An Experienced Leadership Team

Dave Gerry is a cybersecurity thought leader with a wealth of experience in application security (AppSec). In his most recent role as Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Global Operations (COO) at WhiteHat Security, Dave spearheaded global revenue growth, managed service delivery, and orchestrated customer-facing operations. His impactful tenure at WhiteHat began in 2017 and helped to steer the company through a successful acquisition by NTT in 2019 and, more recently, its acquisition by Synopsys in 2022.

With nearly a decade entrenched in the AppSec market, Dave has occupied leadership roles in renowned cybersecurity firms such as Veracode, Sumo Logic, and The Herjavec Group, in addition to his impactful contributions at WhiteHat Security. His leadership has been consistently acknowledged in both the cybersecurity and business communities, earning him prestigious accolades such as the CyberScoop 50 Awards, Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, and Cyber Defense Magazine’s Global InfoSec Awards.

Dave’s academic credentials include an MBA from Suffolk University and a BA from Merrimack College.

Prior to joining Bugcrowd, Taccini was Chief Financial Officer of WhiteHat Security, where he played a key role in the successful spinout from NTT and sale of the business to Synopsys. In previous roles, he served as the CFO of HyperGrid, CFO and Treasurer of VCE Company LLC; and Vice President of Business Operations Finance for Cisco Systems. As the startup CFO of VCE, Taccini drove revenue growth, gross margin improvements, and operating efficiencies as the business scaled up to $500 million in operating budget and from six employees to 2,000-plus employees. Taccini also executed a converged infrastructure market strategy that yielded a $3 billion annual revenue run rate with 50% compounded growth over five years.

Casey is the Founder and Advisor of Bugcrowd, as well as the co-founder of The disclose.io Project. He is a 20+ year veteran of information security who entered the space from a youth spent inventing things and generally getting technology to misbehave. Prior to Bugcrowd, Casey entered information security as a penetration tester and security researcher, before wearing a variety of hats ranging from solutions architecture and sales to CSO, and finally landing as a career cybersecurity entrepreneur.

Casey pioneered Crowdsourced Security as-a-Service, launching Bugcrowd and its first bug bounty programs in 2012, and co-founded the disclose.io vulnerability disclosure standardization and adoption project in 2014.

Since then, he has personally advised the US Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security/CISA, the US Department of Justice around CFAA reform, the Australian and UK intelligence and policy communities, and various US Whitehouse, executive, and judicial branch legislative cybersecurity initiatives, including the US National Cyber Strategy and preemptive cyberspace protection ahead of the 2020 and 2024 Presidential Elections.”

Nick joins us most recently from National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia’s four largest financial institutions where he served as Executive General Manager-Chief Security Officer. At NAB, he was responsible for overseeing the enterprise security portfolio, which included cyber, physical security, investigations, and operational fraud capabilities to protect customers and employees, support business growth, and enable an operationally resilient bank.

Nick currently serves as an advisory board member for Google, Amazon Web Services, and Digital Shadows. Prior to NAB, Nick held IT risk and cybersecurity leadership roles at Standard Chartered Bank, J.P. Morgan, and UBS.

Tanya is a dynamic leader with a wealth of experience spanning more than two decades in sales, revenue operation, and business operations. Her expertise lies in crafting effective go-to-market strategies, identifying growth opportunities, and devising innovative, cost-effective solutions to elevate competitive advantage, revenue streams, customer service, and overall profitability.

Known for her talent in designing and implementing repeatable and scalable motions within high-growth environments, Tanya brings a unique blend of strategic vision and tactical execution to every endeavor. Her track record includes transforming organizations through streamlined processes, enhanced efficiency, and strategic partnerships.

Prior to her current role at Bugcrowd, Tanya held executive leadership positions at several security-focused enterprises, including NTT Application Security, Bromium, and Veracode.

Braden Russell is a seasoned cybersecurity leader with over 20 years of experience across various disciplines, including Vulnerability Management, Risk and Compliance, Advanced Endpoint Protection, Cloud Security, and Digital Commerce. He has held key leadership roles at prominent companies like Foundstone, McAfee, Intel Security, and Cylance. At Cylance, Braden served as the founding SVP of Product Development and Engineering, where he built the teams and technologies behind all Cylance products, including the award-winning CylancePROTECT, the first Next-Gen Antivirus (NGAV).

Most recently, Braden was the CTO of the Falcon Platform and Next-Gen SIEM at CrowdStrike, where he led the vision and strategy for the first Security Cloud. His innovative contributions to the field are reflected in his patents for advanced techniques in automated vulnerability discovery and intelligent malware detection.

Before transitioning to cybersecurity, Braden was part of the Advanced Digital Systems Group at Sony Pictures Studios, where his team received a Technical Academy Award in 2000.

