Back to BlogBlumira Expands Executive Leadership Team, Names Jim Simpson VP of Product
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Cybersecurity Startup Continues to Accelerate Growth, Plans to Double Headcount in 2021
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Jan. 26, 2021 – Blumira, an emerging cybersecurity provider of automated threat detection and response technology, today announced that Jim Simpson has joined the company as vice president of product. In this role, Simpson will be responsible for leading Blumira’s strategic product roadmap as the company continues to push the boundaries of traditional SIEM solutions by bringing enterprise-level security to the mid-market through modern, easy-to-use, cloud-based technology that enables teams without dedicated security resources to quickly detect, investigate and respond to cybersecurity threats.
Simpson has over two decades of experience growing successful security startups, most recently leading product management at Duo Security, an access security provider that was acquired by Cisco in 2018 for $2.35 billion. Prior to Duo, he led engineering and UX at the network security company Arbor Networks which was acquired by NETSCOUT in 2015. Simpson holds a B.S. in computer science from University of Michigan.
The appointment follows a year of tremendous growth for the company. A $2.6 million funding round enabled Blumira to fuel product innovation and to double its headcount with top-tier security talent, many of whom previously held leadership positions at Duo Security, Censys, Groundspeed, DeepField (acquired by Nokia) and the National Security Agency (NSA). With a current headcount of 25, the company will continue to invest in cybersecurity talent and plans to double its headcount again by the end of this year, hiring additional leadership roles while significantly expanding its engineering and sales teams.
The rapid adoption of Blumira’s automated threat detection and response platform and the expansion of its executive leadership team is driven by the adoption of SaaS applications and migration to the cloud that has only accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As companies continue to shift massive workloads and sensitive data to multi-cloud environments to support business continuity and remote workforces, there is an urgent demand for affordable, scalable and easy-to-use security solutions that can be quickly deployed. Blumira prioritizes alerts by level of criticality to reduce alert fatigue and automates threat response by providing security playbooks for each finding enabling IT teams, especially those with limited security expertise, to confidently defend against constantly evolving cybersecurity threats.
“Effective security has been less accessible to the mid-market because existing solutions target larger organizations and require piecing together disparate tools to accomplish the necessary workflows,” said Jim Simpson, vice president of product at Blumira. “With a focus on usability, and simplifying threat detection and response through automation of key security operation workflows, we can deliver immediate value and enable customers to identify and respond to threats faster and earlier. Blumira is well-positioned to reimagine the future of effective security, and I look forward to joining this visionary team during a time of exciting growth.”
“Jim’s knowledge and extensive experience building SaaS security solutions brings significant value to our company and to our customers,” said CEO and co-founder Steve Fuller. “We have a huge opportunity in front of us, and we are thrilled to have Jim on our executive team to help us execute our aggressive growth plans and to lead our product strategy toward becoming the leading security provider for organizations migrating to a multi-cloud approach.”
About Blumira
Blumira is a leading cybersecurity provider of automated threat detection and response technology. Founded in 2018 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Blumira’s cloud-based SIEM platform helps mid-market organizations, often with limited security resources or expertise, to prevent, detect and respond to cybersecurity threats in near real-time. The all-in-one solution is quick to deploy, easy to implement and integrates broadly across cloud, endpoint protection, firewall and identity providers. Blumira was recognized by G2 as a top cloud SIEM provider and placed in 20 categories including ‘Best Return on Investment (ROI),’ ‘Fastest Implementation,’ and ‘Easiest to Use’ in the G2 Winter 2021 Grid® Reports.