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"contents": "About Expel An irreverent crew on a mission to make security easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to continuously improve. How we got started (not in a garage… but in a barn) It was a tweet. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Seriously, when co-founders Dave Merkel, Yanek Korff and Justin Bajko saw @rickhholland tweet back in late 2015 that MSSP customers had endured “the customer service equiv. of taxi drivers” they saw an opportunity. What we found: alerts without any good answers. Digging deeper, we saw three big problems that were dragging the security industry down. Too many confusing security products delivering reams of alerts Not enough security talent to prioritize the alerts and effectively manage the risk MSSPs who had failed to deliver on their promises and there were no good solutions. Some companies were looking at managed detection and response (MDR) providers – but MDRs added a new expense without replacing MSSPs. Most customers were suffering in silence with no alternative. Our vision (it’s a bit unorthodox but we DO believe that you can love security) Remember how IT used to run wires and rack servers? Thanks to cloud computing and web services they don’t do that anymore. But if you’re in security you still spend the majority of your time in the weeds massaging alerts and operating products. Or worse, you can’t afford (or find) the people and technology to even do that. We want to flip that equation and create space for you to do what you love about security (even if that’s thinking about it as little\u0003as possible). Our Approach (so radical we had to talk ourselves into it) We think our approach is pretty unique. It starts with transparency. We’re busting up the proprietary black-box approach that MSSPs and MDR providers take. In our hold-your-cards-close-to-your-chest industry that’s the radical part. Here’s what we do… We use the security products you’ve already bought Our analysts investigate alerts and monitor your environment When we find a problem we tell you exactly what to do about it We also tell you how to fix the root cause of problems that happen over and over …that’s it! Transparency means that you can look behind the curtain while we’re doing ^this^ and see anything (or everything) our analysts are doing for you 24×7 while they’re doing it. Heck, we’ve even built it so you can jump in and work collaboratively with our analysts if you want. Either way, we’ll give you answers to these questions (not more alerts). What’s happening in my environment? What do I need to care about and why? How do I resolve this incident? How can I become more resilient? Our Investors Leadership Team Dave Merkel Chief Executive Officer Dave Merkel (aka “Merk”) is the co-founder of Expel as well as our Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He’s ultimately responsible for everything and has been frequently mistaken for Willy Wonka. Dave has been involved in the information security field for nearly 30 years, first as a federal agent pursuing cyber criminals in the era of floppy disks and 2400 baud modems, then as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and vice president of products at Mandiant. Following FireEye’s acquisition of Mandiant, Dave served as the global CTO of FireEye. Before Dave’s 10 years as a solutions provider, he spent another decade as a security practitioner. He got his start as a special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, pursuing cyber criminals and conducting digital forensic investigations, and later as head of AOL’s technical security organization. While at AOL, he created and ran the first incident response capability for AOL and Time Warner, managed software security and policy programs, and built technologies for AOL’s security infrastructure. He is frequently invited to comment on security-related headlines, and has been featured in news outlets like Bloomberg , The Washington Post and Forbes . Dave was also named to Washingtonian’s Tech Titans list in 2018 and 2015 . Justin Bajko VP Strategy and Business Development Justin Bajko is a co-founder of Expel as well as our VP of Strategy and Business Development. It’s Justin’s job to stay close to our customers and partners and make sure that we’re heading in the right direction. He also spends a good bit of his free time fretting about the University of Tennessee’s football program. Justin has been involved in information security and managed services since just after the turn of the century. Prior to Expel, he was senior director of global service delivery for FireEye’s managed service, FireEye as a Service. Justin was responsible for building and managing FireEye’s security operations centers (SOCs) around the world, including a staff of more than 80 analysts. Prior to FireEye, Justin was the managing director for Mandiant’s Managed Defense service, one of the industry’s first managed detection and response (MDR) providers. Before that, Justin worked at Symantec where he worked in a number of roles within their managed services business ranging from SOC engineer to senior manager of the global threat response team where he was responsible for detection capabilities, intelligence integration, and customer data ingestion for Symantec’s MSSP customers worldwide. Justin hails from northeast Tennessee. In his free time he enjoys anything to do with cars (spending an inordinate amount of time making sure his are always clean) or boats, traveling, and playing an embarrassing amount of video games. Yanek Korff Chief of Staff Yanek Korff is a co-founder of Expel as well as the company’s Chief of Staff. Yanek focuses on tying together organizational strategy, inter-team