At Threat.Technology we track over 100,000 infosec, cyber security, military and cyber startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California, United States based Chairman operating in the Cyber Security space. If you think a Chairman is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
John Hering
Founder & Executive Chairman of Lookout
John is Executive Chairman and Founder of Lookout, responsible for driving the company’s long term vision and success together with Jim and the rest of the executive team. He is an entrepreneur with a vision of creating a more secure world in the post-PC era and has grown Lookout’s footprint to tens of millions of users globally across consumer, enterprise, and government sectors. Top publications have recognized John as an industry leader and innovator. BusinessWeek named John a Best Young Tech Entrepreneur, Fortune named him a Smartest Person in Tech, the editors of MIT Tech Review dubbed John a 35 Under 35 entrepreneur and Fortune Magazine included John on its list of 40 Under 40 entrepreneurs. John is a frequent presenter at mobile and technology industry events including: RSA, Mobile World Congress, Black Hat Technical Security Conference, DEFCON, and Fortune Brainstorm. Additionally, John is an investor in dozens of technology startups focused on the areas of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, enterprise software, and transportation technologies. John studied Public Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California.
Follow John Hering:
About Coalition, Lookout: Lookout is a cybersecurity company that integrates endpoint security with SASE technologies to secure data while respecting user privacy.
Wendell Brown
CEO & Chairman of Averon
Wendell Brown is the CEO, Chairman and co-founder of Averon. He is a prolific innovator whose creative triumphs include building a global VoIP solution (acquired by Microsoft), founding America’s largest online voicemail platform solution (acquired by AOL), and co-founding Liveops, America’s largest virtual work-at-home call center (honored by the White House in 2010), all of which contribute to the advancement of technology and betterment of society. Wendell is proud of his unique blend of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage and West Virginia roots, where his family tree dates back to the Mayflower era. After enjoying his upbringing in the northernmost Appalachian town of Oneonta, he attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. Wendell then followed his dreams to Silicon Valley, initially gaining success as a popular video game designer (including blockbuster hits such as Star Wars, Beauty & The Beast, and Nova Blast) and soon thereafter he created the first C-compiler for Mac. Later, as the creator of one of the world’s first mass-market cybersecurity products, WalkSoftly (acquired by Intel), then as a pioneer of work-at-home call centers (Liveops), which greatly increase employment opportunities for veterans and workers with disabilities, and today as the leader of Averon, Wendell’s innovations continue to empower and improve the lives of countless people around the world. He enjoys participating as a speaker, tech judge and advisor in a wide range of communities including the World Economic Forum, DLD Munich & Tel Aviv, XPRIZE, Burning Man, TED, the MITA Tech Talks and more. Wendell is a licensed private pilot, and has been active in the development of new airplane and electric vehicle designs. A strong believer in giving back, he’s created scholarships for underprivileged students, and is a proud founding member of the Human Rights Campaign. In his (rare) spare time, Wendell enjoys international explorations, having visited more than 30 countries as of 2019, and spending quality time at home with his treasured family including beloved Italian greyhound, Magic.
Follow Wendell Brown:
About Averon: Averon is the developer of the Direct Autonomous Authentication (DAA), the first fully automatic, secure mobile identity standard
Nir Polak
Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Exabeam
Nir has 18 years experience in information security, including executive experience setting company strategy, driving execution, building new products and bringing them to market. While at Imperva, Nir set the company product strategy and launched and managed the worldwide services organization. Nir also held engineering positions at Adjungo Networks (acquired by Flash Networks) and Shopping.com (acquired by eBay). He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer sciences from The Interdisciplinary Center in Israel.
Follow Nir Polak:
About Exabeam: Exabeam helps security teams outsmart the odds by adding intelligence to their existing security tools.
David Hindawi
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Tanium
David Hindawi is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Tanium Inc., a Berkeley-based enterprise software company. An accomplished entrepreneur and inventor, Hindawi holds a number of software patents. In 1997 he founded a leading systems management company, BigFix, Inc., with the mission of making enterprise desktops, laptops and servers run more securely and efficiently. BigFix was acquired by IBM in 2010. Prior to founding BigFix, Hindawi held several executive management roles, including serving as CEO of Software Ventures, a market leader in telecommunications software. Hindawi founded Software Ventures and led the company to its acquisition. Hindawi holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Industrial and Management Engineering from the Technion, and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley.
Follow David Hindawi:
About Tanium: Tanium is a security and systems management platform allowing real-time data collection at an enterprise scale.
Raj Shah
Chairman & Co-founder of Resilience
Raj Shah is the chairman of Arceo.ai, a cyber-security start-up. Raj is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Most recently he was the managing partner of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), reporting to the Secretary of Defense. Raj led DIUx in its efforts to strengthen U.S. armed forces through contractual and cultural bridges between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon. Previously, Raj was senior director of strategy at Palo Alto Networks, which acquired Morta Security, where he was chief executive officer and co-founder. He began his business career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Raj serves as an F-16 pilot in the US Air Force and has completed multiple combat deployments. He holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Raj Shah:
About Morta Security, Resilience: Resilience is a cyber insurance provider that offers organizations the tools, guidance, and solutions to insure and secure their data.
Casey Ellis
Founder, Chairman & CTO of Bugcrowd
Casey is the Chairman, Founder and CTO of Bugcrowd. He is an 18 year veteran of information security, servicing clients ranging from startups to multinational corporations as a pentester, security and risk consultant and solutions architect, then most recently as a career entrepreneur. Casey pioneered the Crowdsourced Security as a Service model launching the first bug bounty programs on the Bugcrowd platform in 2012, and co-founded the disclose.io vulnerability disclosure standardization project in 2016. A proud ex-pat of Sydney, Australia, Casey lives with his wife and two kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is happy as long as he is pursuing potential.
