Seattle-based authorization company Cloudentity on Wednesday said it has hired Jason Needham as the company's new CEO.
Needham, who officially took over in early September, was previously the senior director of multi-cloud security at the publicly traded app and cloud company VMware, where he spent more than three years. Earlier in his career, Needham spent more than 12 years at F5 Networks, where he eventually held the role of vice president of product management and marketing.
"Jason’s extensive cloud services, application and security background, combined with his strong leadership experience, will strengthen the company’s go-to-market proficiency as the company enters into its expansive growth phase,” Sean Cunningham, managing director at ForgePoint Capital, said in a statement. ForgePoint Capital is an investor in Cloudentity.
Cloudentity's previous CEO, according to LinkedIn, was Jasen Meece, who took over in 2019 and left the company in August.
In addition to his time at major tech brands, Needham also brings entrepreneurial experience to Cloudentity. He came to VMware by way of CloudCoreo, a startup he co-founded in 2016 that was acquired by VMware in 2018. He also co-founded a company called Union Bay Networks in 2013. That startup was acquired by Apple 13 months after it was founded, according to Needham's LinkedIn.
Cloudentity, founded in 1996, provides authorization solutions. The company works in open banking, application programming interface (API) security and data privacy.
API attacks are becoming more of a concern for cybersecurity firms. According to a recent report from Salt Security, the cybersecurity company's clients saw an average of 12.22 million API attack calls per month in June, up from just 2.73 million in December of 2020. The study noted that these attacks made it past basic security measures.
“Companies are sharing more and more data across an increasingly larger array of internal, external and partner applications. It’s difficult to manage and getting worse," Needham said in a statement. "We have a significant market opportunity in front of us, and I look forward to joining the team and helping our company scale and serve our customers.”
