Former Cybersecurity Czar Howard Schmidt Joins Qualys Board of Directors

Qualys, the soon-to-go-public provider of cloud-based risk security and compliance solutions, announced this week that former cybersecurity czar Howard Schmidt will join the company’s Board of Directors. 

Schmidt, who announced that he would leave his post as White House Cybersecurity Coordinator back in May of this year, now joins the Qualys Board of Directors where he will help the company expand its presence in the federal government and further build industry collaboration efforts through the CSO Interchange, which he co-founded in May2004 with Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys.

Schmidt was at the reigns when the government introduced its international strategy for cyberspace, which stated that hostile acts in cyberspace directed towards U.S. assets would be responded to in the same fashion as any other threats directed towards the country – with “all necessary means,” including military action. He also helped fashion the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, a controversial initiative that would let citizens to obtain a single credential to do business on the Internet.

“I look forward to working with the Qualys team on the new security challenges that businesses and government agencies are facing today so we can arm them with the best solutions to enhance their security and compliance posture,” Schmidt said.

“Howard is internationally known and respected for his vision and contributions to improving corporate and government security,” said Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO for Qualys. “We are honored to welcome him to our board of directors and gain his valuable insight and guidance to expand our cloud security and compliance offerings to better serve the public and private sectors.”

Chaired by Courtot, the Qualys Board of Directors also includes General Peter Pace, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff for the U.S. Armed Forces; Sandra England Bergeron, chairman of the board for TraceSecurity and former executive at McAfee; Donald R. Dixon, managing director for Trident Capital; Jeffrey P. Hank, vice president and corporate controller for Intuit; and Yves Sisteron, managing partner and co-founder for GRP Partners.

The Redwood City, California-based Company’s QualysGuard Cloud Platform is used by over 5,700 organizations in more than 100 countries. The company had revenues of $76.2 million in 2011, according to an S-1 SEC filing.