British MSSP Adarma appoints former Cisco man as new CEO
John Maynard takes over from David Calder who will step into the role of chief product officer
British security specialist Adarma has appointed ex-Cisco exec John Maynard as its new chief executive officer.
Maynard joins the bullish MSSP - which was one of six firms highlighted in CRN's Rising Stars report earlier this year - from his role as VP of global security specialists at Cisco. He previously held senior management roles at DXC Technology and HPE. He will step into his new role from November.
"I truly believe in Adarma's potential for growth and look forward to working with David and the wider leadership team to take the company to its next phase of development," Maynard stated.
"The vision and talent of the team at Adarma has already led to an extensive list of successes in recent years, including consistently increasing revenues by providing proactive security threat management for some of the UK's most well-known brands. With this expertise and Adarma's unwavering commitment to its customers, its people and its offerings, the business has a solid foundation for overseas growth and expansion in the cybersecurity market."
Edinburgh-based Adarma was established last year after an MBO led ECS Security to be spun out from the main ECS Group. The MBO was led by ECS Security's MD David Calder and CTO Nathan Dornbrook, who retained their titles as the firm rebranded as Adarma. The buyout was backed by private equity firm Livingbridge.
The cybersecurity firm saw turnover jump around 26 per cent to £41.4m for its year ending 31 December 2019, according to reports filed on Companies House. It has also seen its headcount grow from 12 to 250 since 2013.
Current CEO David Calder will remain with Adarma in the role of chief product officer which will see him work with Maynard to set out the strategy and roadmap for Adarma.
Calder stated: "John is a leading light in the security industry and I have no doubt that his experience in driving rapid international growth will significantly benefit Adarma's future.
"With the global pandemic accelerating conversations about the need for comprehensive and proactive security strategies, there is a huge opportunity to grow our customer base and deliver a wider range of services to help businesses of all sizes increase their cyber resilience.
"In my new role, I'm looking forward to working with John to build on the strength of our existing customer relationships, and working closely with them as we expand our service range to provide innovative end-to-end security solutions."
Matt Jacobs, investment director at Livingbridge, added: "We are delighted to welcome John to Adarma and the Livingbridge portfolio of companies. With his international knowledge and experience, we are confident that John will pick up perfectly from David, who we would like to thank for his pivotal role in the growth of the business in the last seven years. His new role will enable him to build on this, and use his outstanding skill set to expand current client relationships and contracts.
"John and David have forged a strong partnership already, and we look forward to accelerating Adarma's growth and building a business of scale in the cybersecurity market."