James Brear has proven experience driving high-growth startups to successful outcomes. Prior to joining Swimlane, James was Chief Executive Officer of Veriflow which was sold to VMWare in August 2019. Veriflow was launched in 2016 and quickly gained recognition as pioneers of Intent-Based Networking. Accolades include being named Gartner’s Cool Vendor, RSA Innovation Sandbox finalist, SC magazine Innovation award, Frost & Sullivan’s Top 10 to watch, Information Week’s vendors to watch and winner of Barclays innovation challenge.
Previously, James was the Chief Executive Officer at Procera (NASDAQ:PKT) until its successful acquisition by Francisco Partners in August 2015. At Procera, James grew annual revenues in excess of 1100% in less than six years. He completed a public offering in 2012. Under James’s leadership, Procera was added to the S&P 600 and the Russell 2000—two of the world’s most widely followed stock market indices. James built Procera into a global leader in its industry as a six consecutive year winner of Deloitte’s Fast 500 award and Light Readings Public Company of the year finalist in 2012. Brear was also selected as an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year regional semi-finalist in 2013.
Prior to Procera, James was at Tasman Networks (acquired by Nortel) and Force10 Networks (acquired by Dell). In addition, he spent five years with Cisco Systems with responsibility for delivering more than $900M in annual revenue. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
As Swimlane’s Co-Founder and CSO, Cody is responsible for the strategic direction of Swimlane and the development of its security automation and orchestration solution. His focus on the open exchange of expertise and best practices allows him to work closely with industry-leading technology vendors and partners to identify opportunities to streamline and automate security operations activities that speed cyber response and enable security automation initiatives.
After a decade of hands-on security operations work, in 2011, Cody co-founded Phoenix Cyber, a cybersecurity professional services organization known for its ability to blend strategy and engineering with cutting edge security technology. After beginning his career in the U.S. Coast Guard, Cody spent 15 years in IT and security, including roles with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), American Express and IBM Global Business Services.
Cody is a frequent presenter and resource on information security at Forbes, the Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, the DHS Security Subcommittee on Privacy, and National Public Radio (NPR).
Bob has 30 years of solid financial and business management experience. As CFO, he comes to Swimlane with a track record of scaling revenue, building high-performing teams, and consistently exceeding financial targets for a range of leading technology companies. He is credited with building out the operational and financial infrastructure for SentinelOne through its mission-critical pre-IPO journey, contributing to a more than 12x valuation increase during his tenure, culminating in a listing on NYSE in June 2021 with a valuation of US$8.9bn. Parker also served as the CFO for Circulor and SnapLogic, and was the head of corporate financial planning and analysis at NetApp. Bob currently serves on the board of directors for Vali Cyber.
Tony Thompson brings more than 20 years of dynamic marketing leadership to Swimlane, having elevated cybersecurity and IT networking technology brands, defining new markets, and breaking through the noise in crowded markets. Prior to joining Swimlane, Tony was Chief Marketing Officer for Kemp Technologies, where he successfully transformed the company from niche load balancing/application delivery into the rapidly growing category of “Application Experience (AX).” Kemp was acquired by Mill Point Capital, then later acquired by Progress Software. Under Tony’s leadership, the company saw brand awareness increase with nearly 50% new user acquisition growth while also achieving the #1 rating on Gartner.
Previously, Tony served as vice president of marketing and general manager for SS8 Networks (acquired by HighBar Partners), where he led the strategy, sales and marketing execution for a breakthrough in network intelligence, breach detection, and network detection and response (NDR). Prior to SS8, Tony was vice president of marketing for Silver Peak, where he reshaped the company from niche player into a leader in WAN optimization, and ultimately the pioneer of the burgeoning SD-WAN market. Silver Peak was acquired by HPE.
Prior to Silver Peak, Tony led OEM and embedded security marketing for McAfee. He came to McAfee from the acquisition of Solidcore, where he established the company as a leader in application whitelisting security. Earlier, Tony led public relations for security products at Juniper Networks, and was instrumental in the launch of Blue Coat, the web security leader that achieved over 300% growth in market valuation and profitability within 18 months, later acquired by Symantec. Tony holds a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State, where he was awarded Public Relations Alumni of the Year.
