Checkmarx CEO Benzaquen stepping down after 17 years in latest shakeup at cyber unicorn
Sandeep Johri will succeed co-founder Emmanuel Benzaquen, who led the company's sale to private equity firm H&F at a valuation of $1.15 billion in March 2020
Checkmarx announced on Tuesday that co-founder and CEO Emmanuel Benzaquen is stepping down. Benzaquen will continue to serve on the company's Board of Directors.
Sandeep Johri will succeed Benzaquen. Johri most recently served as CEO of Tricentis, which he led for seven years from an early-stage startup to a global leader of continuous-testing software solutions. Previously, Johri held senior management roles at HP, and founded several VC-funded security startups such as Oblix (acquired by Oracle), Determina and Bluelane (both acquired by VMware).
Calcalist recently revealed that Checkmarx, which laid off around 100 employees last November, including 40 in Israel, held in January a lavish annual kickoff event in Cancun, Mexico, for 250 of its employees. The event to mark the start of the business year included the flying of 250 employees from around the world to Mexico for lectures and other activities, including parties, which in total are estimated to have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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“The current situation in global markets is affecting entire industries, including the high-tech industry, and this reality requires us to take determined steps that will secure the success of Checkmarx, and the success of its clients, over the long-term,” Benzaquen told Calcalist after the company announced the layoffs. “Among these steps was the difficult decision to part ways with several of our valued colleagues, who we will support during this change. We will now re-organize the company’s structure and refocus our resources in order to deal with the short-term challenges and to secure long-term growth.”
Founded in 2006 and based in central Israel, Checkmarx develops cybersecurity technology that automatically scans code to detect security breaches. The company was founded by Benzaquen and Maty Siman. Checkmarx was acquired by American private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) at a valuation of $1.15 billion in March 2020.
