Darktrace has appointed Ed Jennings as President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Jill Popelka, who stepped down from the role at the end of January 2026. The appointment follows an interim period led by Charles Goodman. Jennings brings extensive experience in cybersecurity and enterprise software, most recently serving as CEO of Quickbase, where the company doubled its annual revenue during his tenure.
Earlier in his career, he held the position of chief operating officer at Mimecast and played a role in the company’s public listing and international growth. Jennings has also held commercial leadership positions at Veracode, ADP, Copanion, and PTC. Goodman stated, “Ed is a veteran technology leader who has successfully scaled other cybersecurity and software category leaders. He will bring strong strategic focus to Darktrace as it brings more of its AI-native cybersecurity capabilities to organizations around the world.”
Commenting on his appointment, Jennings emphasized the market opportunity for advanced security technologies, stating, “Darktrace has an incredible first-mover advantage. As an AI-native cybersecurity company, its behavioral AI platform is uniquely positioned to detect and respond to attacks, even if they’ve never been seen before.”