Blackpoint Cyber Hires Cisco, Extreme Networks Vet as CRO

Blackpoint Cyber has hired Bob Gault, previously with Auvik Networks, as its new chief revenue officer.

The company also hired Lucy Lee, formerly with Bain Capital, as chief of staff. These new additions will help the company accelerate the delivery of solutions and services to enable MSPs to grow their businesses and protect more SMBs.

Gault brings to Blackpoint Cyber decades of experience growing small, medium and large channel partners, and building sales organizations. He most recently was Auvik Networks’ chief revenue officer. Prior to that, he held leadership roles with Geoverse, Extreme Networks and Cisco. He was with Extreme Networks for nearly six years and Cisco for over 14 years.

Blackpoint Cyber's Bob Gault

“I’m jumping into a role where there is already a great team, platform and customer base all backed by a great business partner in Bain in a space (security) that will become increasingly strategically important for all companies to consider and invest in as the bad guys continue to get bolder and smarter,” he said. “I’m simply amazed by the success the company has had up until this point and we have just scratched the surface. There are so many other avenues we can pursue (over the right period) that will allow us to enhance the customer experience while accelerating growth. This is what I’m excited about.”

Gault's Responsibilities with Blackpoint Cyber

Gault is responsible for working with the Blackpoint Cyber team to build the right strategy, plan and executables that will help grow the business with existing and prospective customers and partners.

“This includes ensuring we have the right go-to-market approach, structure, people, tools, processes and procedures that will help us to win and sustain that growth in the market,” he said. “As a CRO, the role isn’t just to drive the business on a weekly basis, the team can do that. It’s to ensure we are putting ourselves in a position to succeed two to three years from now. Will those involve Blackpoint Cyber’s partners and partner program? Yes, the partner/channel team will roll to me with the idea that we are recruiting, onboarding and nurturing the right partners to help both parties to capture more market share while providing them with the assets (programs) that will benefit our partners top and bottom line. There is lots of great work already happening to make this happen.”

At the top of Gault’s to-do list is listening, learning and understanding “so that I can help the teams to make decisions to enhance the things that are already working and address the things that are not.” That includes hiring the right people to make this happen.

“We need to make sure we have the right infrastructure in place to support a larger and growing business,” he said. “We have to do this now versus waiting to do it when it will become harder as we get bigger. Moving in the direction of automation will simplify and make each member of the team, regardless of their role, more productive.”

Leveraging His Previous Experience

In terms of leveraging his previous experience in this new role with Blackpoint Cyber, Gault said he’s “been there before in multiple lives … whether it’s helping to grow the midmarket-plus segment, the channels, strategic partnerships, global, leveraging marketing to drive demand and market awareness [and] enhancing the post-sale customer experience.”

“I would like to think that I have walked a mile in each of those areas,” he said. “But it's also recognizing that because something worked somewhere else, it doesn’t mean it will work here, so doing whatever I can to customize my experiences that will work for Blackpoint Cyber.”

Blackpoint Cyber's Lucy Lee

Lee most recently was a vice president in Bain Capital’s Tech Opportunities Fund. She said her biggest focus right now is to develop a thorough understanding of the MSP landscape, including the evolving needs of MSPs and those of the end customers that they work with.

“This is a crucial element that will provide me with a lot of leverage as I work to identify areas of improvement across the organization, whether external or internal facing, to help advance our No. 1 priority of successfully serving our MSP base,” she said.