Cybersecurity company Secureworks has appointed Wendy K. Thomas, its current president of customer success, as the company’s next president and CEO effective September 3, 2021, as outgoing chief executive Michael R. Cote retires from the Nasdaq-listed business after nearly 20 years.
“Wendy is a proven and respected leader who has been the driving force of our company’s transformation,” said Cote. “Her deep knowledge of our business has made her a valued strategic partner for many years, and throughout her tenure she has delivered strong operating results and innovative solutions through a relentless commitment to our customers, our purpose, and our people. I am confident she will lead Secureworks well into the future and I am proud to have her succeed me. I know she will make an outstanding CEO.”
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Cote has led the company since 2020, taking it to a global presence in over 60 countries and 4,000+ customers, overseeing its acquisition by Dell in 2011 and then subsequent IPO in 2016.
Michael Dell was among those paying tribute to his leadership today.
The news came as Secureworks raised its full fiscal year 2022 guidance for revenue to a range of $540 to $550 million. The company recently released its new Taegis XDR Adversary Software Coverage (ASC) tool providing customers with detection visibility against real threats as mapped by the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
Incoming CEO Wendy Thomas has worked across multiple industries at companies such as FirstData, Bell South, and Internap Network Services, Inc. During her career at Secureworks, she partnered with Cote on several milestones including the acquisitions of Verisign’s Managed Security Services (MSS) business and DNS. As President of Customer Success, she led product and engineering, operations, customer experience, and Secureworks’ threat intelligence-focused Counter Threat Unit.
“I know that I speak for everyone at Secureworks in thanking Mike for his leadership and tireless dedication to the company,” said Ms. Thomas. “I appreciate the support of Mike and the Board, and I am proud to work with an exceptional team that is focused on taking decisive actions to transform cybersecurity.
“At the end of the day, our transformation is much more than moving from a services provider to a software-led company. It is about being customer-led and proactively addressing the tremendous market opportunity in security. Our customers look to us for solutions that reduce their risk and effectively protect their organizations against a constantly evolving threat landscape, and we are uniquely positioned to help them and unlock future growth opportunities with our deep bench of security expertise, our singular focus on software-driven security, and our customer-centric solutions that solve security’s toughest challenges.”
