Our Leadership

Poppy Gustafsson is the Chief Executive Officer of Darktrace plc. Under her leadership, the company has experienced significant growth and global expansion, and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. She was named CEO of the Year at the 2021 Digital Masters Awards and Tech CEO of the Year at the UK Tech Awards 2021. Together with Darktrace CTO Jack Stockdale, Poppy was awarded an OBE for services to cyber security in 2019. She is a qualified chartered accountant and holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Sheffield, where she was also awarded an honorary degree in Doctor of Science in recognition of “outstanding achievements in the field of Cyber Security” in 2022.

Cathy Graham is Darktrace’s Chief Financial Officer. Cathy has more than two decades of professional experience in financial disciplines and has served at the helm of several businesses throughout periods of rapid growth and capital structure evolution. Previously at 2U, a global leader in education technology, she has extensive experience in developing and maturing hyper-growth technology companies. In 2015, she was named as Northern Virginia Technology Council’s ‘Public Company CFO of the Year’ and has most recently been included in the Washington Business Journal’s 2018 list of ‘Women Who Mean Business.’ Cathy will lead Darktrace through an exciting period of continued growth and technological innovation. She holds an MBA from Loyola University Maryland and a BA in Economics from the University of Maryland.

Jack Stockdale is the founding CTO at Darktrace. With over 20 years’ experience of software engineering, Jack is responsible for overseeing the development of Bayesian mathematical models and artificial intelligence algorithms that underpin Darktrace’s award-winning technology. Jack and his development team in Cambridge were recognized for their outstanding contribution to engineering by the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Innovation Award Committee in 2017 and again in 2019. Jack has a degree in Computer Science from Lancaster University.

Nicole Eagan is Chief Strategy Officer and AI Officer of Darktrace. Her extensive career in technology spans 30 years working for Oracle and early to late-stage growth companies. Nicole identifies and shapes Darktrace’s strategic plan, leads the Company’s AI vision together with our CTO, and provides product strategy and direction.

Carolyn joins Darktrace with over 20 years of experience in corporate affairs across a range of diverse sectors. In her previous role, Carolyn spearheaded communications across Europe, the Middle East and East Asia for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private philanthropic organisation, working on global health and development issues. She previously directed global communications at Logica, a multinational IT and business consultancy company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Nick is part of the founding team at Darktrace, previous to which he led a cyber security consultancy advising large business on their cyber risk, and has been a speaker and coach on the topic of economic espionage. He had a long and distinguished career in the intelligence community, working overseas developing cutting-edge capabilities to defend national interests against a range of threats. Originally responsible for the commercial team, Nick established and grew the global sales team before becoming Chief Operations Officer in 2020.

Mike has spent 18 years working in technology, security and risk operations. He started his career as a software engineer on GCHQ’s technologist programme, and progressed to support military operations. He has conducted intelligence analysis and assessment in operational theatres across the world, becoming a senior intelligence officer. In 2010, Mike merged his intelligence and technology experience to run cyber defensive operations for UK government, including working on the implementation of the national cyber security strategy and protecting the London 2012 Olympic Games. Joining Darktrace at its early stages in 2014, Mike developed the cyber analyst operation that supports thousands of Darktrace customers with 24/7 support and since 2020 oversees Darktrace’s internal security program as Global CISO. He holds a first-class degree in Computer Science from the University of Plymouth.

James qualified as a solicitor at Linklaters in 2001 before working in the corporate department there for several years advising blue chip clients on major transactions. In 2005 he joined BP’s in-house M&A legal team, before going on to join online food delivery company Just Eat plc in 2013, where he was instrumental in its transformation from pre-IPO business to the FTSE 100 and in subsequently navigating its merger with Takeaway.com. In 2020, James was shortlisted for The Lawyer’s General Counsel of the Year. He has a Law degree from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and a Law Diploma from Nottingham Law School.

