Sophos, a global leader in innovative security solutions, has announced that Joe Levy is now the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. Levy has been serving as acting CEO since February 15. To support his strategy for shaping the future of Sophos, Levy has appointed Jim Dildine as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a member of the senior management team.
Levy brings nearly 30 years of experience in innovating and leading cybersecurity product development, services, and companies. During his nine years at Sophos, he transformed the company from a product-only vendor into a global cybersecurity giant, establishing an incident response team and managed detection and response (MDR) service that protects over 21,000 organizations worldwide. He also created SophosAI and Sophos X-Ops, an operational threat intelligence unit comprising more than 500 cybersecurity operators and experts. Sophos X-Ops shares real-time and historical attack data with all Sophos solutions, enhancing their ability to defend against persistent cyberattacks. Levy’s extensive experience includes working with managed security providers (MSPs) and began in the mid-1990s as a cybersecurity practitioner and innovator at a value-added reseller.
As CEO, Levy aims to expand Sophos’ robust customer base in the midmarket, which includes nearly 600,000 customers worldwide and generates over $1.2 billion in annual revenue. Sophos, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions for the midmarket, has the potential to scale its business and that of its partners by enhancing defenses against opportunistic and targeted cyberattacks. This includes the critical substrate of small- to mid-sized organizations that drive the global economy but are highly susceptible to cyberattacks. Sophos’ Active Adversary Report and the 2024 Threat Report highlight how attackers exploit exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access at midmarket organizations and target them for data theft, spying, ransomware, or supply chain attacks to reach larger targets.
“When midmarket organizations—the global critical substrate—are paralyzed due to ransomware or other cyberattacks, it disrupts supply chains and slows down the economy. Operations of all sizes suffer collateral damage when their dependencies are attacked. This can be devastating due to the complexity of the modern global economy,” said Levy. “Our goal is to help more midmarket organizations improve their ability to detect and disrupt inevitable cyberattacks. We plan to achieve this by working with MSPs and channel partners, scaling with our innovative cross-domain technologies—endpoint, network, email, and cloud security—and managed services they can resell and co-deliver. Cyberattacks against the midmarket significantly impact global functionality; they are under-protected compared to larger entities, and Sophos aims to change that.”
Levy’s leadership strategy includes adding Dildine as CFO to help achieve Sophos’ business goals and drive future growth. Dildine brings exceptional operational expertise and a strong background in channel partner-based cybersecurity business.
Dildine joins Sophos from the cybersecurity software and services company Imperva, where he served as CFO for over four years. Previously, he was CFO for Symantec’s $2.5 billion enterprise security business unit for three years and held key financial leadership roles for nearly nine years at Blue Coat Systems, where Levy was also Chief Technology Officer. At Blue Coat Systems, Dildine oversaw significant market value growth, leading to a go-private transaction by Thoma Bravo, a sale to Bain Capital, and subsequently to Symantec for $4.6 billion in 2016. He also led the acquisition and integration of six security-focused companies valued at over $750 million during his tenure.
“Joining Sophos at this pivotal moment is exciting, given the company’s impressive accomplishments and commitment to innovating cybersecurity technology and managed security services for the midmarket. Sophos is equally dedicated to supporting its channel partners, MSPs, and global staff,” said Dildine. “I look forward to helping Joe accelerate growth and further establish Sophos as an industry leader.”
“Thoma Bravo has worked with Joe through successful investments in SonicWall and Blue Coat Systems. His leadership style and impeccable reputation in the cybersecurity industry make him the ideal CEO for this next chapter at Sophos,” said Chip Virnig, a partner at Thoma Bravo and a Sophos board member. “We’re also thrilled that Jim is joining as CFO. Our long-standing relationship with Joe and Jim across various companies gives us confidence that their combined expertise will significantly benefit Sophos’ future.”
 of the company. Levy has been serving as acting CEO since February 15.){kind=link}