Bringing in exceptional operational expertise as well as a strong background in channel partner-based cybersecurity business, Levy aims to expand Sophos’ already strong customer base in the midmarket worldwide
Sophos has appointed Joe Levy as its new chief executive officer (CEO). Levy has been acting CEO since Feb. 15. To drive a critical role in the execution of his strategy to shape the future of Sophos, Levy has named Jim DildineSophos’ new chief financial officer (CFO) and a member of his senior management team.
Levy is a nearly 30-year veteran of innovating and leading cybersecurity productdevelopment, services and companies. During his nine-year tenure at Sophos, Levy drove the transformation of Sophos from a product-only vendor into the global cybersecurity giant it is today,including anincident response team and managed detection and response (MDR) service that defends more than 21,000 organizations worldwide. Levy also created SophosAI and Sophos X-Ops, an operational threat intelligence unit that joins together more than 500 cross-departmental cybersecurity operators and threat intelligence experts. Sophos X-Opsshares real-time and historical attack data with all of Sophos’ solutions, making them smarter and faster at defending customers from persistent cyberattacks. Levy has in-depth experience working with the channel, including managed securityproviders (MSPs), throughout his career, which he started in the mid-1990s as a cybersecurity practitioner and product and service innovatorat a value-added reseller.
“Our goal is to help moreorganizations in the midmarket – the estimated 99% of organizations that are below the cybersecurity poverty line – be better at detecting and disrupting inevitable cyberattacks.”
Joe Levy, Chief Executive Officer, Sophos
As CEO, Levy plans to expand Sophos’ already strong customer base in the midmarket, which includes nearly 600,000 customers worldwide and generates more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue. As aleading provider of cybersecurity solutions for the midmarket, Sophos has a unique ability to further scale its businessand the business of its partners by helpingorganizations in dire need ofbasic and expanded defensesagainst opportunistic and targeted cyberattacks. These organizations include the critical substrate, small- to mid-sized organizations that comprisethe machines of the world’s economy and are just as susceptible to cyberattacks as major corporations. In fact, the critical substrate, including smaller organizations within the classic 16 critical infrastructure verticals, are prime attacker targets, as evidenced by Sophos’ Active Adversary reportand 2024 Threat Report. Both intelligence reportsreveal howattackers are repeatedly abusingexposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access at midmarket organizations, as well as going after them for data theft, spying, ransomware payoffs, or supply chain attacksto gain entry to bigger prey.
“When midmarket organizations –the global critical substrate – are paralyzed due to ransomware or other cyberattacks, business activities linked in our supply chains also stagnate, slowing our economy down. Operations of all sizes and shapessuffer collateral damagewhen dependencies in their supply chains are attacked. This can be devastating in often unpredictable ways because of the increasing complexity of how the modern industrialized global economy works,” said Levy.
“Our goal is to help moreorganizations in the midmarket – the estimated 99% of organizations that are below the cybersecurity poverty line – be better at detecting and disrupting inevitable cyberattacks.Our envisioned approach to achieving this is to work with MSPs and channel partners that can scale alongside us with our innovativecritical cross domain technologies – endpoint, network, email, and cloud security –andmanaged services that they can resell and co-deliver.Cyberattacks against the midmarket could severely impact the world’s ability to function; they are relatively under-protected compared to the 1%, and Sophos is on a mission to change that,” added Levy.
Levy’s leadership strategy includes adding Dildine as CFO to help Sophos reach its business goals and propel the company on its future growth trajectory. He brings exceptional operational expertise to Sophos, as well as a strong background in channel partner-based cybersecurity business.
Dildine joins Sophos most recently from cybersecurity software and services company, Imperva, where he was CFO for more than four years.Before Imperva, Dildine was CFO for Symantec’s $2.5 billion enterprise security business unit for three years. Dildinealso previously held key financial leadership roles for nearly nine yearsat Blue Coat Systems,where Levy also served as chief technology officer. While at Blue Coat Systems, he oversaw a dramatic growth in market value while guiding the company to a go-private transaction by Thoma Bravo, sale from Thoma Bravo to Bain Capital, and subsequent sale to Symantec for $4.6 billion in 2016. Dildine also spearheaded the acquisition and seamless integration of six security-focused companies, which were valued at more than $750 million during his tenure.
“Having worked in technology and finance for more than 30 years, it is exciting to join Sophos at this juncture, when the company is well on its way to breaking through to the next level.Everything the company has accomplished thus far is impressive, including how dedicated Sophos is to constantlybeinnovating its cybersecurity technology and managed security services for customers in the midmarket. Sophos is also equally committed tosupporting its channel partners, MSPs, and staff around the world,” said Dildine. “I am looking forward to helping Joeaccelerate growth and further position Sophos as a leader in the industry.”
“Thoma Bravo has worked with Joe through successful investments in SonicWall and Blue Coat Systems, and our relationship and experience together, coupled with his authentic style of leadership and impeccable reputation across the cybersecurity industry, make him the ideal CEO to lead this next chapter at Sophos,” said Chip Virnig, a partner at Thoma Bravo and a Sophos board member. “We’re also excited that Jim is joining Sophos as CFO and is a member of Joe’s senior management team. We’ve worked with Joe and Jim at various companies for well over a decade, and we’re confident their combined expertise will reap big rewards for the future of Sophos.”