Frans Xavier serves as Swimlane’s Chief Technology Officer and SVP of Engineering. Frans is in charge of driving technology innovation within the Swimlane and creating the most sophisticated security automation platform in the world.
Prior to joining Swimlane, Frans led the engineering and strategy teams at Zuora for the Revenue products. Frans also spent 10 years in Responsys/Oracle leading the development of a market leading cross channel marketing campaign automation platform growing to over $200M revenue, which included a successful IPO and eventual sale to Oracle.
Prior to that, Frans held several important engineering leadership roles in small and large enterprises. He has built and managed large product and engineering teams around the globe. He holds a BS degree in Computer Science from St. Joseph’s College and MS degree in Computer Science from Bharathidasan University, India.
Michael Lyborg is the Chief Information Security Officer at Swimlane. Prior to taking his current role, Michael was Global Vice President of Advisory services, a highly sought-after expert by the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies and global government agencies to advise on the creation and operation of industry leading security operations programs in North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia.
Before joining Swimlane, Michael was a head of security for the Fortune 100 fastest growing pharmaceutical company Heska (HSKA), where he held multiple responsibilities for global security operations, engineering, and compliance. His roles at Swimlane and Heska built on decorated US Marine Special Operations career supporting both cyber and physical response and the mitigation of emerging threats.
Mike is Sr. Vice President of Business Development, and is responsible for Swimlane’s Technology Partners, Advisory Alliances, and Channel Partner strategy. He brings over 25 years of experience developing and leading successful channel partner and Alliance programs, and has led multiple successful partner programs including Veriflow Networks (Acquired by VMware), Tasman Networks (acquired by Nortel), and Force10 Networks (acquired by Dell). In addition, Mike served 7 years at Cisco Systems where he led Cisco’s strategic relationships with EDS and IBM globally. Prior to Swimlane, Mike served as Chief Business Development Officer at BlastWave, an early state cyber security SaaS company.
Andy Smith serves as Swimlane’s Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, where he leads global post-sales strategy and execution. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring customers realize long-term value through successful implementation, adoption, and ongoing partnership.
Prior to joining Swimlane, Andy built a distinguished career in cybersecurity, intelligence, and fraud investigation spanning the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, and Fortune 500 enterprises. At Transamerica, he led enterprise-wide cybersecurity investigations, helping to protect critical financial systems from internal and external threats. Before that, he served as a Cyber Crime Investigator for the Department of Defense, where he focused on advanced threat detection and response.
During a 15-year career in the U.S. Army, Andy led global intelligence operations, conducted high-impact cybercrime investigations, and supported counterintelligence and threat mitigation efforts. His assignments included deployments across Europe, the Middle East, Northeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific, contributing to national security initiatives in both tactical and strategic environments.
Andy is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Mandarin Chinese. With a deep understanding of operational security, cross-cultural intelligence, and global threat landscapes, he brings a mission-driven mindset to his work, bridging technical execution with business impact.
Payal Mehrotra serves as Swimlane’s Vice President of Product Management, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s product strategy and vision. With an unwavering passion for security, Payal has dedicated over two decades to fortifying organizations against evolving security threats.
In her career spanning Fortune 500 companies to hyper-growth startups, Payal has excelled in diverse domains such as network security, risk management, compliance, vulnerability management, and data security. Prior to her tenure at Swimlane, Payal held a key position at Qualys, where she led the Cyber Risk product portfolio. Before Qualys, she spearheaded the Risk and Compliance portfolio at Tanium, launching the company’s inaugural Risk product that incorporated Tanium’s custom dataset to prioritize and remediate security events.
Payal’s journey in cybersecurity includes BitSight Technologies, where she was instrumental in propelling the company’s growth from 50 to 450 employees. Her experience further extends to Sophos, where she played a pivotal role in securing Sophos’ position as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Security and Management.
