Benchmark Executive Search Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for Dedrone
July 12, 2021 – Benchmark Executive Search, a boutique provider of cybersecurity talent, recently placed Ben Wenger as chief revenue officer of Dedrone in San Francisco. In his role, Mr. Wenger heads global sales to provide counter-drone technology to enterprise and government customers globally. “We are excited to follow Ben’s progress as and the Dedrone team solve problems for new federal and commercial customers,” said Jeremy King, president of Benchmark.
Mr. Wenger has a two-decade career in enterprise technology sales. He was previously vice president of sales for emergency communication technology company Everbridge, where he built the go-to-market strategy to include strategic global integrators and scaled the global sales team to meet significant revenue growth. An experienced enterprise software sales leader, Mr. Wenger built his career at enterprise software company CA Technologies, where he managed a team of sales directors focused on CA’s most strategic customers, culminating in CA Technologies acquisition by Broadcom Inc. in 2018.
Established in 2014, Dedrone is an airspace security provider. Its counter-drone system is trusted by critical infrastructure, government operations, military assets, correctional facilities and enterprises to protect against unauthorized small drones. With flexibility to host in the cloud, or on premise, Dedrone’s SaaS technology combines cutting-edge software with best-in-class sensors and effectors, to provide early warning, classification of, and mitigation against all drone threats.
Finding Cybersecurity Talent
Benchmark Executive Search, based in Reston, VA, focuses on helping start-ups, emerging growth and mid-cap companies recruit leaders with government or private public sector experience to work in the defense, intelligence and national security markets in areas like information technology, military communications, homeland security, cyberwarfare, cloud and analytics, among others.
The Hunt for Cyber Technology Leaders Heats Up as Risks Multiply
As organizations become increasingly reliant on digital infrastructure, cybersecurity threats are increasing in number, persistence, and sophistication. That is why ‘cyber resilience’ has become a sustained board-level agenda item, say recruiting experts who are seeing mandates to find top cyber leaders hit an all-time high.
Mr. King, the firm’s founder, has nearly 20 years of senior-level recruiting experience. He specializes at the intersection of VC/PE backed technology innovators, government contractors and federal mission needs matching them to senior cyber/national/corporate security executives and board members. He has developed deep relationships with government and industry insiders, particularly within the intelligence, DoD and national security communities. He has worked with over 350 start-ups, emerging growth companies as well as publicly traded leaders.
“At a time when cyber risks are proliferating at a faster rate than at any time in history, companies continue to struggle to find proven executives who can help them defend and mitigate against these risks,” said Mr. King. “This is especially true in national security when solving the hardest mission-critical problems requires the best of the best minds. Being in the middle of the ecosystem of recruiting top talent to hot tech companies in national security, we see no slowdown in demand for cyber talent. And I personally don’t think supply will ever catch up with demand.”
Recent Search
Benchmark Executive Search also recently placed Ben Conklin as chief product officer at Janes, a U.K.-based global agency for open-source defense intelligence. The position reports to CEO Blake Bartlett. “Ben Conklin brings a distinguished background, proven leadership and deep product and mission expertise to Janes,” said Mr. King. “We look forward to following his progress.” To fill the key role of in the Washington D.C. area, Janes said it turned to a search firm with industry experience, reputation and the track record to help it land a high-impact executive.
“Benchmark came so highly recommended by senior executives in the U.S. that when we had a critical and urgent need to hire a proven product leader to accelerate our business, I had no hesitation in engaging Jeremy King and Benchmark for the search,” said Mr. Bartlett. “Benchmark’s professionalism, attention to detail, customer excellence and ability to attract outstanding candidates is world-class.”
Related: Hacking the Cybersecurity Talent Shortage
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
