Canada is one of FireEye Inc.’s fastest growing regions, so it only made sense to open up a new headquarters in Toronto, according to the cybersecurity firm’s area vice-president and general manager for Canada.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that we’re building a business that’s not only Canadians supporting Canada, we’ve also hired Canadians in America’s strategic roles, supporting enablement and marketing in terms of go-to-market, and they all take advantage of this new office space,” Greg Davison told CDN during the office’s official opening this morning. “Our old office didn’t have enough space for us to function. We built this new space with the mindset that we were going to grow into it. It’s a 10-year plan for us as we continue to grow the business organically.”
FireEye is coming off a solid 2018. The company posted revenues of $211 million and performed over 700 investigations into security incidents and approximately 400 red team engagements resulting in “hundreds of thousands of hours learning from the front lines about how and when security safeguards failed,” according to its chief executive officer and board director Kevin Mandia, adding during a recent earnings call that he was happy about more than the posted revenues. In the first quarter of 2019, of the 33 transactions greater than $1 million, all but three included more than one product.
“I am confident the security market will pivot to a best-of-suite platform backed by security experts and trusted advisors providing Security-as-a-Service, and I believe we will be best positioned to meet the market when that demand arrives,” he said.
Last month FireEye also acquired Verodin, a platform that measures the effectiveness of cybersecurity controls, for approximately $250 million in cash and stock.
Partners will be crucial during this process, indicated Davison, who helped rebuild the company’s channel strategy when he began leading FireEye in 2016. Back then, he decided to roll back the number of partners they were working with and focus on the ones that understood the importance of selling solutions and not individual products.
“The security space is tired of the widget sales,” Davison explained. “We’re staying away from technical conversations and making sure most of them are rooted in business.”
*FireEye’s April 30th earnings call transcript was sourced from investment research platform Seeking Alpha
*Correction: A previous version of this article said Greg Davison was the assistant vice-president of FireEye Canada. He is actually the area vice-president and general manager. CDN apologizes for the error.
