Cybersecurity provider Darktrace has appointed Ed Jennings as president and chief executive officer, with his role commencing on 23 March. He brings more than 20 years of leadership experience within the technology sector to the position.
Before his appointment at Darktrace, Jennings served for five years as chief executive of the operations platform Quickbase. His career includes several executive positions at firms such as Mimecast, Veracode, ADP, Copanion, and PTC. He takes over from Jill Popelka, who left the role in January after 18 months. Popelka had succeeded co-founder Poppy Gustafsson around the time Darktrace was acquired by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo in a transaction valued at £4.3bn.
Commenting on his appointment, Ed Jennings noted that the company is well-positioned to address complex security challenges. “As an AI-native cybersecurity company, [Darktrace]’s behavioural AI platform is uniquely positioned to detect and respond to attacks, even if they’ve never been seen before,” he said. “As society grapples with a fast-moving geopolitical landscape and unprecedented technology adoption, the market for Darktrace’s products and services is immense.”
During the search for a permanent successor, the board chairman Charles Goodman held the position on an interim basis. Charles said: “[Jennings] is a veteran technology leader who has successfully scaled other cybersecurity and software category leaders. He will bring strong strategic focus to Darktrace as it brings more of its AI-native cybersecurity capabilities to organisations around the world.”
The appointment follows several changes to the executive team over the past year. Terry Doyle was appointed as chief information officer in January, following Wendy Komadina joining as vice president for ANZ. In November, Suman Raju was named chief financial officer and Hein Hellemons became chief revenue officer. Earlier in the year, Eve Saltman was appointed chief legal officer and Marty Overman joined as executive vice president of sales for the Americas. Other appointments included Amanda Phillips as senior vice president of customer success and Sumit Bansal as vice president of Asia.
The company, which is headquartered in Cambridge, has also increased its international presence through new offices and acquisitions. In 2025, the firm opened its first office in Saudi Arabia and confirmed plans for a new deployment centre in Texas. In July, the business completed the acquisition of Mira Security, a network traffic visibility specialist based in the United States.
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