Veteran tech exec named CEO of eSentire
CAMBRIDGE — The new chief executive officer of eSentire believes his biggest challenge will be managing the growth of the cybersecurity firm into a billiondollar company.
Kerry Bailey’s appointment as CEO was publicly announced Wednesday. In an interview, the veteran technology executive identified two priorities — managing the growth, and finding partners to help bring eSentire’s technology to new markets.
“Over the next six months I have to make sure we are able to take on growing this thing to a billion dollars,” said Bailey, who has 28 years experience as a technology executive. Most recently he was the senior vice-president and general manager of Hewlett Packard’s cloud services.
“Our growth is just on fire, there is no sign of it slowing,” said Bailey. “So I have to focus on growth.”
Bailey takes over as chief executive immediately. The former CEO, J. Paul Haynes, assumes the roles of president and chief operating officer, and is responsible for both operations and the technical direction of the privately owned company.
“I think the second piece is figuring out the best way for our innovation to get to market,” said Bailey. “We will look for potential partners to help us work on better marketing on our channel side.”
Bailey’s appointment comes about six months after private equity firm Warburg Pincus invested heavily in the cybersecurity company founded in 2001. The company has 350 employees. Most of them work in the firm’s headquarters on Pinebush Road.
The company deploys what it calls the hunting technique in its approach to cybersecurity. It assumes hackers have already breached the firewalls. So it quarantines all incoming data, searches for anomalies and neutralizes the threats. This approach also is known as managed detection and response, or MDR.
Using this approach, first developed by the American military and intelligence agencies, eSentire has become one of the fastest growing tech firms in Waterloo Region.
Bailey, who previously worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence in the U.S., said he plans to move to the region after his youngest daughter finishes high school in about a year.
He said he has been asked frequently whether eSentire will move. It’s not going to happen, he said. “We are a company that was built here. I want to make sure that everyone understands that the reason eSentire has been so successful is the fact it sits near the universities and colleges.
“The MDR gold medal was won by eSentire here in Canada, and that gold meal is going to stay here in Canada.”