McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE) today announced plans to open a new McAfee Labs facility in Santiago, Chile. The new facility is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2010 with plans to ultimately house more than 60 researchers, developers, QA engineers and support personnel.
After evaluating several locations around the world, McAfee selected Santiago due to the city’s well-developed infrastructure, the country’s political and economic stability, available government incentives and the strong emphasis Chileans put on education.
“This expansion of McAfee Labs will help us improve the McAfee customer experience and allow for more technical innovation,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president for McAfee Labs.
Welcoming today’s announcement, Hernán Cheyre, executive vice president of CORFO, the Chilean Economic Development Agency, said, “Chile is swiftly implementing the reconstruction of the areas affected by the earthquake. The country is and still will be one of the best locations in Latin America to invest in global services as McAfee is demonstrating by deciding to establish McAfee Labs here in Chile. The trust investors place in our country is the best proof that we are ready to respond to their expectations.”
McAfee Labs is responsible for the technology that helps McAfee secure computers around the world. The expansion in Latin America expands the company’s capability to deal with the continued onslaught of malicious software and to further innovate on McAfee technology.
Hiep Dang, director of McAfee Labs operations for the Americas, said, “By establishing a research team in Chile, we will not only be able to better serve our customers in Chile and Latin America, but around the globe. Chile is a great place to do this – the country has a plethora of talent and will give us a truly international operation that will support our drive to strengthen our position as the number one security vendor.”
McAfee is currently working with major universities in Chile for recruitment and collaboration on curriculum.