Darktrace Appoints New CFO and CRO to Drive Growth Strategy

Darktrace, a global leader in AI for cybersecurity, announced two senior appointments to its Executive Committee with Suman Raju joining as Chief Financial Officer and Hein Hellemons as Chief Revenue Officer. Raju will be responsible for Darktrace's financial strategy and execution, ensuring resources and investments align to support long-term financial goals, while Hellemons will lead global Sales and Solutions Engineering to strengthen customer and prospect engagement across key markets and industries. Both executives will report directly to CEO Jill Popelka as members of the executive leadership team.

The appointments fill critical vacancies left by previous executives, with Raju succeeding Cathy Graham who joined Darktrace as CFO in 2020 and left the role in September, and Hellemons replacing Denise Walter who stepped down as CRO following Darktrace's sale to Thoma Bravo last year. CEO Jill Popelka expressed enthusiasm about the new additions, stating that Hellemons leads with deep focus on customer excellence while Raju brings exceptional global finance experience from high-growth software businesses. Their expertise will be critical as Darktrace continues to scale and transform its operations in the competitive cybersecurity landscape.

Raju joins Darktrace with a strong track record of scaling public and private B2B enterprise SaaS companies and leading global finance organizations through periods of transformation. His most recent position was as CFO at Ivalua, where he helped prepare the company for public markets, led strategic transactions, and drove strong growth in recurring revenue and profitability. Prior roles included CFO positions at Crownpeak Technologies and SAP Ariba, where he led international teams and supported merger and acquisition activities along with strategic growth initiatives. Raju emphasized Darktrace's position at the forefront of AI innovation in cybersecurity and expressed excitement about joining during a period of momentum and transformation.

Hellemons brings extensive experience leading go-to-market teams at global cybersecurity and technology companies, most recently serving as CRO at KnowBe4 where he led global sales, marketing, customer success, and channel operations while playing a key role in scaling the business. His career includes senior leadership roles at technology giants VMware, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft, with particular focus on enterprise sales and go-to-market strategy globally. Hellemons highlighted Darktrace's best-in-class technology that can detect never-before-seen threats in real time and protect organizations across their entire digital ecosystem as a key attraction for joining the company.

These executive appointments come at a critical time for Darktrace as cyber threats continue to grow in sophistication and scale. The company's proprietary AI technology learns from unique patterns of life for each customer in real-time, providing essential cybersecurity protection against unknown threats. The Darktrace ActiveAI Security Platform delivers a proactive approach to cyber resilience across the entire digital estate from network to cloud to email, supported by over 2,300 employees worldwide protecting nearly 10,000 customers across all major industries globally. Additional information about Darktrace's cybersecurity solutions can be found at http://www.darktrace.com.