Changes in the Channel: Leadership Moves and Shakeups May 04 – May 08

The channel is all about people - and we're tracking who they are, what they're doing, and where they're making an impact. Instead of sprinkling these people-focused announcements across various roundups, we're pulling them all together into one weekly story.

And here are the people moves we've tracked during the week of May 04 - May 08.

Bitdefender appoints Frank Koelmel as CRO: Bitdefender has appointed Frank Koelmel to lead global business development and revenue growth across its enterprise cybersecurity business. Koelmel brings more than three decades of cybersecurity leadership experience, most recently serving as CRO at Logpoint, now Guardsix. He previously held senior leadership roles at Cybereason, Palo Alto Networks, and FireEye, where he focused on scaling global sales teams and partner ecosystems.

Deepwatch appoints Brian Dhatt as CEO: Deepwatch has named Brian Dhatt as CEO and promoted Anand Ramanathan from chief product and technology officer to president as part of a broader leadership expansion around AI-driven security operations. Dhatt joins from BigCommerce, where he served as CTO, and previously held leadership roles at Borderfree. Ramanathan brings prior cybersecurity leadership experience from McAfee, Proofpoint, Cisco, and Skyhigh Security.

BlueVoyant appoints John Hernandez as CEO: BlueVoyant has named John Hernandez as CEO, succeeding co-founder Jim Rosenthal, who will remain chairman of the board. Hernandez brings enterprise software and cybersecurity leadership experience from roles at Quest Software, Genesys, Salesforce, IBM, and Cisco. At BlueVoyant, he will focus on expanding the company’s AI-driven platform strategy across MDR, third-party risk management, and digital risk protection services.

ThreatDown appoints Chung Ip as CFO and Lisa O’Reilly as VP of marketing: ThreatDown has expanded its executive team with the addition of Chung Ip and Lisa O’Reilly as it continues building its MSP and midmarket channel business. Ip joins from fintech company Cleo and previously worked in private equity at Accel-KKR and Outrider Management, bringing experience in scaling growth-stage technology companies. O’Reilly most recently served as VP of marketing at iVerify and previously held leadership roles at SlashNext, Proofpoint, and Dell.

Paessler appoints Mav Turner as chief product officer: Paessler has named Mav Turner to lead its global product organization. Turner brings nearly 15 years of product leadership experience across observability, monitoring, and network management. Most recently, he served as CPO at Kentik and previously held leadership roles at Tricentis and SolarWinds, including overseeing the MSP-focused business that later became N-able.

Netwrix expands executive bench with CTO, VP of engineering, and head of North America channel: Netwrix has appointed Avesta Hojjati, Marcin Gierlak, and Natalie Tomlin as it accelerates engineering development and partner-led growth around its identity and data security platform. Hojjati joins from SecurityScorecard, where he served as CTO leading AI, data science, and threat intelligence initiatives. He previously held engineering leadership roles at DigiCert, Symantec, and Yahoo. Gierlak most recently served as VP of engineering at Napster and previously worked at HID Global and IBM. Tomlin brings channel leadership experience from McAfee, Trellix, and Palo Alto Networks, with a focus on MSP and cloud partner growth.

Sumo Logic expands leadership team with new CISO and SVP of product management: Sumo Logic has appointed Jeremy Powell and Ben Cody as it pushes further into AI-powered security operations and platform consolidation. Powell joins from Lockthreat, where he served as CTO, and previously held CISO and CTO roles at Zyston, Verint, and AdTech Global. Cody most recently led product strategy at SailPoint and previously held leadership roles at Digital Guardian, McAfee, BMC Software, and Serena Software.

Seemplicity appoints Laurie Haley as VP of sales: Seemplicity has named Laurie Haley to lead global sales strategy and scale enterprise adoption of its agentic exposure management platform. Haley brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity experience spanning both engineering and revenue leadership. Earlier in her career, she led vulnerability management initiatives at CVS Caremark and later held sales leadership roles at Exabeam, Veracode, Qualys, Secureworks, and VeriSign.

Semperis appoints John Podboy as CISO: Semperis has named John Podboy to lead its next phase of growth with a stronger focus on risk, resilience, compliance, and AI-driven cyber defense. Podboy brings more than 15 years of cybersecurity and digital transformation leadership experience across financial services, industrial, media, and technology sectors. Prior to joining Semperis, he held security leadership roles at Fifth Third Bank, First Citizens Bank, Thomson Reuters, and GE Digital, where he focused on scaling enterprise security and resilience programs.

EvoluteIQ appoints Paul Maguire as chief growth officer and Abhinaya S R as CHRO: EvolutelIQ has added Paul Maguire and Abhinaya S R as it scales its enterprise automation platform. Maguire previously served as a board advisor to EvoluteIQ and has held go-to-market leadership roles at Appian, Coupa, and Pegasystems. He will now lead global go-to-market execution and enterprise expansion across North America, Europe, and APAC. Abhinaya joins from leadership roles at Abnormal AI, Thoughtworks, Infosys, and Soroco, where she focused on scaling talent and organizational strategy at high-growth technology companies.

The Cyber AB appoints Mathew Newfield as EVP and COO: The Cyber AB has named Mathew Newfield to oversee daily operations, strategic scaling, and ecosystem growth across the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. Newfield previously served on The Cyber AB’s board of directors and joins the executive team after leadership roles at Diversified, where he held positions including chief technology officer and chief commercial officer. Earlier in his career, he held cybersecurity leadership roles at Unisys, IBM, RSA, and CyberTrust.

Corelight appoints Hatem Naguib to board and Jack Huffard as advisor: Corelight has added Hatem Naguib to its board of directors and named Jack Huffard as an advisor as it expands its network detection and response platform amid growing AI-driven threat activity. Naguib most recently served as CEO of Barracuda Networks, where he helped shift the company toward a recurring-revenue platform model. Earlier, he held senior leadership roles at VMware, including work around the NSX network virtualization platform and strategic partnerships with vendors such as Cisco and HP. Huffard is a co-founder of Tenable and currently serves on its board after helping scale the company from startup to public cybersecurity vendor.