Brad Carpenter

Cloud backup provider Newline Software has appointed a former Microsoft general manager to serve as its chief executive officer.

Brad Carpenter arrives at Newline after 20 years at Microsoft, serving in a variety of capacities. He also worked with Newline founders Kory Gill and Marius Nita while at Microsoft.

Carpenter has served as a consultant to Newline and was an early angel investor in the company. He also joined the company’s board of directors this past summer. With the hiring of Carpenter, the Redmond-based startup now has six employees.

In an interview with TechFlash on Monday, Gill said he always wanted to have three people at the top of the company, similar to Google’s corporate structure.

“It’s a great strengthening of the company to position Newline as a leader of the online privacy space,” Gill said. “I really see this as something that’s going to drive the momentum.”

Carpenter said he wants to help release the company’s OPTIC platform to third-party developers.

“For me, this is an exciting product,” he said. “Being able to work with Kory and Marius again is an exciting opportunity.”

Gill and Carpenter said Newline will be looking for venture funding in the future. So far, Newline has raised $1.3 million in funding from friends and family.

Newline Software was founded in 2008 after a power surge caused Gill’s home computers to fail, causing him to lose all of his data. This experience led to the company’s cloud backup service.