Braden holds an MBA from Pepperdine University and a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Irvine. He resides in Southern California with his wife and their five sons.

Paul Ciesielski is an accomplished strategic leader with a track record of driving predictable revenue growth, new customer acquisition, and team development. Paul is methodical, data & process driven, and has extensive cybersecurity, compliance, application, and infrastructure management experience. He brings a customer-first approach along with a great mix of inspiration, operational experience, and a record of success at all stages of company growth and through a variety of sales channels, partnerships, and markets.

Most recently Paul Ciesielski was CRO at TrueFort where he led go-to-market strategy for sales, marketing, channels, and field engineering. Before TrueFort, Paul was CRO at ReversingLabs, a leading provider of explainable threat intelligence solutions where he led go-to-market strategies for sales, channel, field engineering, and customer success. Previously, he served as CRO at SevOne (acquired by Turbonomic), and also served Vice President of Sales at Chef Software where Ciesielski helped the company achieve triple-digit growth. He has also held senior sales and leadership roles at AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco), Mazu (acquired by Riverbed Technology), and Mercury (acquired by HP).

Emily is a go-to-market (GTM) leader with a focus on pipeline and revenue growth. She brings 15 years of GTM leadership experience, specializing in optimizing operational processes and data-driven strategy. With a background in sales and operations, Emily brings a unique approach to Marketing focused on down-funnel impact and top line growth. 

Emily joins Bugcrowd from Veracode where she most recently led the Growth Marketing organization. Her background includes leadership roles across the GTM engine, including Global Business Development, GTM Enablement, and Operational Strategy. While there, she led the team through multiple events and two successful exits.

Emily lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two young children. She enjoys the outdoors and stretching her creative muscles through painting, fiction writing, and guitar.

Trey Ford is a seasoned strategic advisor and security thought leader with over 25 years of experience in offensive and defensive disciplines (incident response, application, network, cloud, and platform security). Trey has held key leadership roles at Deepwatch, Vista Equity Partners, Salesforce, Black Hat, and more. He has also been a valued member of Bugcrowd’s advisory board for over a decade.

Trey is passionate about working with enterprise leaders, corporate directors, and investors to help teams strengthen their technology and execution strategy. He believes in a hands-on approach to building, breaking, and deconstructing security problems.

Trey has a Master of Science from the University of Texas at Austin and executive education at Harvard Business School. Hailing from Austin, he is a husband, father, and shares his passion for aviation as an instrument rated private pilot.

Chris Nadan is the SVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Bugcrowd, responsible for all legal affairs. Chris has over 20 years of experience in legal leadership roles at global technology companies, including leading transformative strategic transactions and advising leaders and boards on significant strategic and governance matters. Most recently, he served as SVP & General Counsel at Actian Corporation, where he executed a successful sale of the company and helped lead its new incarnation. Previously, he was Deputy General Counsel for Sun Microsystems, where he won Sun’s Chairman’s Award for innovation.

A frequent speaker and writer, Chris has been an adjunct professor of law at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, and his published articles were twice cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in groundbreaking legal cases.

Chris received his undergraduate degree from Stanford and his J.D. from U.C. Berkeley, and lives in the Bay Area with his family.

Cassandra Morton was most recently WhiteHat Security’s SVP of Customer Success and Service Delivery, where she was responsible for driving the entire post-sale customer journey. With over 18 years of experience in customer-facing operations, 10 of which are in Security, Cassandra uses her expertise to build out successful programs. She holds a keen focus on delivering positive customer outcomes with a passion for cross-functional team building and supporting a thriving Customer Success organization.

Prior to WhiteHat Security, Cassandra led Customer Success and Operational Deployment programs at SaaS organizations, including Veracode and SAI Global. As an ally and advocate for increasing LGBTQ+ representation in leadership positions, Cassandra is committed to opening the door to security careers for underrepresented communities.

Ronnie Parikh is a seasoned investment professional with over 15 years of experience in strategy consulting, M&A, and partnerships. He leads corporate development, driving strategic acquisitions and overseeing post-merger integration for the company.

Prior to joining Bugcrowd, Ronnie spearheaded M&A transactions representing $500M+ of total enterprise value for CarGurus, Klaviyo, and Golden Gate Capital. His hands-on approach to due diligence and deal sourcing ensures each transaction aligns seamlessly with the company’s overarching strategic objectives.

Ronnie holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia. Outside of work, Ronnie is passionate about traveling the world with his wife, Kate, and spending time with their beloved pets, Ace (dog) and Pizza (cat). Ronnie is also dedicated to mentoring the next generation of business leaders and volunteers as a career coach.