Payal holds a Masters in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and an MBA from Babson College. Her early academic achievements include ranking 1st in Mathematics during high school in the state of Maharashtra, underscoring her affinity for numbers.
Armed with almost 2 decades of experience in Human Resource Management and Labour law compliance, Lakshmi is a self motivated, performance driven leader determined to deliver Talent acquisition, retention and motivation solutions that help organizations to harness the full potential of the most valued asset – People.
At Swimlane she is responsible to steer people management strategies to achieve business goals by creating a people centric environment, with infusion of diversity, equity and inclusion strategies across all stages of the employment lifecycle.
Prior to Swimlane, Lakshmi’s experience includes roles at Oracle, Responsys and Blucora where she was instrumental in creating and executing people centric policies and process, employee engagement programs with a goal to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness. Throughout her career she has been a part of Talent acquisition, compensation and employee experience, culture performance management, employee grievance handling and Human Resource administration.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, a Masters degree in Business Administration specializing in Human Resource management and University topper in Degree of Law.
Lindsie Upton is the Director of People Operations for Swimlane and leading the human resources strategies for the organization. Lindsie serves as a strategic business partner focused on employee relations, talent management, and development. She has a focus on improving the employee experience and modernizing people strategies to keep competitive in the current workforce.
Lindsie has a background in human resources and talent acquisition in the SaaS and academia industries. She has a strong track record in process improvements and implementing new HR programs related to recruitment, retention, ED&I, leadership qualities, and more. Lindsie received her BA in Business Management, emphasis in Human Resources Management from the University of Colorado Boulder. She is also a SHRM Senior Certified Professional.
Sameer has over 15 years of experience in industrial and climate technology. He joined EIP in 2015 and has since led the firm’s investments efforts across cybersecurity and distributed energy. His investments at EIP include Arcadia, Attivo, Dragos, Enchanted Rock, Finite State, Mosaic, Opus One, Particle, Powin, RapidSOS, Swimlane, Trifacta, and Urbint.Prior to EIP, Sameer spent five years at Evercore in the firm’s Power and Renewable Energy Group where he advised clients on over $15bn of M&A transactions.
Prior to Evercore, Sameer spent three years at GE Capital’s energy venture capital group focusing on industrial and clean tech investing. Sameer has a dual degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Florida.
David has been a prominent investor in venture and growth equity for 25 years and has founded and led multiple firms investing over $1 billion in energy and clean technology.
Prior to co-founding Activate, David was the founder and Managing Partner of Element Partners, an $860 million series of funds dedicated to a broad range of investments in clean technology. From 1996 to 2005, David was also a Co-Founder and Managing Director of EnerTech Capital, one of the first venture capital firms formed to invest specifically in the deregulation and transition of the global electric markets. From 1991 to 1996 David served as President and CEO of Deven Resources, Inc., a private equity firm dedicated to the acquisition and development of energy properties; and from 1984 to 1991, David was a partner with CMS Companies, a Philadelphia-based investment and financial services firm.
David has also been an active participant helping to shape federal policy for the venture capital and growth equity industry. As a board member of the National Venture Capital Association for four years, David chaired the NVCA Energy & Cleantech Committee and worked with policymakers to promote capital formation for technology companies focused on US energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. In addition, as the 2014-15 Chair of the NVCA Growth Equity Group, David worked with industry participants, research firms and policymakers to establish and benchmark Growth Equity as a distinct asset class within private equity.
David holds a BA in Geology (with honors) from Colgate University, an MS in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and is active in addressing the Philadelphia public schools’ crisis as an executive committee board member with City Year of Philadelphia.
Shawn has more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software and cybersecurity. He joined EIP in 2020 and has since led the first efforts around enterprise technology.
Shawn started his career as an investment banker in Merrill Lynch’s Global Technology Group before joining Cisco’s Corporate Development Group where he led acquisitions and investments across several business units. He went on to work as an investor focused on private enterprise software companies at Third Point LLC, a multi-strategy hedge fund based in New York.
Shawn holds a Bachelor of Science in Government from Cornell University.
