Former senior vice president of corporate development and global alliances at FireEye, Ken Gonzalez is joining Trident Capital Cybersecurity (TCC) as a managing director. TCC is a $300 million cybersecurity venture firm, mainly focusing on investment in early stage and select growth equity companies. Ken will join fellow managing directors Alberto Yépez, Don Dixon and Sean Cunningham, with a primary investment focus on securing the Internet of Things (IoT), next generation identity platforms, behavioral data analytics, privacy, and secure payments and fraud prevention.
Ken had worked with Avast Software as the chief strategy officer, prior to working with FireEye. He also worked as the senior vice president of corporate development at McAfee before his tenure at Avast. He took care of the licensing, acquisitions and partnership while in McAfee. He graduated from Harvard Business School and United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the U.S. Army as infantry officer with the 2nd Airborne Division and the 75th Ranger Regiment.
Welcoming the new managing director on board, Yepez said, “TCC, one of the most experienced investment teams in cybersecurity, is on an incredible growth trajectory. We are adding experienced operational executives with demonstrated success to help us identify early stage cybersecurity companies with the potential to grow into industry powerhouses.” Yepez further said, “Ken brings the mind-set of corporate buyers of cybersecurity startups, excellent strategic insight and a global network of trusted channel relationships that will help scale our portfolio companies. Throughout his career, Ken completed 23 acquisitions in cybersecurity and fostered multiple OEM licenses and global alliances — experience that will become handy to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.”
The spending on cybersecurity solutions are projected to grow rapidly in the next 5 years, and the optimism is evident from Ken’s reaction. He said, “Moving into the investment side of the cybersecurity business is a natural progression for me. I have led teams that made more than twenty successful cyber acquisitions in my career. Today, cyber is an excellent investment market and I wanted to be part of the next wave of cybersecurity investing.” He also explained the reason for him to choose TCC by saying, “I chose Trident Capital Cybersecurity because of its stellar cyber investment record, its understanding of technology and because it is renowned for its connections in the cyber ecosystem. The firm also pays close attention to helping entrepreneurs build their companies and is active on their boards. That’s important to me.”
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