New owner takes in Forcepoint, swaps out CEO

A San Francisco-based private investment firm has closed its $1.5 billion acquisition of Forcepoint, formerly the commercial cyber segment of Raytheon Technologies, and also unveiled a series of executive appointments in tandem.

Francisco Partners and Forcepoint’s board of directors have appointed three-decade IT industry veteran Manny Rivelo as CEO to steer the strategy of accelerating growth in government and commercial markets, according to a Monday release.

Rivelo is a former CEO of F5 Networks and AppViewX, plus has held senior leadership roles at Cisco. He succeeds Matt Moynahan, who had led Forcepoint since the business launched under that identity in 2016.

Austin, Texas-based Forcepoint has also promoted Sean Berg to president of global governments and critical infrastructure, a role that sees him responsible for further expansion in public sector and certain highly-regulated industries.

Berg joined Forcepoint in May 2017 as vice president of global government sales, then was promoted in October of that year to senior VP and general manager for that business unit. He will report directly to Rivelo.

Other major appointments Forcepoint unveiled Monday include Dave Stevens as senior vice president of strategy and execution; and John DiLullo as chief revenue officer.

Stevens, a co-founder and former CEO of Palo Alto Networks, will support Forcepoint’s global go-to-market strategy and the expansion of commercial technology opportunities. DiLullo will be responsible for Forcepoint’s worldwide sales and business development organizations.