Follow Casey Ellis:
About Bugcrowd: Bugcrowd harnesses the power of a global community of security researchers to surface critical software vulnerabilities.
David W. Sanders
Chairman & CEO of CyberCSI
David Sanders has been a successful tech entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Mr. Sanders’ career as a serial entrepreneur began at an early age with disk jockey and database consulting businesses. After serving as a consultant to distinguished high-tech companies, including Apple and Hewlett Packard, Mr. Sanders founded cyberCSI. He currently serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Since its founding in 1993, cyberCSI has been providing IT outsourcing services and most recently proprietary cloud software to medium to large-size companies. In the past several years, Mr. Sanders’ business interests have expanded to angel investing and the founding of successful websites including GottaBeMobile.com, MoneyNation.com, MotorReview.com and Notebooks.com. Beyond his business interests, Mr. Sanders supports numerous philanthropic causes and organizations. He sits on the board of Goodwill Silicon Valley and is an active global member of Gen Next, a nonprofit comprised of executives and entrepreneurs dedicated to helping the next generation pursue economic growth, education and international security. In addition, Mr. Sanders directed the raising of $4.0+M for outreach to disadvantaged individuals and families struggling with alcohol and drug addiction and is a volunteer at Veterans of Foreign War events.
Follow David W. Sanders:
About CyberCSI: cyberCSI provides the most cost effective IT life cycle management services utilizing proprietary cloud software. Cyber security for SMB’s.
John De Santis
Chairman & CEO of HyTrust
John De Santis is the CEO & Board Chairman of HyTrust Inc. He has operated at the bleeding edge of innovation and business transformation for over 30 years – with international and US based experience at venture-backed technology start-ups as well as large global public companies. Most recently, Mr. De Santis was VP, Cloud Services for VMware. He joined VMware after being Chairman and CEO of TriCipher, a software security infrastructure company acquired by VMware in 2010. He led TriCipher’s transformation from a specialized niche provider of secure authentication solutions to the leading innovator in cloud based identity services for web application and SaaS access management. Convergys Corporation) where he was Vice President, European Operations, responsible for delivering operational support systems and business process re-engineering to newly deregulated European telecommunication service providers. When he was 28 years old, he co-founded an optical fiber networking start up which built the first commercial application of optical channel networking for IBM mainframes. Prior to TriCipher, Mr. De Santis served as CEO of enterprise security software company, Sygate Technologies, from 2000 until its acquisition by Symantec in 2005. Sygate’s innovations continue to provide the foundational technology for Symantec’s Endpoint Protection business. Prior to joining Sygate, he was SVP for Network Computing Devices (a leading thin client manufacturer), where he was responsible for all Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Service operations. Prior to NCD, he was with Cincinnati Bell Information Systems (now Mr. De Santis earned an AB in Philosophy from Fairfield University and completed the Stanford University Executive Institute Program for Management of High-Tech Companies. De Santis is currently on the Board of Neohapsis, the premier provider of security, governance, risk and compliance services to highly regulated enterprises and government agencies. Previously, he was on the Boards of Tablus (data leakage protection software – acquired by RSA), Applied Identity (identity based access control software – acquired by Citrix).
Follow John De Santis:
About HyTrust: HyTrust specializes in security, compliance and control software for private, hybrid and public cloud infrastructure.
Shawn McCreight
Chairman & CTO of Guidance Software
Chairman & CTO at Guidance Software.
Follow Shawn McCreight:
About Guidance Software: Guidance Software offers e-discovery, data discovery and computer forensics solutions for corporations and government agencies.
Todd Gebhart
Chairman of PrivacyShell Corp
Follow Todd Gebhart:
About PrivacyShell Corp: We build crypto-blockchain startups that incorporate privacy & security by design.
Todd Gebhart
Chairman of PrivacyShell Corp
Follow Todd Gebhart:
About PrivacyShell Corp: We build crypto-blockchain startups that incorporate privacy & security by design.
Adam Meislik
Chairman of Evantix
Follow Adam Meislik:
About Evantix: 3rd Party Risk Assessment for Enterprises
Yves Audebert
Co-Founder, Chairman, President, and Co-CEO of Axiad
Yves Audebert is the Co-Founder, Chairman, President, and Co-CEO at Axiad.
Follow Yves Audebert:
About Axiad: Axiad IDS is a Trusted Identity solutions provider for enterprise, government and financial organizations.
Chandra Bilugu
Co Founder, Chairman & Chief Technology Officer of Aegify
Chandra Sekhar is a successful serial entrepreneur and technology leader with more than 25 years of experience in product management, product development, systems design, technology strategy and consulting services. Chandra’s experience includes technology business management roles in United States and Asia-Pacific with multi-national corporations and entrepreneurial start-ups. Prior to founding Aegify, Chandra was head of Intel’s Asia Pacific solutions services business. Chandra started his career in PSI Data Systems and Hewlett Packard as a software engineer. Chandra was founder of Singapore and Malaysia based INT Solutions which was a regional leader in document management systems in the early ’90s. Chandra was one of the promoters of Networks Solutions India which was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2001. Chandra played key role in Government of India’s e-Governance initiative and standardization. Chandra is an active member of e-Governance committee. Chandra also led the digital infrastructure and data center optimization technologies for Intel. As Chairman and Managing Director of Aegify, and Chief Executive Officer, Chandra’s vision is to provide innovative, cost-effective cloud-based IT solutions. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Andhra University.
Follow Chandra Bilugu:
About Aegify: Aegify Inc. is a leading provider of unified cloud-based SaaS solutions.