mechanics, and internal communications so that our employees can stay focused on serving our customers. That also means that whenever anything looks like it might be about to catch fire, Yanek walks towards it. Yanek has worked in IT and information security roles for nearly 20 years, beginning as a student help desk technician in a musty basement at the College of William and Mary. Prior to Expel, Yanek was the vice president of Mandiant’s managed services business, which helped customers mitigate the consequences of security breaches caused by nation states. Yanek established and grew the service to become one of the first follow-the-sun managed detection and response (MDR) providers, accounting for over 30 percent of Mandiant’s revenue. Following Mandiant’s acquisition by FireEye, Yanek served as CTO of FireEye as a Service, FireEye’s managed services offering. Prior to Mandiant, Yanek was responsible for the majority of AOL’s security infrastructure including authentication, authorization management, public key infrastructure (PKI), and systems that supported incident response, e-discovery, and investigations. Yanek has a B.S. in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary, and an M.S. in the Management of IT from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He was the principal author for “Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security”, published by O’Reilly. Amy Rossi Chief People Officer Amy Rossi is our Chief People Officer. She’s leading the charge to make Expel a place where everyone wants to work. That includes how we hire, develop, and take care of our team. While in college, Amy created her first leadership development program for a summer camp in New York and she’s been building people development programs ever since. She comes to Expel with more than 15 years experience in human resources, talent management, and learning and development. Prior to joining Expel, Amy was vice president of talent management at MicroStrategy. Before that, she served in human resources and talent management roles at AOL, comScore, Network Solutions and CareerBuilder. She has built talent management functions from the ground up twice and some of her best work has involved developing managers and leaders. Amy graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Recreation Administration and a Minor in Dance and has completed coursework in adult education at George Mason University. Chris Waynforth Gerneral Manager & VP, International Business Chris Waynforth is the General Manager & VP of our International Business. Chris is leading Expel’s expansion into EMEA, building on the early success with customers in the region who have seen the light and wish to re-do security the Expel way. Chris can’t believe that he has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, helping some of the world’s largest banks detect and prevent cyber crime, as well as helping to stop Grinch Bots from stealing PS5s from online stores. As a successful sales leader, he has always led from the front with the support of his team. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Photography & Digital Imaging from the Manchester Metropolitan University, and completed the High Contributor’s Programme at Cranfield School of Management. When he isn’t tackling cyber crime, Chris is braving the high seas off the east coast of England in his sailboat, with his reluctant family and dogs in tow. Chris also loves to support his two teenage boys in their pursuits—one, an upcoming basketball player, and the other an aspiring filmmaker. Greg Notch Chief Information Security Officer Greg Notch is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Expel . As CISO (pronunciations may vary), he is responsible for ensuring the security of our systems, as well as keeping customers educated on the threat landscape and latest techniques for mitigating risk in their environments. He’s been doing the security and tech thing for over 20 years — helping companies large and small through all three dot-com booms to build high-performing engineering teams, and improve their technology, process, and security. Before Expel, Greg spent 15 years as the CISO and Senior Vice President of Technology at the National Hockey League (NHL), where he led their information security program. He also led the league’s technology strategy, digital transformation, and cloud initiatives. Prior to the NHL, Greg worked on infrastructure, security, and software systems for Apple, Yahoo Search, eMusic, and several other NYC-based tech startups. Jennifer Lawrence Chief Revenue Officer Jennifer Lawrence is our Chief Revenue Officer. As CRO, she’s leading the charge to welcome new customers to Expel and help them make space to do what they love through unexpectedly simple security. We’re excited she’s not only bringing her expertise to the team, but also sharing her love of Mondays to help us start every week off right. Jennifer has over 20 years of experience building and scaling SaaS companies. Before joining Expel, she led both the global Duo Security sales team and the Cisco Secure SaaS team. During her time at Duo, she grew the business from $9M ARR and eight sales people to more than half a billion in revenue and 400 sales people. Clearly we think she’s pretty cool. Jennifer holds a B.B.A. from The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Finance and Marketing. When she’s not growing companies, you can often find her boxing, pretending to know how to play tennis, and hanging out with her four kids. Kelly Fiedler Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Fiedler is the Chief Marketing Officer at Expel. As CMO, she leads our brand building and storytelling — championing Expel’s unique voice and letting the world know