Jennifer Hood is a seasoned HR executive with over two decades of experience across multiple industries–technology, healthcare, banking, finance, manufacturing, hospitality, and retail. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, at Red River, a technology transformation company where she oversaw employee engagement along with diversity, equity, and inclusion, all while supporting the organization through explosive growth. Prior to Red River, she served as the Vice President of Human Resources at American Renal Associates, a publicly traded company with more than 4,000 employees in 26 states.

Jennifer is passionate about employee experience and enjoys building scalable people functions to support organizational growth and excellence. She earned her BA in psychology from the University of New Hampshire. Her boys are off to college and she recently moved to coastal Maine with her husband and two dogs.

Julian Brownlow Davies is a seasoned tech services professional with nearly 3 decades of working in commercial, operational and leadership roles within start-ups and scaleups across multiple geographies. Julian has a proven track record in developing and executing strategies that drive above-industry year-on-year growth and experience in scaling commercial and business operations internationally. Julian is a customer focussed leader who has a passion for problem solving and building high performing teams.

Julian has spent the last 20 years within the Cyber industry and most recently was the VP and GM for EMEA for Bishop Fox, leading their expansion into the European market. Prior to that he was the Commercial Operations Director at Slipstream Cyber, a boutique SOC and DFIR firm where he was responsible for accelerating growth, leading to their successful exit in 2022. Before joining Slipstream, Julian was the Managing Director of Asia Pacific & Japan for NCC Group, where he grew the regional business from scratch at a 6-year CAGR of 80%. Julian also operated in leadership roles within NCC Group in the UK.

Julian is now based back in the UK with his wife, twin teenagers and two dogs. He has an MBA from Griffith University, and a BSc in Psychology from York University, UK. In his spare time, he enjoys sailing, kayaking and hiking.

Sam is the VP of Corporate Marketing at Bugcrowd, leading the team responsible for the company’s brand strategy and driving awareness initiatives that reinforce its value, reputation, and influence in the market. She has over 15 years of experience in brand building and communications.

Previously, Sam served as EVP and Partner at Lumina Communications, where she provided strategic counsel across the company’s cybersecurity, enterprise software, services, and IT infrastructure sectors, supporting numerous clients. Her earlier roles included Director of Corporate Communications at Symphony, leading corporate communications for Actuate (acquired by OpenText), and managing communications for HP’s Networking business. Sam also held positions at The Hoffman Agency and Porter Novelli.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Santa Clara University. She currently lives in New York with her husband, Erik, and they love traveling and exploring the world through food, wine, and culture.

Ryan leads the Americas sales team across all segments. Most recently Ryan was Head of Sales of Deepwatch and was responsible for the overall GTM strategy and execution. During his 3-year run ARR tripled and Deepwatch became a category leader in the competitive MDR space.

He began his career at Cisco Systems and held numerous sales positions over a 11-year tenure. Prior to Bugcrowd, Ryan led and built sales, channels, marketing and business development teams at startup and high-growth organizations in enterprise software and cybersecurity.

He holds a MBA from University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Marketing from Oklahoma State University.

Kent is a seasoned cybersecurity professional with an extensive military background, having served as an Infantryman, Paratrooper, and Infantry Squad Leader in the 82nd Airborne. Driven by his desire to have a greater impact on national security, he transitioned into cybersecurity nearly two decades ago. Kent has since served the national security mission as a consultant, engineer, and business development leader.

Kent excels in guiding early and growth-stage companies to establish high-performing public sector sales teams. Most recently, he was the VP of Global Sales Engineering at SimSpace, where he spearheaded successful efforts to expand public sector growth in the US, the Five Eyes alliance, and emerging markets in Eastern Europe. His prior experience includes sales leadership positions at Symantec, Rapid7, and Bricata.

Kent enjoys spending time with his wife and family as they try to keep up with their two gymnast sons. While they may have surpassed his athletic abilities, he can still claim victory over them in chess on a good day.

Jacques Lopez is seasoned Channel Sales leader with almost two decades of sales and channel management experience across both network and application security. He leads the global channel sales and strategic alliances team for Bugcrowd with a passion for partner success to offer enhanced value to our collective customers. Before Bugcrowd, Jacques held senior roles at CodeLock, Sophos, and Veracode. Jacques’s long history of success in sales and channel roles includes having been awarded “…of the year” honors in multiple channel roles and was named one of CRNs Channel Chiefs in 2023.

Jacques holds an Undergraduate in International Business and Management from Northeastern University and an MBA in Environmental Management and Corporate Strategy from Dalhousie University. Born in Guatemala as part of a US Embassy family, travels took him around the world where “normal” was less defined and imbued him with a strong sense of tolerance, gratitude, collaborative thinking, and adventure. He currently resides in New Hampshire.