Protect AI Taps Former Exabeam, Imperva Exec As Revenue Chief

The company has made several moves recently, including some acquisitions.

Protect AI, which offers artificial intelligence and machine learning security, announced Thursday that it has appointed a former president of cybersecurity firm Exabeam as its new chief revenue officer.

During his time at Exabeam, Ralph Pisani helped the company scale into a leading SIEM and security analytics provider, according to a news statement. He has also led global sales and go-to-market operations at Imperva and CipherTrust.

In his new role, Pisani will “lead Protect AI’s global go-to-market strategy, accelerating enterprise adoption and revenue growth,” Protect AI said in a news statement.

“I’m thrilled to join Protect AI at such a critical time for AI security,” Pisani said in a statement. “AI is transforming industries, but its security challenges are immense. Protect AI is pioneering this space with cutting-edge solutions that enterprises urgently need. I look forward to leading the company’s go-to-market strategy and helping organizations worldwide secure their AI systems.”

The company said it has raised $108 million in funding to date and acquired a slew of firms including Rebuff, Huntr, Laiyer AI and Syde Labs to ramp up its AI/ML security offerings.

The Huntr acquisition allowed Protect AI to create a “bug bounty” program made up of a community of over 15,000 members who hunt for vulnerabilities across the open-source software AI/ML supply chain. Protect AI releases a monthly report of discovered vulnerabilities along with remediation suggestions.

In addition, the company launched its MLSecOps Foundations cybersecurity certificate program. The program is headed by Diana Kelley, Protect AI CISO and a former Microsoft CTO.

The certification program is important for IT professionals because the biggest security threat regarding AI is “not understanding how it works,” Kelley said in an interview with MES Computing.