The monitoring and security specialist has appointed the ex-Proofpoint CEO in the wake of the surprise departure of Doug Merritt last year. Credit: Splunk Splunk has named Gary Steele as its new CEO, three months after the surprise resignation of longtime CEO Doug Merritt. “The board is focused on identifying a leader with a proven track record of scaling operations and growing multi-billion-dollar enterprises,” Merritt said in a statement at the time. We now know that leader is Gary Steele, who was the founding CEO of SaaS (software-as-a-service) security vendor Proofpoint, a company he led for nearly 20 years. During that time, Steele navigated both an IPO in 2012 and a private equity buyout from Thoma Bravo last year. He will start on April 11, when he will also take a seat on Splunk’s board. Best known for its security, logging and monitoring software, Splunk has shifted its business model focus from on-premises toward cloud-based SaaS consumption, which plays to Steele’s strengths. “Gary is a visionary leader whose software and cybersecurity expertise, deep understanding of SaaS and recurring revenue models, and unwavering commitment to driving innovation and customer success on a global scale will be invaluable to Splunk on our path to $5 billion and beyond,” Splunk’s interim CEO Graham Smith said in a statement. Related content opinion AI and AR can supercharge ‘ambient computing’ A 33-year-old vision is now fully realizable thanks to the coming ubiquity of generative AI and augmented reality (AR) glasses. By Mike Elgan Aug 16, 2024 7 mins Augmented Reality Technology Industry Virtual Reality opinion Agentic RAG AI — more marketing hype than tech advance CIOs are so desperate to stop generative AI hallucinations they’ll believe anything. Unfortunately, Agentic RAG isn’t new and its abilities are exaggerated. By Evan Schuman Aug 16, 2024 5 mins Technology Industry Generative AI Emerging Technology news Researchers tackle AI fact-checking failures with new LLM training technique Deductive Closure Training (DCT) looks to address the problems of LLM bias, misleading information, and outright contradiction. By John E. Dunn Aug 15, 2024 4 mins Generative AI IBM Technology Industry news brief Hollywood unions OK AI-cloned voices in commercials But companies must first obtain consent from the actor for any ad that uses the digital voice copy. By Viktor Eriksson Aug 15, 2024 1 min Generative AI Technology Industry Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe