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We are thrilled to announce that Matt Howard, a seasoned executive and entrepreneur in the software industry, will be moderating our panel on "Open Innovation and Category Creation in Cybersecurity" at DMV Rising 2024.
Matt Howard is deeply rooted in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area. A long-time native of Maryland, he graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and currently resides in Northern Virginia. His commitment to the local tech community is evident in his role as the founder of DMV Rising, where he has served as the core organizer for the conference in each of the past two years. Howard is also an alumnus of the prestigious Mindshare program, further cementing his status as a key figure in the region's tech ecosystem.
Currently serving as the Senior Vice President and CMO at Virtru, Howard brings over 25 years of experience in developing high-growth software companies. At Virtru, he leads corporate development, strategic alliances, and all demand generation in support of the company's go-to-market motion. Howard has successfully positioned Virtru as a leading innovator, enabling a monumental shift in cybersecurity architecture – a transformation where policy and access controls are moving away from the traditional perimeter and closer to the data itself.
Howard's leadership at Virtru came at a pivotal time, following the company's $60 million growth financing round in early 2022. This substantial funding, led by ICONIQ Growth and Foundry Capital, underscores the increasing importance of data protection in today's digital landscape and positions Virtru to further its mission of establishing Trusted Data Format (TDF) as the open standard for enabling data centric security and granular policy control on sensitive information that must be shared with others.
Prior to joining Virtru, Howard was a key executive on the team at Sonatype that created the software supply chain automation category. He played a crucial role in scaling the company from less than $10 million in ARR to $100 million, which eventually led to Sonatype's acquisition by Vista Equity Partners in December 2019. This experience equips Howard with valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing rapidly scaling tech companies in the cyber security sector.
Howard's entrepreneurial spirit is evidenced by his successful track record of co-founding and selling two software companies earlier in his career. He also held leadership positions in sales and marketing at USinternetworking (later acquired by AT&T) and Groove Networks (acquired by Microsoft), further broadening his expertise in the software industry.
As moderator, Howard will guide an insightful panel discussion on "Open Innovation and Category Creation in Cybersecurity." This session will feature two distinguished speakers: Marty Roesch, founder of SourceFire and CEO of Netography, and Will Ackerly, co-founder and CTO of Virtru. The panel will explore the strategies, challenges, and opportunities of leveraging open source projects and open standards to build high-growth software businesses in the cybersecurity sector.
Matt Howard's unique perspective, spanning entrepreneurship, marketing leadership, and deep industry knowledge, will undoubtedly enrich this discussion on open innovation and category creation. His deep experience in the open source community, and in positioning companies as category leaders makes him an ideal choice to lead this critical conversation.
Register now for DMV Rising 2024!
