Former CEO Greg Bell to lead open source community development as chief strategy officer
San Francisco, Calif. — Aug. 26, 2020 — Corelight, provider of the industry’s first open network detection and response (NDR) platform, today announced three new leadership appointments as the company prepares for its next phase of growth amid increasing demand for NDR and rising interest in open source security platforms, architectures and techniques.
Brian Dye, formerly chief product officer, has been named chief executive officer and takes a seat on the company’s board of directors; Michele Bettencourt, former chief executive of Imperva, has assumed the role of executive chairperson of the Corelight Board of Directors; and co-founder Greg Bell, formerly Corelight’s CEO, has been appointed chief strategy officer.
“The age of NDR is here, presenting enormous opportunities to intuitively apply open source technology to solve the visibility challenges enterprises face. Companies recognize the value that Corelight’s solutions deliver, and we continue to see strong, consistent growth, including expansions at existing customers and accelerating adoption of our sensors,” said Dr. Stephen Herrod, managing director of General Catalyst, and Corelight board member. “We are excited for the future of Corelight with Brian, Michele and Greg’s combined leadership. This triple threat of deep technology expertise, corporate growth experience and passion for the open source community will fuel the company’s continued growth and leadership in the network detection and response market.”
Dye joined Corelight in 2018 as chief product officer and is a seasoned technology executive with a breadth of leadership experience across both scaled and newly developed product lines ranging from infrastructure security, information security, cloud security services and security management. Prior to Corelight, he served as executive vice president of the corporate products group at McAfee, leading its global corporate security product portfolio. Dye also previously led the mobile platforms group at Citrix and spent more than a decade at Symantec Corporation, culminating as senior vice president of the information security group.
“We have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us to democratize the emerging NDR category by bringing the insights of the world’s most sophisticated defenders to the broader market. I am honored to take the helm as we lead our next phase of expansion,” said Dye. “Our open core, data-first strategy builds on the status Zeek has earned as the de-facto standard for network visibility and analytics. Combined with our relentless focus on customer success, we have the critical ingredients to help defenders gain a structural advantage.”
As CEO, Bell led Corelight’s transition from a services to products business, grew revenue by several orders of magnitude, and oversaw three funding rounds at rapidly increasing valuation. As chief strategy officer, he will focus on corporate development, strategic alliances, and open source community engagement – while continuing to support sales and fundraising initiatives.
“I believe Corelight is the fastest growing NDR company today, and our symbiotic relationship with open source communities is a superpower our competitors don’t have,” said Bell. “This is the right moment for an ‘open’ inflection of NDR, and I am delighted to focus my efforts on such a critical initiative.”
Bettencourt joins as an independent board member and will serve as executive chairperson, working closely with the leadership team on corporate strategy and execution. Bettencourt is a respected security industry veteran with years of company leadership experience. She previously served as the CEO and chairperson at Imperva, leading the company from $130 million in revenue to more than $350 million over three years. Bettencourt also served as the CEO and director of Coverity where she shifted the company focus to subscription-only revenue and added a software security platform. She led the company until its acquisition by Synopsys in March 2014.
“Corelight is a rare combination of powerful technology, deep intellectual property, and rapid revenue growth that I believe promises a huge market opportunity,” said Bettencourt. “My past leadership and board experience with successful technology companies will inform the contributions I hope to make as executive chairperson. Brian and Greg have assembled a truly world-class team and I am excited to get started.”
These leadership changes will accelerate the existing momentum for the company, which saw a 100 percent increase in customer count over this time last year and 30 percent quarter over quarter growth. These results are a testament to the value of Corelight’s technology and an illustration of the demand for NDR from enterprises worldwide amidst the COVID outbreak.
“Greg and the entire executive team, Brian included, have been instrumental in guiding Corelight through the early stages of the company,” said Eric Wolford, venture partner at Accel and Corelight board member. “Perhaps most notably, their leadership has reinforced the strength of the company through these last two quarters in particular as the company continues to successfully navigate its way through a global health crisis. We look forward to the continued success of the Corelight team.”
About Corelight
Corelight gives defenders unparalleled insight into networks to help them protect the world’s most critical organizations and companies. Corelight’s global customers include Fortune 500 companies, major government agencies, and large research universities. The company has received investment support from Accel, General Catalyst, Insight Partners and Osage University Partners. Based in San Francisco, Corelight is an open-core security company founded by the creators of Zeek, the widely-used network security technology. For more information, visit https://www.corelight.com or follow @corelight_inc.
