Sophos, a global leader in innovative security solutions designed to combat cyberattacks, has announced the appointment of Joe Levy as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Levy, who has been serving as acting CEO since February 15, is set to drive the execution of Sophos’ strategic vision. To support this strategy, Levy has named Jim Dildine as Sophos’ new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a member of the senior management team.
Speaking on the development, Dildine said,” Having worked in technology and finance for over 30 years, joining Sophos at this pivotal moment is exciting. The company’s achievements, including its dedication to innovating cybersecurity technology and supporting its partners, are impressive.”
“I look forward to helping Joe accelerate growth and further establish Sophos as an industry leader.”
Joe Levy’s Extensive Experience
Levy brings nearly 30 years of experience in cybersecurity product development and leadership to his new role. Over his nine-year tenure at Sophos, he has transformed the company from a product-only vendor into a global cybersecurity giant. This transformation includes the establishment of an incident response team and a managed detection and response (MDR) service that now defends over 21,000 organizations worldwide.
Additionally, Levy created SophosAI and Sophos X-Ops, an operational threat intelligence unit that integrates over 500 cross-departmental cybersecurity operators and threat intelligence experts. This unit shares real-time and historical cyberattack data across all Sophos solutions, enhancing their ability to defend against persistent cyberattacks.
Levy’s extensive experience includes working with the channel, including managed security providers (MSPs), which began in the mid-1990s when he started his career as a cybersecurity practitioner and innovator at a value-added reseller.
Joe Levy Next Move: Expanding the Midmarket Base
As CEO, Levy aims to expand Sophos’ strong customer base in the midmarket, which includes nearly 600,000 customers worldwide and generates more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue.
“When midmarket organizations – the global critical substrate – are paralyzed due to ransomware or other cyberattacks, the ripple effect impacts supply chains and slows our economy. Operations of all sizes suffer collateral damage when supply chain dependencies are attacked. This can be devastating in unpredictable ways due to the complexity of the modern global economy,” said Levy.
Adding further, Levy said, “Our goal is to help more midmarket organizations – the estimated 99% below the cybersecurity poverty line – improve their detection and disruption of inevitable cyberattacks. We plan to achieve this by working with MSPs and channel partners who can scale with us using our innovative technologies and managed services. Cyberattacks on the midmarket can severely impact global functionality, and Sophos is committed to changing that.”
Sophos has a unique opportunity to scale its business by helping organizations that require basic and advanced defenses against cyberattacks. These organizations, often smaller entities within critical infrastructure sectors, are just as vulnerable to cyber threats as major corporations. Sophos’ Active Adversary report and 2024 Threat Report highlight that attackers frequently exploit exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access at midmarket organizations for data theft, espionage, ransomware payoffs, or supply chain attacks.
Strategic Appointment of Jim Dildine as CFO
To support his leadership strategy, Levy has appointed Dildine as CFO. Dildine brings exceptional operational expertise and a strong background in channel partner-based cybersecurity business. He joins Sophos from Imperva, where he served as CFO for over four years. Before Imperva, Dildine was CFO for Symantec’s $2.5 billion enterprise security business unit and held key financial leadership roles at Blue Coat Systems.
At Blue Coat, he oversaw significant growth, leading to a go-private transaction by Thoma Bravo, a sale to Bain Capital, and a subsequent sale to Symantec for $4.6 billion in 2016. He also managed the acquisition and integration of six security-focused companies valued at over $750 million.
Chip Virnig, a partner at Thoma Bravo and a Sophos board member, expressed confidence in the new leadership team. “Thoma Bravo has worked with Joe through successful investments in SonicWall and Blue Coat Systems. His authentic leadership and impeccable reputation in the cybersecurity industry make him the ideal CEO for Sophos. We’re also excited to have Jim join as CFO. We’ve worked with Joe and Jim for over a decade and believe their combined expertise will drive Sophos to new heights,” said Virnig.