Proofpoint
Leadership

As CEO of Proofpoint, Sumit Dhawan leads a global workforce of over 4,500 employees focused on defending organizations from advanced cyber threats and compliance risks by protecting their people—and in turn, safeguarding their data, business, and reputation. A seasoned executive with a proven track record, Mr. Dhawan brings over 25 years of experience in building category-leading, scaled enterprise software companies and businesses. Sumit previously served as VMware’s President, where he was responsible for driving over $13B of revenue for the company and led go-to-market functions including worldwide sales, customer success and experience, strategic ecosystem, industry solutions, marketing, and communications. He also previously served as Chief Customer Experience Officer, managing global teams responsible for professional services, technical support, and customer success. Before that, Mr. Dhawan was chief executive officer of Instart, a cybersecurity business delivering innovations in web application performance and security services and held senior executive and general management roles at Citrix.

Mr. Dhawan is a strong advocate for delivering an exceptional experience to customers and partners. He is passionate about building diverse teams and fostering inclusive cultures and equitable environments that bring out the best in everyone. Mr. Dhawan holds an MBA from the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, and a BS in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Rémi Thomas is the Chief Financial Officer at Proofpoint, and brings over 30 years of global finance experience with demonstrated leadership across all finance functions for both large and smaller technology organizations, as well as strong credibility with the investor and financial analyst community. Prior to joining Proofpoint, Rémi was the CFO at Extreme Networks, where he oversaw financial planning and analysis, accounting, SEC reporting, tax, treasury, and internal audit, as well as relations with lenders and investors. During his tenure at Extreme Networks, the company completed two acquisitions, returned to double digit growth, increased its operating margin to the mid-teens and successfully launched a subscription-based software business. Rémi also held senior finance roles at CA Technologies and HPE Software, a business unit of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Alcatel-Lucent in Paris and Shanghai. He has a Master of Business Administration from University of Warwick (UK), and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Toulouse Business School (France).

Mayank Choudhary (MC) leads the Proofpoint Information Protection, Cloud Security & Compliance Products. As the GM, MC is responsible for driving technology innovation to deliver a world-class platform that helps our customers protect their people and data and secure the cloud. As a leader in this fast-growing business, he oversees product, engineering and threat research teams around the world.

With more than 20 years of experience in product leadership roles, MC brings a deep knowledge of cybersecurity and technology to Proofpoint. His experience ranges from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500 technology companies. Before joining Proofpoint in 2019, he served as SVP, Product and Engineering at ObserveIT, a Bain Capital funded cybersecurity startup. In that role, he and his team built the category-defining Insider Threat Management solution that led the company to a successful acquisition by Proofpoint.

Before coming to Proofpoint, Mr. DePaolis was the vice president of Engineering, Applications, and Operations at Webraska (formerly AirFlash, Inc.), the leading provider of location-based software and solutions, including services targeted at wireless mobile users and geospatial mapping and routing engines. Prior to AirFlash, Mr. DePaolis was with Netscape Communications/AOL, where he was technical director of Messaging and Collaboration for iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, a Sun/Netscape alliance. Previously, Mr. DePaolis held senior architect and engineering management positions at ISOCOR; the leading supplier of Internet messaging, meta-directory software solutions, and at Quarterdeck Office Systems; developing some of the earliest consumer Internet browsers and utilities. Earlier in his career, Mr. DePaolis co-founded and held the position of CEO of Pittsburgh Powercomputing Corporation, a company that specialized in fast X Window System servers and other graphics software. Mr. DePaolis holds a triple major B.S. degree in electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Michael Frendo is CTO, Engineering at Proofpoint, where he and his team are focused on elevating the company’s deep technical and engineering work of further product integration across our business units. Throughout Mr. Frendo’s career, he has pioneered the disruption of foundational technologies and reimagined the engineering methodologies of products in sectors such as telecom applications (voice, video, and data), optical transport, storage area networking, unified communications, and security. At Proofpoint, he is leveraging his expertise and experience in product architecture and development to further develop Proofpoint’s vision and ongoing work around AI.

Prior to joining Proofpoint in 2023, Mr. Frendo led global teams at multinational companies like Cisco, Polycom, and Juniper. He brings over 25 years of global experience as both a technical and business leader, spanning software and hardware development, with deep knowledge across technologies such as SaaS, Cloud, and security. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Western University, a master’s degree in engineering, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from McMaster University.

