About Us
Leadership
Co-founder & CEO
John Ackerly
As CEO and Co-Founder of Virtru, John is proud to be helping millions of individuals and thousands of organizations take control of the information they store and share online. A longtime privacy advocate, John was responsible for technology policy at the White House and was the Policy and Strategic Planning Director at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to co-founding Virtru, John was an investor at Lindsay Goldberg LLC, working with entrepreneurs to dramatically scale their businesses. John graduated from Williams College Summa Cum Laude, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School with Highest Honors.
VP of Global Business Development
Paul DiBello
Paul brings more than 20 years of sales and business development experience in information technology and cybersecurity. Paul recently completed a 5 year run as Vice President of Worldwide Sales at FireEye/iSIGHT Intelligence. Paul helped grow iSIGHT Partners from a few million in revenue to a $70M+ business and an acquisition by FireEye in January 2016 for more than $250M.
Previously, Paul held various leadership roles in sales and business development at companies like Duo Security, RedSeal Networks and Arbor Networks. Earlier in his career Paul also led business development organizations at Sanctum Inc, an application security provider acquired by IBM, and at WheelGroup Inc. until its acquisition by Cisco Systems. Paul started his career at AT&T where he held various strategic sales and business development roles.Paul is a graduate of Princeton University with a degree in Economics. At Princeton, Paul was a four year starter on Princeton’s nationally ranked Division I lacrosse team and a two year captain his junior and senior seasons.
Director of Innovation
Reuven Gonzales
Reuven Gonzales has been with the Virtru since its inception. After having been mentored by Will Ackerly during his work in the government, the two joined forces in 2012 to build Virtru. Reuven helped develop the initial prototype of the email plugin, the backend system architecture, the operational design, and a variety of patents and innovations that allow for Virtru’s ease of use whilst also maintaining a high level of security. As the head of Virtru Labs, Reuven guides the continuous improvement of all aspects of Virtru’s software. Reuven is a college dropout who’s been writing and designing software nearly as long as he could talk.
Co-founder & CTO
Will Ackerly
Will Ackerly is the CTO and Co-Founder of Virtru. Prior to founding Virtru in 2012, Will spent eight years at the National Security Agency (NSA) where he specialized in cloud analytics and security architecture — specifically protecting the agency’s in-house data transfers. During his tenure at the NSA, Will invented the Trusted Data Format (TDF), an open standard used today by various government agencies for the secure transfer of data and the technical foundation upon which Virtru was founded. Will holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Magna Cum Laude.
CMO
Charles Gold
As Virtru’s Chief Marketing Officer, Charles leads all aspects of marketing at Virtru. For more than 20 years, he has driven rapid growth and breakthrough awareness while leading marketing organizations at Sonatype, Progress Software, and Red Hat. Charles holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Wake Forest University.
CFO
Jim Timmer
As Virtru’s Chief Financial Officer, Jim is responsible for creating and managing financial planning and accounting operations to ensure the company’s success as it grows rapidly. Most recently Jim was CFO at iSIGHT Partners, where he led financial operations through the company’s growth and acquisition by FireEye. Jim holds a BA in accounting from Loras College and an MBA from Drake University.
VP of Infrastructure & Operations
Brian Hansen
As the VP of Infrastructure and Operations Brian Hansen leads the team building and scaling the backend systems that power the Virtru platform. Brian is an innovator in the startup space combining business strategy and operational leadership for more than 15 years at companies such as Tango.me, Playspan (acquired by Visa), and Onecast. He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from UCSC.
VP of Sales
Brian Zang
Brian Zang is a passionate sales leader. As the Vice President of Sales at Virtru, he is responsible for overseeing revenue growth and development. Brian has led Sales organizations at companies such as Shopkeep, Yodle and Living Social. Brian holds a BS in Marketing and Business Management from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Investors
Board of Directors
Co-founder & CEO
John Ackerly
As CEO and Co-Founder of Virtru, John is proud to be helping millions of individuals and thousands of organizations take control of the information they store and share online. A longtime privacy advocate, John was responsible for technology policy at the White House and was the Policy and Strategic Planning Director at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to co-founding Virtru, John was an investor at Lindsay Goldberg LLC, working with entrepreneurs to dramatically scale their businesses. John graduated from Williams College Summa Cum Laude, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School with Highest Honors.
Co-founder & CTO
Will Ackerly
Will Ackerly is the CTO and Co-Founder of Virtru. Prior to founding Virtru in 2012, Will spent eight years at the National Security Agency (NSA) where he specialized in cloud analytics and security architecture — specifically protecting the agency’s in-house data transfers. During his tenure at the NSA, Will invented the Trusted Data Format (TDF), an open standard used today by various government agencies for the secure transfer of data and the technical foundation upon which Virtru was founded. Will holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Magna Cum Laude.
CEO at Sonatype Former CEO at Sourcefire
Wayne Jackson
Wayne is the CEO of Sonatype, a role he has held since 2010. Prior to Sonatype, Wayne served as the CEO of open source network security pioneer Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIRE), which he guided from fledgling start-up through an IPO in March of 2007, later acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion. Before Sourcefire, Wayne co-founded Riverbed Technologies, a wireless infrastructure company, and served as its CEO until the sale of the company for more than $1 billion in March of 2000. Wayne holds a B.B.S in Finance from James Madison University, 1985, and has completed the Executive Education program for Corporate Governance at Harvard University.
Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners Former Chairman, Co-Founder at VeriSign
David Cowan
David Cowan, a partner in Bessemer’s Menlo Park office, launched the firm’s practices in cloud infrastructure, consumer tech, cyber-security and space tech. His historical portfolio includes Ciena, Hotjobs, Blue Nile, Twilio, LinkedIn, LifeLock, PSI-Net, Qualys and over a dozen other IPOs, as well as many large acquisitions such as Twitch, Postini, Cyota, iSight, Tripwire, Netli, Playdom, Dropcam and Skybox Imaging. His current portfolio – spanning startups founded in the U.S., Argentina, Singapore, Israel, New Zealand and Scotland – includes Rocket Lab, Spire, Getinsured, Smule, Endgame, Claroty, Tile, Distil, Auth0 and Zapier.
During his tenure at BVP, David co-founded three cyber security companies incubated in our offices: VeriSign (IPO), where David served as initial Chairman and CFO; Good Technology (fka Visto, acquired by Blackberry) where David served as CEO, and Defense.net (acquired by F5).
David earned an A.B. in math and computer science and an MBA degree, both from Harvard University. Forbes ranked him #6 on the Midas List and tied for 4th in the Midas List of Hall of Fame.
Co-founder & CEO at Authentic8 Former Founder & CTO at Postini
Scott Petry
Scott Petry is Co-Founder and CEO of Authentic8, Inc. Prior to Authentic8, Scott founded Postini and served in a variety of C-level roles until its acquisition by Google in 2007. At acquisition he was EVP of product development and CTO. He served as Director of Product Management at Google until 2009. Prior to Postini, Scott was General Manager and Vice President of Cygnus Solutions (acquired by Redhat), Director of Advanced Messaging Products at SkyTel, and also served as Product Manager of Apple Computer in the Newton Group and the Networking and Communications group. He graduated with a B.S. degree from San Diego State University, where he was a four year oarsman.
