NetSPI Expands Global Footprint with Strategic Leadership Appointments in EMEA

Security industry leaders join NetSPI's EMEA team to fuel growth and meet increased demand for pentesting services in EMEA

MINNEAPOLIS, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSPI, the leader in enterprise penetration testing and attack surface management, today announced the expansion of its global footprint in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) to meet growing international demand for its offensive security solutions.

"NetSPI's technology-powered services and customer-first focus has solidified the company's leading position within the North American offensive security industry," said KKR's Paul Harragan, a London-based investor in NetSPI. "The team's specialised skill set, tech acumen and white glove delivery model will resonate with the European market and should drive continued growth and expansion as the team develops and delivers critical offensive security solutions."

"We've experienced a record volume of demand from EMEA organisations needing to improve their security posture through a proven, holistic approach to pentesting, and now, we're well positioned to deliver this in the region," said Aaron Shilts, CEO, NetSPI. "We've hired a team of  extremely talented, energising security leaders who align with our customer-first approach to business. Establishing our EMEA beachhead with this incredible group will ensure NetSPI is destined for accelerated growth and continued success in the region."

The company has appointed security industry veterans Steve Bakewell, Steve Armstrong, and Eric Graves to strategically lead NetSPI's EMEA team and drive further growth in the region. Bakewell joins NetSPI as Managing Director of EMEA and brings over 23 years of experience in cybersecurity and risk management across organisations including Central Government & Defence and Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as with security vendors such as CipherCloud, RiskIQ and Citrix.

"The pentesting space is highly competitive in the UK, but vendors in the region simply do not have the pedigree that NetSPI has," Bakewell said. "NetSPI already provides its penetration testing services to nine out of the top 10 U.S. banks and many of the Fortune 500 – I'm looking forward to the opportunity to serve end users in EMEA during a time when security is high on the business agenda."

Bakewell will work closely with Armstrong, who has been appointed Regional Vice President for EMEA. Armstrong has two decades of experience in sales and security, spanning companies including Bitglass, CyCognito and Avira. Graves will work alongside Armstrong as NetSPI's Regional Sales Director for EMEA, leveraging his extensive experience in cybersecurity sales for organisations such as Pentera, TrendMicro and Spok, to meet global demand and provide NetSPI's award-winning pentesting solutions to EMEA customers. The three leaders will work closely alongside Shilts and oversee NetSPI's growing team in EMEA.

NetSPI will be at InfoSecurity Europe from June 21-23, 2022 at ExCel London. Participate in a live demo and meet the company's security experts at Stand M-12. For more information or to schedule a meeting with NetSPI at InfoSecurity Europe, please click here.

About NetSPI
NetSPI is the leader in enterprise security testing and attack surface management, partnering with nine of the top 10 U.S. banks, three of the world's five largest healthcare companies, the largest global cloud providers, and many of the Fortune® 500. NetSPI offers Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) through its Resolve™ penetration testing and vulnerability management platform. Its experts perform deep dive manual penetration testing of application, network, and cloud attack surfaces, historically testing over 1 million assets to find 4 million unique vulnerabilities. NetSPI is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN and is a portfolio company of private equity firms Sunstone Partners, KKR, and Ten Eleven Ventures. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Media Contacts
Tori Norris, NetSPI 
victoria.norris@netspi.com  
(630) 258-0277 

Jessica Bettencourt, Inkhouse for NetSPI 
netspi@inkhouse.com 
(774) 451-5142