Jason Hurst is SVP of Corporate Development at Proofpoint. Previously, Mr. Hurst served as VP, Head of Corporate Development for Pivotal, where he was responsible for strategic initiatives and complex projects, including M&A and investments. Mr. Hurst also led M&A at VMware, and helped to navigate the process of establishing Pivotal. He also worked at Citi/Salomon Smith Barney as a technology investment banker for nearly a decade. In that role, he advised on and executed hundreds of client projects and deals. Mr. Hurst holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Japanese from BYU. He also holds an MBA with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

With over 20 years of experience in the information security industry, Mr. Kalember currently leads cybersecurity strategy for Proofpoint and is a sought-out expert for leadership and commentary on breaches and best practices. His global team of security experts ensures that Proofpoint’s customers have consistent insight into the attacks that target their people.

Mr. Kalember joined Proofpoint from WatchDox where he served as both chief product officer and CMO, leading the development of pioneering data-centric security solutions through to the company’s acquisition. Previously, Ryan ran solutions across HP’s portfolio of security products, was director of product strategy at ArcSight, and held a variety of positions at VeriSign, including EMEA regional manager and senior product manager. Early in his career, Ryan was a security practitioner, helping build many leading security organizations and security operations centers (SOCs) around the world. He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University, where he studied fault tolerance, cryptography, and authentication algorithms.

Linda Lazzareschi is the SVP of Customer Success at Proofpoint. Her global team of customer success and technical support professionals delivers a best-in-class customer experience that produces immediate ROI to both small business and global enterprise customers. With over 20 years of experience in the field, Ms. Lazzareschi is an expert in transformation and building collaborative relationships and developing highly impactful strategies that lead the industry in customer satisfaction and delight.

Prior to Proofpoint, Ms. Lazzareschi served as a global customer success leader in organizations such as Microsoft, BEA Systems and Oracle, where she led global teams focused on delivering technical support for small, midsize, and enterprise business solutions customers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Media Studies from California State University, East Bay.

Darren Lee is responsible for the Proofpoint Security Products and Services Group. As GM, Darren is responsible for the Proofpoint core security offerings for Threat, Email Security, Identity Defense, Threat Research and Machine Learning. Prior to this role, Darren led the company’s Compliance and Digital Risk group, the financial services segment, and machine learning investments.

Before joining Proofpoint, Darren served as the Founder and CEO of NextPage, a leading provider of Information Governance solutions. Having founded multiple startup companies, he has vast experience in defining markets, creating products, executing acquisitions, and driving revenue to build viable businesses. Darren holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from BYU.

Alan LeFort is a sought-after evangelist and advocate of cybersecurity. He’s known for his ability to synthesize and simplify the complex using humor and storytelling. This passion for simplicity has led him to cultivate product organizations centered around empathy, design thinking and innovation. Mr. LeFort has held strategy and product leadership roles at security companies in the US, Europe and Canada. His experiences span startups to publicly traded companies across consumer and enterprise. Prior to joining Proofpoint, Alan held senior roles at McAfee, HyTrust, AVG, Telus, Intellitactics, and AT&T Canada. Mr. LeFort holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and a BBA in Finance from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX.

Blake P. Sallé is the Chief Revenue Officer at Proofpoint, where he leads the company’s global customer-facing and go-to-market functions. With nearly 30 years of experience, Mr. Sallé has a strong background in building strategic sales, customer success, routes to market, and field operations initiatives that drive momentum, growth, and revenue across international markets.

Before joining Proofpoint in 2017, he served as President of Kony, the leading provider of enterprise mobility solutions. Mr. Sallé has also held senior leadership positions at some of the most recognized and innovative organizations in technology and healthcare such as Cisco, VCE, VMware, EMC, Johnson & Johnson, DXC, PTC, and an Andreessen Horowitz-backed start-up acquired by RSA. Mr. Sallé holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Michael Yang is responsible for Proofpoint worldwide legal affairs. He leads the teams responsible for contracting, licensing, strategic intellectual property creation and protection, employment law, data privacy, corporate law, compliance and corporate governance. Mr. Yang brings to Proofpoint more than 25 years of international business and legal experience at both public and privately-held companies. He provides particular expertise in building and scaling global legal departments and processes to meet the needs of high-growth technology companies. Prior to joining Proofpoint, Mr. Yang developed and led the corporate legal function and later the products and technology group as Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of VMware, Inc., as that company grew from $200 million to over $2 billion in annual revenues. Mr. Yang has also held executive and senior management roles as an attorney for Medialive International and Openwave (as well as its predecessor, Software.com, where he contributed to that company's successful IPO and subsequent merger with Phone.com). He began his practice as an intellectual property attorney in the Los Angeles offices of Baker Hostetler. He holds an A.B. in government from Cornell University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in the State of California.