Darktrace names Ed Jennings as new president and CEO

Darktrace has announced the appointment of Ed Jennings as its new president and chief executive officer, effective March 23.

A seasoned industry leader, Jennings arrives with more than 25 years’ industry experience, most recently serving as CEO of cloud-based work management platform provider, Quickbase. Under his leadership, the company successfully doubled its annual revenue.

Prior to that, Jennings held the role of chief operating officer at London-based cyber security vendor Mimecast, where he played an instrumental role in the firm’s IPO and significant international expansion.

Jennings has also served in go-to-market leadership roles at Veracode, ADP, Copanion, and PTC.

In an announcement, Charles Goodman, chairman and interim CEO of Darktrace, said Jennings’ extensive experience will strengthen the firm’s strategic focus as it continues on its expansion journey.

“Ed is a veteran technology leader who has successfully scaled other cybersecurity and software category leaders,” he commented.

“He will bring strong strategic focus to Darktrace as it brings more of its AI-native cybersecurity capabilities to organizations around the world.

“Ed is a people-focused leader with a skill for building high-trust, high-performance teams. I am delighted that he has chosen to join Darktrace.”

Jennings replaces former CEO Jill Popelka who stepped down from the role at the end of January, having joined the business in January 2024. He will now work to build on the growth of Darktrace’s ActiveAI Security Platform and expand the firm’s 10,000-strong customer base.

Commenting on his new role, Jennings said Darktrace has “incredible first-mover advantage” as AI technology adoption continues to rise globally.

“As an AI-native cybersecurity company, its behavioral AI platform is uniquely positioned to detect and respond to attacks, even if they’ve never been seen before,” he explained.

“As society grapples with a fast-moving geopolitical landscape and unprecedented technology adoption, the market for Darktrace’s products and services is immense.”

In a post on LinkedIn, Jennings said he will work to refine the company’s voice in a crowded market and drive growth.

“We have the technology, the talent, and the market opportunity to be the defining cybersecurity company of the Agentic AI era,” he added.

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