30 May 2024
Darktrace plc
Darktrace Appoints Jill Popelka as Chief Operating Officer
Jill resigns as Non-Executive Director to join Executive Management team
Existing COO Nick Trim to step down at the end of June
Darktrace, a global leader in cyber security AI, today announces that Jill Popelka will resign from the Board with immediate effect and assume the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Darktrace on 1 June, 2024. Jill will join the executive management team and will report to Poppy Gustafsson, Chief Executive Officer. She will be responsible for implementing operational best practices at Darktrace as the business continues to mature and scale. Jill will assume the COO role from Nick Trim, who will step down from this role at the end of June, following his resignation earlier this year.
Jill has more than two decades of experience of driving operational best practices and maturing teams, systems and processes for fast-growing businesses. Jill previously served as the Head of Enterprise Services at Snap Inc. Prior to joining Snap in 2022, Jill was President of SAP SuccessFactors, where she was responsible for strategy, customer success, and the overall health of the business unit. Before Jill’s appointment as President of SAP SuccessFactors, she served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all aspects of the business units’ operations.
Poppy Gustafsson, Chief Executive Officer of Darktrace, said:
“Since joining our Board of Directors at the beginning of this year, Jill’s insights and experience have been invaluable to me and to the executive team. Her background in scaling high growth businesses will be a huge asset to Darktrace, and we look forward to having her join our executive team. I’d like to thank Nick Trim for his many years of service. He was instrumental in getting Darktrace to where it is today and I know that he will use his deep expertise gained with us to continue to contribute to the burgeoning UK technology ecosystem.”
Commenting on her appointment, Jill Popelka said:
“Over the last six months, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with the leadership team at Darktrace, and I couldn’t be more excited about having the chance to roll up my sleeves and support Darktrace’s next phase of growth. Darktrace is at the intersection of two of the hottest trends in technology right now, cybersecurity and AI, and it is clear to me that our unique technology, matched with the excellent Darktrace team, sets the company up for continued success.”
This announcement is made in accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.11.
About Darktrace
Darktrace (DARK.L), a global leader in cybersecurity artificial intelligence, is on a mission to free the world from cyber disruption. Breakthrough innovations from our R&D teams in Cambridge, UK, and The Hague, Netherlands have resulted in over 175 patent applications filed. Rather than study historic attacks, Darktrace’s technology continuously learns and updates its knowledge of your business data and applies that understanding to help transform security operations to a state of proactive cyber resilience. The Darktrace ActiveAI Security Platform™ provides a full lifecycle approach to cyber resilience that can autonomously spot and respond to known and unknown in progress threats within seconds across the entire organisation, including cloud, apps, email, endpoint, network and operational technology (OT). Darktrace, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, employs over 2,300 people around the world and protects over 9,400 customers globally from advanced cyber threats. To learn more, visit http://www.darktrace.com.
Enquiries:
Luk Janssens – Investor Relations
Direct: +44 7811 027918