Next DLP Picks Cybersecurity Veteran Connie Stack As CEO

Security News

Jay Fitzgerald

November 03, 2022, 01:52 PM EDT

London-based data-loss-prevention firm plans major expansion in the U.S. via aggressive channel buildout

Next DLP, a recent spinoff of Ava Security and formerly known as Qush Security, announced Thursday the appointment of industry veteran Constance ‘Connie’ Stack as its new chief executive whose immediate goal is to start expanding the London-based data-loss-prevention (DSL) firm’s business in the U.S.

Stack, who was quietly appointed to her new job in August so she could start assembling a U.S.-based executive team, previously worked as a GM/managing director at Minneapolis-based HelpSystems (now Fortra) after it purchased Waltham, Mass.-based Digital Guardian, where Stack worked as chief strategy officer.

With her appointment as CEO of the 85-employee Next DLP, Stack, who is based in Boston, will become one of only a few women to head a cybersecurity firm.

She also takes over a young security firm still trying to find its corporate feet after Motorola Solutions earlier this year acquired London’s Ava Security Ltd., a two-year-old firm with two business units focusing on DSL and physical-security matters.

The giant Chicago-based Motorola decided to keep the physical-security unit while effectively spinning off the DSL group to Norwegian investors Ubon Partners and TD Veen.

Besides announcing Stack’s appointment on Thursday, the firm also announced it had changed its name from Qush Security to Next DSL, partly to get away from the cannabis connotation of the previous name and to better reflect the security focus of the firm.

To date, Next DSL has been a “100-percent channel company,” operating primarily in Europe, Stack said in an interview with CRN.

“We want to mirror that in the U.S.,” she added. “We are going to be very channel-focused in the U.S.”

Next DSL, whose revenues weren’t revealed, has already made some key hires, including its first U.S.-based channel team member, Stack said. Those and other personnel moves will be announced at a later date, she said.

In a press release, Fredrik Halvorsen, chairman of Next DSL’s board of directors and co-founder of Ubon Partners, said it was an “exciting time” to be involved with the young company and its hiring of Stack.

“We are pleased to have Connie lead Next and believe her leadership will further accelerate the company’s growth and deliver on our mission of reinventing data protection for today‘s distributed organization,” he said in a statement.

Stack told CRN that she’s “thrilled” to not only lead Next DSL but also to be among the “small ranks” of women leading a cybersecurity firm.

She noted the low number of women in leadership roles through the tech industry. “But in cybersecurity, we‘re particularly lacking females not only at the executive level and CEO level but also within the ranks of cybersecurity in general.”

She said she hopes other women discover cybersecurity, which she described as a “mission-focused’ sector.

“It‘s a great career for females because of that desire to do meaningful work and mission-driven work and cyber belongs in that bucket,” she said.

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