Avast said Vince Steckler plans to retire in 2019 after ten years in the top job and will be succeeded by Ondrej Vlcek, currently president of the company’s consumer business.

Steckler, widely considered to be the brains behind Avast,  led the company through the major acquisition of AVG and its listing on the London Stock Exchange. He is credited with having grown the company’s revenues from under $20 million to over $800 million.

He will step down on June 30, but will remain available in an advisory capacity for another year.

Vlcek, who started at Avast in 1995 as a developer, was part of the team that took the company public, and also led the integration of the consumer business after the company bought AVG in 2016.

Avast, which pioneered the “freemium” model in security software by giving away its basic product free, said it expects to deliver high single-digit adjusted revenue growth in 2019, while adjusted core earnings margin percentage is expected to remain broadly flat year on year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 6.7 percent to $447.7 million, in the year ended 31 December. Adjusted revenue, excluding discontinued business, rose 9.5 percent to $811.5 million.

The cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street were utterly convinced the company would make core earnings of $450.01 million on revenue of $819.16 million. Avast stock had risen nearly 24 percent since its May debut.