Poppy Gustafsson to step down as CEO of Darktrace
September 2024 by Marc Jacob
Darktrace plc announces Poppy Gustafsson will step down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with effect from today and Jill Popelka, Darktrace’s current Chief Operating Officer (COO), has been appointed as her successor. Jill will assume the role of CEO and will also be appointed to the Darktrace Board of Directors with effect from today.
Jill has more than two decades of experience of driving operational best practices and maturing teams, systems and processes for fast-growing businesses. She previously held senior leadership roles at leading global technology businesses, including Accenture, Snap Inc and SAP SuccessFactors, one of the largest enterprise cloud businesses in the world, which she led as President. Jill joined Darktrace in January 2024 as a Non-Executive Director, before assuming her current role of COO at Darktrace on 1 June 2024.
The acquisition of Darktrace by Thoma Bravo continues to progress as anticipated. All antitrust and regulatory approvals have now been received, with the exception of one foreign regulatory approval, which is currently anticipated by 28 September 2024. Per the transaction timetable, Darktrace will seek the UK court’s sanction of the transaction as soon as this final regulatory approval has been received, with the closing of the transaction expected shortly afterwards.
This announcement is made in accordance with the notification requirement in UKLR 6.4.6R and there are no other disclosures that need to be made under UKLR 6.4.8R relating to the appointment of Jill Popelka.