing, end-user computing (EUC), and OT/IoT environments.
His experience spans the full product lifecycle — from strategy and roadmap development to large-scale commercial deployment. That background is expected to play a critical role as IGEL continues to advance its immutable endpoint operating system and cloud-delivered workspace capabilities.
Chowdappa noted that IGEL has built a strong reputation for enabling secure endpoint modernization without adding operational complexity. He expressed enthusiasm about joining during a period of strategic investment and platform expansion, highlighting his focus on elevating product delivery and strengthening customer and partner experiences.
Advancing Secure Endpoint Innovation
IGEL’s Secure Endpoint OS Platform is designed to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), extend device lifecycles, and minimize attack surfaces through its Preventative Security Model. By leveraging an immutable, modular architecture with no local data storage, the platform enforces Zero Trust principles while enabling centralized cloud management.
As enterprises face mounting endpoint security risks and increasing IT complexity, IGEL’s leadership expansion signals a continued commitment to innovation in secure digital workspace delivery.
The company will showcase its latest developments at its annual Now & Next® event, scheduled from March 30 to April 2 at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach, where customers and partners will gather to explore advancements in secure endpoint technology.
Founded in 2001 in Bremen, Germany, IGEL operates globally with U.S. offices and an ecosystem of more than 100 IGEL Ready partners across over 50 countries.