Welcoming Fazal Merchant, Our New COO & CFO

I’m thrilled to welcome our new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Fazal Merchant, to Tanium’s leadership team.

From our first conversation, it was clear to us that Fazal was the right fit for Tanium. To build a truly great company, we need proven business leaders who are passionate about our mission and whose values align with our own. In addition, for this role specifically, we wanted someone with experience outside of the tech sector. While we do many things right in our industry, our leadership team recognizes there’s a lot to be learned from other sectors of business that often don’t make their way to Silicon Valley.

Fazal currently serves as an advisor to WndrCo, a new media- and technology-focused holding company founded by partners including former DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Previously, he was the CFO of DreamWorks Animation, leading up to the company’s November 2016 sale to Comcast. Prior to that, Fazal held various positions at DirecTV, including CFO of the Latin American division, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Corporate Development. Before DirecTV, Fazal spent eight years in Investment Banking during which he was a Managing Director at both Barclays Capital and the Royal Bank of Scotland. He began his career at Ford Motor Co. where he held a variety of domestic and international finance roles of increasing responsibility at both Ford and Ford Credit.

Fazal’s diverse background, collaborative nature and breadth of experience make him the perfect business partner to help drive our continued mission.

Tanium just completed another year of over 100% revenue growth, with increasing gross margins and positive operating cashflow. We now serve more than half of the Fortune 100, and many agencies of the US Federal government, with aggressive plans to provide the same benefits to our international customers over the coming years. We know we have a special opportunity to change the way businesses manage everything they own with a processor in it, driving security and efficiency to levels that were previously impossible. To capitalize on our amazing potential, we need leaders who can help us build a world-class culture and company with true mission orientation and focus. Fazal fits that bill perfectly.

I look forward to partnering closely with Fazal, our board and executive team as we expand into key verticals, tap new markets and continue to grow our team. Please join me in giving him a warm welcome!

About the Author: Orion Hindawi co-founded Tanium in 2007 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Orion leads product strategy and development of the Tanium Platform, in addition to all customer-facing technical operations and management functions. A technology visionary and accomplished inventor, Orion has led the development of enterprise-scale endpoint security and management platforms for the past 18 years at BigFix, Inc. (acquired by IBM in 2010) and Tanium, in addition to holding multiple software patents in the areas of network communications and systems management. Orion works closely with Tanium customers on a daily basis in the pursuit of inventing new approaches for solving the significant challenges IT departments face securing and managing large, global enterprise environments. Orion also serves on the Tanium Board of Directors.