After 12-plus years with EMC Corp., Patrick Dennis has been named president and CEO of Guidance Software, effective May 1. The Pasadena, California-based digital forensics and cybersecurity hardware and software provider simultaneously announced that Barry Plaga, who stepped in as interim CEO and chief financial officer last November, will remain CFO at Guidance.

At EMC, Dennis was most recently senior vice president and chief operating officer of products. He also held executive roles in sales, services and engineering while with EMC, most recently overseeing strategy and operations of EMC's Cloud Management Division. In between his roles at EMC, Dennis also worked for Oracle Corp. as the group vice president of North American storage sales.

“We are excited about bringing Patrick with his many years of executive leadership at EMC and Oracle to Guidance Software. With his experience leading a large team that generated over $10 billion in annual revenue, Patrick is highly qualified to lead Guidance Software to realize its full growth potential,” Shawn McCreight, chairman of the board of directors and chief technology officer for Guidance Software, said in a statement.