CRN Exclusive: Tanium Names Former Salesforce Exec As Chief Revenue Officer

Tanium has added another executive to its lineup, appointing former Salesforce executive Mark Wayland to the newly created role of chief revenue officer.

Wayland officially starts at Tanium on July 10.

Wayland joins Tanium after 10 years at Salesforce, most recently as senior vice president of marketing for cloud. He has also held positions at Gartner, Scient and Nortel.

[Related: Tanium Challenges Continue As VMware Ends OEM Relationship]

In an interview with CRN, Wayland said he joined the Emeryville, Calif.-based security company because he saw the opportunity to help it grow in the same way he saw Salesforce grow.

"I love Salesforce. I loved every minute I was there … [My move] was really about how thrilled I was at the opportunity at Tanium. It really felt like the Salesforce I joined 10 years ago, and it seems like it was too good to pass up."

While he hasn't had a security role before, Wayland said he believes he brings skills around running a large sales organization and driving predictable results with tools like training, go-to-market plans, territory planning, and more. He said he also brings experience from a platform company, which he said will be helpful as Tanium looks to leverage its platform beyond the security market.

"That's something I learned in a world-class environment at Salesforce, and I think those learnings will serve Tanium well," Wayland said.

The chief revenue officer role is a new one for Tanium, overseeing the company's sales, customer support, pricing, and revenue management. Wayland will now be responsible for helping Tanium grow its sales strategy and expand into new markets, the company said.

The appointment comes after a period of drastic change and challenges for Tanium. Over the past few months, Tanium has seen the departure of multiple top-level sales executives and COO and CFO Eric Brown. Tanium also appointed former Veritas executive Rick Kramer as vice president of channel sales and former Cisco executive John Maxwell to lead its business around state and local government, health care and education.

Tanium has also been plagued by reports of an unprofessional company culture. The company has also been criticized for exposing a client's private network information without permission in demos. Tanium CEO Orion Hindawi has apologized for both issues in a blog post.

Wayland said the turnover and culture challenges don't concern him. He said he couldn't comment on why former executives left the company but said he checked with personal references to resolve any of his questions about the company culture.

While he hasn’t started in his new role yet, Wayland said his goals include working to continue to growth Tanium has already seen and listen to customers to find new ways to grow. He said there are also some internally-focused "low hanging fruit" tasks that he will look into right away, including the operation of the sales force and the way the sales force manages its sales numbers.

Wayland said his channel plans include working with Tanium's existing channel team to "determine what the routes to market are in every market and the optimal decisions to connect with customers around the world."

Chris Schwind, a technical solutions architect at WWT, said in an email that he is "very excited" to see Wayland's appointment to the CRO role. He said Wayland's experience at a company like Salesforce "makes him the ideal leader to drive the company's expansion and lead it into its next phase of growth."

"It’s been exciting to watch the company grow and hire such a strong bench of people. Tanium’s investment in talent and its people-first approach to sales leadership aligns with our core WWT values and our approach to partnerships," Schwind said.