Duo Security, one of the fastest growing cybersecurity companies in the world and leading provider of zero-trust security with Duo Beyond, announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of William Welch as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Welch brings more than 25 years of experience to Duo after holding successful senior leadership positions with technology giants such as ZScaler, HP, Symantec, and Oracle.
“Bill is a world-class leader with a proven track record of not only accelerating growth, but more impressively, continuing to deliver growth at scale for a number of highly reputable public and private technology companies throughout his career,” explained Dug Song, Duo Security’s Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “At Duo, we’re on a mission to build an enduring company for our customers. That means we need to operate at the highest levels across all functions globally. As President and COO, Bill will help drive our business to become one of the most reliably growing and efficient software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies in the world.”
Welch is charged with advancing the company’s long-term vision and global operations, as well as the strategy and acceleration of Duo’s go-to-market engine as the company continues to rapidly scale and expand internationally.
Most recently serving as COO for cloud-based network security company ZScaler, Welch led its global sales, channel, operations, customer care, and strategy. Before this, Welch was Vice President and General Manager for HP Software Americas, responsible for more than $2 billion in sales to Global 1000 organizations. Welch also previously served as Vice President of Sales Specialists in the Americas for Symantec, undertaking the integration of emerging technologies into Symantec’s product set and scaling the sales effort for high growth.
Song continued, “We could not be more pleased to welcome Bill to our leadership team as he truly embodies our company’s core values and will most certainly enhance our rich people-centric culture.”
“Duo reduces the friction and frustration of securely accessing applications so our customers can focus on doing their jobs,” explained William Welch, Duo Security’s President and COO. “Uniquely balancing ease-of-use while comprehensively protecting organizations of all sizes, Duo is a change-maker. I am thrilled and humbled to help lead and grow the company that will without a doubt disrupt the security industry as we know it.”
Momentum Continues for ‘Most Loved Company in Security’
This appointment continues the impressive momentum seen from Duo, following the company’s recent post-money valuation of more than $1 billion, serving more than 10,000 customers across 100 countries, including Etsy, Facebook, Yelp, Zillow and more.
Duo’s success and reputation have made the company one of the most closely watched companies in technology.
This is not the first executive appointment of the year for Duo. Others include:
- Sydney Carey named Chief Financial Officer (CFO), bringing tremendous experience to Duo having served as CFO for a number of high-growth private and public SaaS companies, including Apttus, ZScaler, MongoDB and TIBCO.
- Steve McElfresh named Senior Vice President, People,†joining Duo from New Relic with more than 19 years of global HR leadership experience and a passion for building diverse, inclusive and organizationally enduring companies.
- Neville Letzerich named Chief Marketing Officer (CMO),†contributing 20 years of executive experience heading global marketing teams and elevating industry-leading enterprise technology and cybersecurity brands.
In addition to growing the leadership bench, Duo has more than tripled overall headcount since 2016, scaling from 200 to 650 employees. Founded in 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Duo now spans across offices in San Mateo, California; Austin, Texas; London, England; and in April the company announced a newly opened office in downtown Detroit, Michigan.
