Splunk, the data platform leader for security and observability, announced the appointment of Gary Steele as Chief Executive Officer.
Gary Steele was the founding CEO of Proofpoint, and over the past two decades, he led the company’s growth from an early-stage start-up to a leading, publicly traded security-as-a-service provider to some of the world’s best known organizations.
Prior to Proofpoint, Gary Steele was CEO of Portera and held various leadership roles at Sybase, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.
Graham Smith, who has served as Interim CEO since November 2021, will return to his role as Chair of the Splunk Board when Steele joins the company.
“Gary is a visionary leader whose software and cybersecurity expertise, understanding of SaaS and recurring revenue models, and unwavering commitment to driving innovation and customer success on a global scale will be invaluable to Splunk on our path to $5 billion and beyond,” said Graham Smith, Interim CEO and Chair of Splunk.
Splunk announced revenue of $901 million (+21 percent) in the fourth quarter and $2.67 billion (+20 percent) in fiscal year 2022.
Splunk revealed that its new, expansion and renewal customers include Box, CVS Health, Fred Loya Insurance, Intel and Papa John’s International.
Splunk is a $20 billion worth takeover target for enterprise networking leader Cisco Systems, according to several tech news reports.
