We are delighted to announce that Sumit Dhawan has been appointed as Proofpoint’s chief executive officer, effective immediately. Rémi Thomas, Proofpoint’s chief financial officer who has been acting as Proofpoint’s interim CEO since October 25th, will continue to serve as the company’s CFO.
Sumit is a highly respected and seasoned technology leader with a proven track record of building market-leading security, cloud and end-user computing businesses. In his most recent role as president of VMware, Sumit was responsible for driving over $13B of revenue and led the company’s go-to-market functions including worldwide sales, customer success and experience, strategic ecosystem, industry solutions, marketing, and communications.
Before VMware, he was chief executive officer of Instart, a cybersecurity business delivering innovative web application security services. Having held senior executive and general management roles at both VMware and Citrix, Sumit brings over 25 years of experience building category-leading businesses at scale.
Commenting on his appointment, Sumit said: “Over the years, Proofpoint has built an exceptional company and is trusted by some of the world’s leading organizations as their cybersecurity partner of choice. I’m honored to join a leader at the forefront of cybersecurity innovation and to shepherd its continuing and unwavering commitment to helping organizations across the globe protect people and defend data.”
Seth Boro, managing partner at Thoma Bravo added: “The Proofpoint board of directors could not be more excited to partner with Sumit as he joins Proofpoint to usher in a new stage of growth. Sumit brings a wealth of valuable experience and expertise in building category-leading scaled companies and businesses. We are confident his customer-centric passion and strong legacy of leadership will continue to carry Proofpoint’s mission forward in providing people-centric cybersecurity solutions that address some of the most challenging risks facing organizations today.”
You can read Proofpoint’s announcement about this appointment here.