High Wire Networks, Inc., a provider of managed cybersecurity and technology enablement, has appointed cybersecurity industry veteran, inventor and thought leader, John “JP” Peterson, as chief product officer, effective July 17.
Peterson will be responsible for leading High Wire’s Overwatch Cybersecurity product strategy and development. He has more than 30 years of entrepreneurial and executive experience in product development, sales engineering and technological innovation at technology and cybersecurity companies, including Ericom (Ericsson), Cisco Systems, Fortinet, Barracuda Networks, Juniper Networks, Comodo, U.S. Robotics and 3Com.
A U.S. Navy Aviation Electronics School graduate, U.S. Marine veteran and avionics engineer, Peterson has led several tech startups that he helped fund and scale through acquisitions and initial public offerings.
A prolific inventor of leading-edge cybersecurity technology, he is named on 13 patents and patent applications that represent major advances for the industry. As a recognized industry thought leader, he is a sought-after public speaker and media commentator.
Peterson previously served as chief product officer at Ericom Software, a provider of zero-trust cloud cybersecurity solutions. At Ericom, he invented its security service edge (SSE) platform solution and authored three related patent applications. This eventually led to the company being acquired by Cradlepoint, a wireless network edge solutions provider and unit of telecommunications giant, Ericsson.
Also for Ericom, Peterson established the go-to-market MSSP business model for his product inventions.
Before Ericom, he was the founding chief product officer at Open XDR provider, Stellar Cyber, where he invented and designed the company’s machine learning and cybersecurity detection logic. He helped lead the company’s $7 million Series A funding and took the company’s flagship product from prototype to commercial launch. This included building the customer-facing teams for sales and marketing, sales engineering, product management and technical support.
Prior to Stellar Cyber, Peterson was general manager of cybersecurity products for Comodo Security Solutions, a global provider of endpoint protection, where he was responsible for product strategy, management, marketing and evangelism, as well as sales enablement and sales engineering.
As co-founder of Montego Networks, he was the inventor of the industry’s virtual security switch that provides VM-to-VM visibility and security.
At Fortinet, Peterson was responsible for its worldwide product management and sales engineering during the company’s pre-IPO period which led to its $180 million Nasdaq IPO and explosive growth to more than $4.4 billion annually.
As senior director of worldwide sales engineering at Netscreen, he built and led its global sales engineering team of 120 members and traveled worldwide creating and selling firewall solutions. He served on the executive team that launched Netscreen’s $160 million Nasdaq IPO led by Goldman Sachs and the eventual acquisition by Juniper Networks for $4.2 billion.
While serving as vice president of enterprise technology and general manager at Barracuda Networks, Peterson was responsible for product management of virtualization solutions and worldwide sales engineering. He was also part of the executive team that launched Barracuda’s $74.5 million IPO led by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and BofA Merrill Lynch at a $2.4 billion valuation.
Peterson has held product development, marketing and sales engineer roles at Zscaler, Juniper Networks, and Raytheon/Websense (now Forcepoint), Cisco Systems, U.S. Robotics, and 3Com. While at U.S. Robotics, he traveled globally to help build America Online and its international business partnerships.
Peterson began his career under a special contract with the U.S. Marine Corps and graduated from the U.S. Naval Aviation Electronics School as an aviation engineer. He worked on infrared and laser targeting systems on F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets and received letters of commendation for solving a complex problem that had plagued the entire U.S. Navy and Marine Corps fleet of F-18s.
To learn more about High Wire’s technology enablement and cybersecurity-managed services, visit High Wire Networks online or email overwatchsales@highwirenetworks.com.