Max is a cyber security expert with over a decade of experience in the field, specializing in a wide range of areas such as Penetration Testing, Red-Teaming, SIEM and SOC consulting and hunting Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. At Darktrace, Max oversees global threat hunting efforts, working with strategic customers to investigate and respond to cyber-threats. He works closely with the R&D team at Darktrace’s Cambridge UK headquarters, leading research into new AI innovations and their various defensive and offensive applications. Max’s insights are regularly featured in international media outlets such as the BBC, Forbes and WIRED. When living in Germany, he was an active member of the Chaos Computer Club. Max holds an MSc from the University of Duisburg-Essen and a BSc from the Cooperative State University Stuttgart in International Business Information Systems.

Chris joins Darktrace as a proven marketing executive with 20+ years of experience across all domains of enterprise technology marketing. Prior to joining Darktrace, Chris was the CMO at Zscaler where he was responsible for global marketing strategy and execution. Prior to his time at Zscaler, Chris held senior leadership roles at a wide range of successful companies including HPE Aruba Networking, Nutanix, and Cisco. Earlier in his career, Chris was an industry analyst at the META Group, responsible for advising enterprise organizations on IT & Security best practices. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio University and a Master of Business Administration from IE Business School in Spain.

Gordon is Chairman of Darktrace, having joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director in August 2019. He has been on the Board of Featurespace since November 2014, and prior to that, he joined Capita in 1988 and was first appointed to the Board as Commercial Director in February 1996. Through a combination of acquisitions and ground-breaking white collar outsourcing deals — initially in the public sector — the company continued its rapid growth and entered the FTSE 100 in 2001. Through this period Gordon was instrumental in managing acquisitions, large outsourcing deals, and building a team of commercially-focused Finance Directors to enable continued development of the business. Capita plc has a turnover of c£4.5bn, employs 65,000 people, and spans numerous markets and sectors including Financial Services and Banking. Gordon also is Non-Executive Chair of the PE funded services business, Marston Holdings, and a Non-Executive Director of Motorpoint Plc.

Poppy is the CEO of Darktrace, which under her leadership has grown to 2,200 employees with over 40 offices around the world. Poppy has led Darktrace to achieve a variety of accolades, such as being named Europe’s 9th ‘Fastest Growing European Company’ by The Financial Times, as well as ‘Fastest Growing Super Scale-up’ by Tech Tour. Poppy is a qualified chartered accountant and previously served as the company’s CFO. She was the winner of the ‘Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Awards 2019,’ and recognized in Management Today’s ‘35 Women Under 35’ list in 2018, whose alumnae include Martha Lane Fox and Karen Blackett. Poppy was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2019 in recognition of her services to cyber security.

Cathy Graham is Darktrace’s Chief Financial Officer. Cathy has more than two decades of professional experience in financial disciplines and has served at the helm of several businesses throughout periods of rapid growth and capital structure evolution. Previously at 2U, a global leader in education technology, she has extensive experience in developing and maturing hyper-growth technology companies. In 2015, she was named as Northern Virginia Technology Council’s ‘Public Company CFO of the Year’ and has most recently been included in the Washington Business Journal’s 2018 list of ‘Women Who Mean Business.’ Cathy will lead Darktrace through an exciting period of continued growth and technological innovation. She holds an MBA from Loyola University Maryland and a BA in Economics from the University of Maryland.

Lord Willetts served as a Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2015. He was Minister for Universities and Science within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2014, and previously held roles within HM Treasury and the No. 10 Policy Unit. His current roles include President of the Resolution Foundation and Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology, together with serving on several company boards.

Sir Peter Bonfield has more than 50 years’ experience in the international technology sector, leading businesses in the fields of electronics, computers and communications. He is currently Chairman of Netherlands-based NXP, a world leading semiconductor company. He is also Director and Chair of Audit at TSMC in Taiwan, on the Board of Imagination Technologies in the UK and on the US Board of the EastWest Institute, an international not-for-profit think tank. He is a member of The Longreach Group Advisory Board, Senior Advisor to Alix Partners and Board Mentor for CMi.

Sir Peter’s prior positions include CEO of BT Group, Chairman and CEO of ICL plc and Deputy CEO of STC plc. He has served on the boards of 12 international companies including Sony, Ericsson and AstraZeneca.

