Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman Steps Down, Company Names Acting CEO

Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman has left the position and will act as an advisor to the company until April 1.

Joe Levy is now Sophos’ president and acting CEO. Levy’s vision is to lead Sophos through 2024, and he is a candidate and participant in the board’s review for a permanent CEO.

He’s been with Sophos since early 2015 and was president of Sophos Technology Group.

Sophos' Kris Hagerman

Hagerman took the role as Sophos CEO in 2012. The company has roughly tripled its revenue during his tenure to more than $1 billion, and has grown its customer base from roughly 150,000 customers to more than 580,000 worldwide.

Hagerman led the successful IPO of Sophos on the London Stock Exchange in 2015, and a sale to Thoma Bravo in 2020.

“I am proud of our team’s accomplishments over the last 12 years as we have transformed Sophos into a true next-generation cybersecurity leader and an industry innovator in delivering cybersecurity as a service,” Hagerman said. “I am excited to pass the baton to Joe Levy as president and acting CEO to lead Sophos into the future. Joe and I have worked closely together for over nine years, and he has been pivotal in leading our product, services and technology initiatives that have underpinned Sophos’ growth. He has my full and enthusiastic support.”

Acting Sophos CEO Has Extensive Background with Company

Levy is a nearly 30-year veteran of cybersecurity products and services innovation. He has also been working closely with the channel since the mid-1990s.

Sophos' Joe Levy

During his nine-year tenure at Sophos, he also drove the company's transformation from a product-only vendor into a global cybersecurity-as-a-service company. Sophos’ managed services now defend more than 20,000 customers worldwide.

Levy also brought his vision for creating an operational threat intelligence unit to life. Called Sophos X-Ops, the 500-plus person team joins together cross-departmental cybersecurity operators and threat intelligence experts to provide real-time and historical attack data that makes Sophos’ defenses smarter and faster. 

“I am extremely excited for the opportunity to further grow Sophos as a global cybersecurity leader,” he said. “Many organizations worldwide are still neglected relative to the industry’s focus on securing large enterprises, leaving them exposed to opportunistic and targeted attacks. Our immediate goal is to work with our partners to further expand our collective ability to secure organizations that are unprotected or need stronger cyber defenses.”

Sophos’ research indicates midmarket and smaller organizations are increasingly in the crosshairs of attackers, Levy said.

“The best way to reach all these organizations is to arm MSPs and cyber-focused channel partners worldwide – those capable of operating cost-effectively at massive global scale – with innovative security technologies and services they can resell or co-deliver,” he said. “Fundamentally, the vision is that we are all more secure as more of us are secure, and in my new role, Sophos is more focused than ever on making that happen.”