Former Forescout CMO Jumps to Cisco Security

The tech giant, whose security segment has seen double-digit growth in recent quarters, has brought on Neville Letzerich as its new VP and CMO of its security division.

Cisco Systems has brought on Neville Letzerich as its new vice president and chief marketing officer of its security division.

“I’m honored and humbled to join Gee Rittenhouse, Jeetu Patel, Gene J. Hall and the great team at Cisco as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Cisco Security. Exciting times ahead as we continue to radically simplify security!” Letzerich said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday on his new appointment.

Cisco did not respond to CRN’s question on whether Letzerich’s position within the security unit is a new post, or whether he will be succeeding another executive.

[Related: Cisco Will Buy Socio Labs To Enhance Webex Events]

Letzerich comes to Cisco having served as CMO for five other technology companies. He most recently served as CMO for Forescout Technologies for more than a year and left the company in February following a string of executive departures for the security vendor. He’s also sat in the CMO seat for encryption specialist Virtru, software company HotSchedules, cybersecurity provider Forcepoint, and software company Bazaarvoice.

The marketing executive also served as CMO for Duo Security in 2018, prior to Cisco's acquisition of the company for $2.35 billion.

“We are expanding our world-class marketing organization to continue to accelerate Cisco Security’s growth. We are happy to welcome Letzerich as the vice president of security marketing. [Letzerich] is a results-oriented executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience and significant expertise in cybersecurity and software as a service (SaaS). Investments in marketing will allow us to double down on our efforts supporting the partner community, and expand our marketing capabilities,” a Cisco spokesperson said in a statement to CRN.

San Jose, California-based Cisco has watched its security business rise over the last several years, with double-digit revenue growth stemming from its Duo and Umbrella offerings. During its fiscal Q2 2021, Cisco’s security segment rose 10 percent to $822 million year over year.