Appointment of Independent Non-Executive Directors

Darktrace PLC

22 November 2023

 

22 November 2023

Darktrace plc

Darktrace plc further strengthens its Board with appointment of two Independent Non-Executive Directors with extensive US high-growth software experience

Jill Popelka, former President of SAP SuccessFactors, and Paula Hansen, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Alteryx, Inc., to join Darktrace plc Board on 1 January, 2024

Darktrace plc (DARK.L) (together with its subsidiaries, "Darktrace" or "the Group"), a global leader in cyber security AI, is pleased to announce the appointments of Jill Popelka and Paula Hansen as independent Non-Executive Directors with effect from 1 January, 2024.

Both Jill and Paula bring substantial experience of leading global, high-growth software organisations across sales, marketing, and partnerships and scaling complex businesses through rapid growth, with a particular focus on the US market. Their experience will significantly strengthen the Board's expertise as it seeks to support the changes underway in Darktrace's go-to-market organisation, including the hiring of more experienced personnel to lead the evolution of these teams, the segmentation of accounts, including a focus on larger prospects and the partner channel, and the implementation of industry-leading sales, marketing, and customer success tools.

Jill was most recently Head of Enterprise Services at Snap Inc. Prior to this, she spent more than a decade at SAP where she served as President of SAP SuccessFactors, a cloud-based human capital management software provider. Under her leadership, SAP SuccessFactors grew to serve more than 7,000 customers, with 120 million users worldwide and Jill oversaw the launch of a number of successful new software products, including SAP Work Zone for HR.

Paula is currently President and Chief Revenue Officer at Alteryx, Inc., the leading analytics cloud platform, where she is responsible for the entire customer journey, including sales, pre-sales, renewals, partners and alliances, marketing and customer success. Paula has helped scale the business from c.$530 million in revenue in 2021 to over $900 million in 2023. Prior to this, Paula was Chief Revenue Officer of SAP Customer Experience where she led Product Sales, Presales, Channel, Go-to-Market, Operations, and Customer Success in support of the company's 10,000+ Customer Experience customers. Paula spent 19 years at Cisco which she left as Vice President of Global Enterprise West.

Gordon Hurst, Chairman of Darktrace plc, said:

"We are delighted to welcome Jill and Paula to the Board. They bring outstanding go-to-market experience from a range of leading, fast-growing, global software businesses, which will be hugely beneficial to Darktrace as we continue to invest in building a world-class experience for our customers, prospects and partners. Attracting such seasoned, high calibre individuals to the Board reflects the strength of the business and our prospects as we continue to deliver on our mission to free the world of cyber disruption."

Jill Popelka added:

"Darktrace's AI approach to cyber security is truly unique, defending organisations from the inside out, rather than the outside in. We're at the beginning of the age of AI which will radically transform the cyber security landscape and presents a significant opportunity for an AI native company like Darktrace. I look forward to working with the team to capitalise on the tremendous opportunities ahead for Darktrace."

Paula Hansen added:

"Darktrace is a business I have been watching closely for many years and it is a great privilege to be appointed to serve on its Board. The transformation of the business over the last year or so, which has significantly advanced its product offering and matured its go-to-market organisation, has been impressive.  I'm excited to be able to bring my experience to Darktrace as it seeks to increase its market penetration and continue to deliver strong, profitable and sustainable growth."

The Group confirms that there are no other disclosures that need to be made under Listing Rule 9.6.13 relating to the appointment of Jill Popelka.

The Group confirms that there are no other disclosures that need to be made under Listing Rule 9.6.13 relating to the appointment of Paula Hansen

About Darktrace

Darktrace (DARK.L), a global leader in cyber security artificial intelligence, is on a mission to free the world of cyber disruption. Breakthrough innovations in our Cyber AI Research Centre in Cambridge, UK have resulted in over 160 patents filed and research published to contribute to the cyber security community. Rather than study attacks, Darktrace's technology continuously learns and updates its knowledge of your business data and applies that understanding to optimise your state of optimal cyber security. Darktrace's cyber AI technology provides a full lifecycle approach to cyber resilience across the entire organisation that can autonomously spot and respond to novel in progress threats within seconds. Darktrace employs over 2,200 people around the world and protects approximately 8,900 customers globally from advanced cyber threats. Darktrace was named one of TIME magazine's 'Most Influential Companies' in 2021. To learn more, visit http://www.darktrace.com/.

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