what makes us stand out from the crowd. Kelly has over 25 years of technology marketing experience and has helped both large orgs and startups get themselves on the map and find their voice. Before joining Expel, she was CMO at RSA Security. Before that, she was the VP of marketing at Aveksa, which was acquired by RSA. She also held numerous leadership positions at Unica, where she was instrumental in growing the business to more than $100M and helped lead its successful IPO in 2005. Kelly holds an MBA in Marketing from the Boston College Carroll School of Management, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University. Matt Peters Chief Product Officer Matt Peters is our Chief Product Officer (CPO). As CPO, Matt focuses on robust dialogue, encouragement of his team as they grow their own careers, and the relationships between all aspects of the business. He comes to the company with 20 years of experience in the tech world. Before joining Expel, Matt was vice president of worldwide operations at FireEye for the managed services offering, FireEye as a Service. Before FireEye, Matt was the director of technical operations for Mandiant Managed Defense, one of the first managed detection and response (MDR) services. He was responsible for the design and delivery of the application platform that powered analyst detection and investigation. Before getting into the managed services space, Matt worked at multiple Silicon Valley computer networking technology startups before joining Check Point Software where he led the security analytics group, which applied machine learning and data science to network and firewall data. Matt has a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Kansas. Peter Katz Vice President and General Counsel Peter Katz joined Expel in 2020 as our Vice President and General Counsel. He’s building our in-house legal team from the ground up. We like that he’s not only bringing his more than 15 years of experience as an attorney to Expel, but also his great sense of humor (kind of a requirement here). Before joining Expel, Peter was Vice President and General Counsel of Duo Security. During his time as an executive at Duo, he built and led the legal department, serving as a trusted advisor to the management team and Board of Directors. In 2018, his legal strategy was integral during the Cisco acquisition of Duo Security for $2.35 billion. Prior to Duo Security, Peter was Director and Senior Legal Counsel of AlixPartners, a global consulting firm. He also served as Associate Counsel of Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment management firms. And before all that, Peter was an Associate in the Corporate & Securities practice at Pepper Hamilton, based in the Philadelphia office. Peter has a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.S. in finance from the University of Florida. Pete Silberman Chief Technology Officer Peter Silberman is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Expel. Peter splits his time between ensuring Expel has a robust detection and response strategy for all its technical partners/integrations and making sure that Expel is pushing the envelope with new ways to improve analyst experience and efficiency. He works to achieve this while also driving new service capabilities built on top of those integrations. Expel’s exceptional team of engineers get to do all the code writing (the fun stuff!). He gets to write docs and draw pictures for others (the not-as-fun-as-coding-but-necessary stuff). Before joining Expel, Peter was the senior director of Innovation and Customer Engineering (ICE) at FireEye. He helped create what’s now known as the FireEye Data Science Group. He worked to deliver new capabilities impacting all aspects of the company’s product portfolio. This includes building technologies to automate various tasks faced by responders, reverse engineers and SOC analysts. Peter spent some of his focus researching memory forensics, finding new artifacts that could be used for detection and response. Peter often presents his original research at industry conferences including CanSecWest, DefCon, HITB, Black Hat and RSA Conference. He continues to focus on discovering new and efficient ways to automate the repetitive tasks that machines do better than humans, so that humans focus on what they do best — making judgment calls and building relationships that improve customers’ experience. Rick Hasselman Chief Financial Officer Rick Hasselman is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Expel. He’s responsible for leading and scaling the Expel finance and accounting functions, and working with senior leadership to set and execute company strategy. This includes managing our operating plan by aligning key business drivers and metrics, and ensuring allocation of resources to support our growth, innovation, and long-term profitability. It also means delivering accurate and timely financial statements and analysis to make informed tactical and strategic decisions. Rick also helps ensure Expel is well capitalized to achieve its goals. Rick brings nearly 30 years of finance and operational experience to this role, most recently serving as CFO of Podium—a communications and payment platform for local businesses. His career spans audit, tax, and transaction services at PwC; merger and acquisition experience at Google; and growth-stage to IPO knowledge from his time at Sumo Logic. Rick is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with an undergrad degree from Bowling Green State University and an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. When he’s not making sure our books are balanced, you can find Rick enjoying family time with his wife, two sons, and giant yellow lab at their Colorado home. ×" |
