SecurityWeek

Equinix has appointed Douglas Merrill as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). In his new role, Merrill will oversee the company’s global information security operations, risk management, and the building of security platforms, services, processes, and controls. He held the role of interim CISO at Equinix for the past six months, and previously served as partner at McKinsey, as Chief Information Officer at Google, and in leadership positions at various tech companies.

1Password has appointed Michael Hughes as its President and John Torrey as Chief Business Officer (CBO). In his new role, Hughes will lead global sales, customer experience, and revenue operations, focusing on expanding 1Password’s enterprise presence. He previously served as CRO at ChargePoint, and as SVP of Worldwide Sales and Services at Barracuda Networks. As CBO, Torrey will oversee corporate development, partnerships, and ecosystem strategy. He previously served in various roles at Madrona, Qualtrics, and SAP.

Aqua Security has appointed Mike Dube as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Nir Makowski as chief product and technology officer. The company’s co-founders Dror Davidoff and Amir Jerbi step down from their roles as CEO and CTO, respectively. Dube, formerly Aqua’s President and Chief Revenue Officer, previously held various leadership positions at CrowdStrike, Splunk, Cybereason, and Check Point. Makowski has served as Aqua’s Senior Vice President of Engineering since October 2024.

WatchGuard has announced the appointment of Joe Smolarski as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In his new role, Smolarski will work with the company’s leadership and Board of Directors to drive strategic initiatives, operational excellence, and partner success. Smolarski has over 25 years of leadership experience. He replaces Vats Srivatsan, who served as interim CEO since May 2025, and who will remain a member of WatchGuard’s Board.

Open source security software company Chainguard has appointed Parm Uppal as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Patrick Donahue as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Product. As CRO, Uppal will lead Chainguard’s efforts to strengthen its presence in the US enterprise market and to scale global growth. Uppal previously held senior leadership positions at AppDynamics, Benchling, Luminary Cloud, and DataRobot. As SVP of Product, Donahue will oversee the company’s product strategy, management, design, and execution. He previously served at Cloudflare, Aurora Solar, and MyVest.

Aneal Vallurupalli has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at AI-native trust management firm Drata, to oversee the company’s global finances. Having previously served in various leadership roles at Airbase, Mattermost, Mapbox, and Guidewire, Vallurupalli brings deep financial and operational expertise to Drata, which seeks to scale its position in the governance, risk, compliance, and assurance market.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and enterprise defense provider Binary Defense has appointed Aaron Estes as Vice President (VP) of Product. In his new role, Estes will lead strategy and innovation across the company’s entire portfolio, including the BD Platform and BDVision. Estes has over 25 years of experience, having previously served as a top engineer at Lockheed Martin, and as the CEO of Ironwood Cyber.

Cyber-physical security firm Claroty has named Dave DeWalt as Board Chairman. DeWalt is Founder and CEO of investment firm NightDragon and former CEO of FireEye. Prior to FireEye, DeWalt served as President and CEO of McAfee, and led the acquisition of McAfee by Intel for $7.7 billion in 2010.