Sir Peter is an elected Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering. Knighted in 1996 and awarded the CBE in 1989, Sir Peter has received honorary doctorates from 11 universities.

Paul has held senior positions at several high growth, public technology companies in the UK and internationally. He is currently Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director at Ascential plc, a FTSE 250 data and analytics company. Paul’s previous roles include CFO of the online food marketplace Just Eat plc, Group CFO of software company The Sage Group plc, both FTSE 100 businesses, and CFO of data solutions company WANdisco plc. He also served as a Senior Independent Director on the Board of Hays plc, a recruitment company.

Elaine has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry. Elaine’s last executive role was at Sky, one of Europe’s leading broadcasting and media companies and one of the UK’s largest telecommunications and mobile businesses, where she had overall responsibility for the Sky Group’s technology strategy. She was also Sky’s Group Chief Information Security Officer, owning and delivering Sky’s strategic plan for cyber security.

Prior to Sky, Elaine held operational and consultancy roles with multinational market leaders in the Telecommunications, Media, Technology, Travel, Utilities and Financial sectors, including at ITV, the BBC and AOL/Carphone Warehouse, where she advised at Board, executive and leadership level on technology capabilities for growth, efficiency and resilience in highly disrupted markets.

Elaine currently also serves as a Non-Executive Director of AIM-listed conveyancing software company, Smoove plc, and Notting Hill Genesis group, one of the UK’s largest housing associations.

Jill was most recently the Head of Enterprise Services at Snap Inc., running a global team who oversaw operations from sales, to engineering, to 3D visualisation. She has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, having served as President, and prior to that, COO, of SAP SuccessFactors, a cloud-based human capital management software provider. Under Jill’s leadership, SAP SuccessFactors grew to serve more than 7,000 customers, with 120 million users worldwide and Jill oversaw the launch of a number of successful new software products, including SAP Work Zone for HR. Jill began her career at Accenture, after earning a BA in International and Global Studies from Texas A&M University. Jill also serves on the board of MRI Software.

Paula has 30 years of experience in Technology Sales and is currently President and Chief Revenue Officer at Alteryx, Inc., the leading analytics cloud platform, where she is responsible for the entire customer journey, including sales, pre-sales, renewals, partners and alliances, marketing, technical support and customer success. Paula has helped scale the business from c.$530 million in revenue in 2021 to over $900 million in 2023. Prior to this, Paula was Chief Revenue Officer of SAP Customer Experience where she led Product Sales, Presales, Channel, Go-to-Market, Operations, and Customer Success in support of the company's 10,000+ Customer Experience customers. Paula spent 19 years at Cisco which she left as Vice President of Global Enterprise West. Paula graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with a Minor in Mathematics.

Stephen Shanley joined KKR in 2014 and is head of KKR’s Technology Growth Equity business in Europe. He is actively involved with KKR’s investments in Darktrace, OutSystems, KnowBe4, GetYourGuide, Ivalua, Trainline, ClickTale, Optimal+, and Travelopia. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Shanley was with Technology Crossover Ventures in Palo Alto, California and subsequently London. Prior to TCV, Mr. Shanley was with the TMT investment banking group of Needham & Company and started his career in the transaction services group of KPMG. Mr. Shanley holds a BS and a BSC from Santa Clara University.

Han joined Summit Partners in 2004 and today manages the firm’s London office. He focuses primarily on investments in the technology sector in Europe. Han is currently a director at Darktrace, Flow Traders (Euronext: FLOW), Masternaut, OnRobot, Red Points, RELEX Solutions, Siteimprove and Syncron, and he is actively involved in the firm’s investment in Avast (LON: AVST). His previous board and investment experience includes 360T Group (acquired by Deutsche Börse), Acturis Limited (acquired by Astorg), Multifonds (acquired by Temenos), SafeBoot (acquired by McAfee) and Welltec International (acquired by Exor and 7 Industries).

Prior to Summit, Han worked for Scotia Capital and IBM Corporation. He holds a BS in business administration from the University of Groningen, an MSc in international business from the University of Groningen, and an MSc in international finance from the CERAM Graduate School of Management & Technology.