NeSmith joins a prestigious list of unstoppable entrepreneurs and transformational leaders
EDEN PRAIRIE, MN – June 14, 2021 — Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced that Brian NeSmith, chief executive officer and co-founder of Arctic Wolf, was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Heartland Award finalist. Now in its 35th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors unstoppable business leaders whose ambition, ingenuity and courage in the face of adversity help catapult us from the now to next and beyond.
NeSmith was selected by a panel of independent judges. Award winners will be announced during a special virtual celebration on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, becoming lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world.
Arctic Wolf is taking the security industry by storm and has risen to the top of the field as the go-to company to end cyber risk. The company’s growth potential is driven by explosive market demand for effective Security Operations at every size organization. Under NeSmith’s leadership, the company has doubled in size and revenue in the past year as the Security Operations market is ripe for disruption.
Arctic Wolf solves the biggest pain points that plague the security industry today and keep breached companies in the headlines. Security companies have built solutions that are often disparate, ineffective, add noise to the system, and thus leave organizations vulnerable to attacks. Instead of asking customers to buy more tools, Arctic Wolf’s Concierge team, leveraging the Arctic Wolf’s cloud-native platform, provides a holistic protection framework for all customers that strengthens their cyber defenses across the board.
Arctic Wolf is the only company that can deliver word-class Security Operations to organizations of all sizes at cloud-native scale and speed, while also offering a personalized Concierge Service that guides customers throughout their security journey to effectively fortify their security posture.
“It is an honor for both myself and Arctic Wolf to be recognized as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist for 2021,” said Brian NeSmith, chief executive officer and co-founder, Arctic Wolf. “The growth and success of Arctic Wolf have been driven by the shared vision of our employees, customers, and partners that Arctic Wolf’s approach to revolutionizing Security Operations with our technology and services is the most effective way for organization of all sizes to end cyber risk.”
Brian NeSmith has more than 30 years of IT leadership experience, most recently as former chief executive officer of Blue Coat Systems, where he increased company revenues from $5M/year to over $500M/year as the industry’s leading web proxy platform. Prior to Blue Coat, Brian was the chief executive officer of Ipsilon Networks (acquired by Nokia), which became the leading appliance platform for Check Point firewalls. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.
Entrepreneur Of The Year is one of the preeminent competitive award programs for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. The nominees are evaluated based on six criteria: entrepreneurial leadership; talent management; degree of difficulty; financial performance; societal impact and building a values-based company; and originality, innovation and future plans. Since its launch, the program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries around the world.
Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, to be announced in November 2021 at the Strategic Growth Forum®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2022.
Sponsors
Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored by SAP America and The Kauffman Foundation.
In the Heartland Region sponsors also include Colliers International, Padilla, PNC Bank, SALO, LLC, and Twin Cities Business.
About Arctic Wolf:
Arctic Wolf® is the market leader in security operations, pioneering the first cloud-native security operations platform to end cyber risk. Leading the industry with threat telemetry from endpoint, network, and cloud sources, the Arctic Wolf® Platform, supported by the original Concierge Security® Team is the last line of defense for thousands of organizations worldwide. The Arctic Wolf Platform and Concierge Security experts make it fast and easy for organizations of any size to stand up world-class security operations that continually guard against attacks in an efficient and sustainable way.
For more information about Arctic Wolf, visit arcticwolf.com or follow us at @AWNetworks, on LinkedIn or Facebook.
About Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Entrepreneur Of The Year® is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National Overall winners go on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ title. ey.com/us/eoy
About EY Private
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About EY
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Press Contact:
Dan Deeth
dan.deeth@arcticwolf.com
+1.519.505.7745
© 2021 Arctic Wolf Networks, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Arctic Wolf, Arctic Wolf Platform, Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Arctic Wolf Managed Risk, Arctic Wolf Managed Cloud Monitoring, Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, and Arctic Wolf Concierge Security Team are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Arctic Wolf Networks, Inc. or Arctic Wolf Networks Canada, Inc. and any subsidiaries in Canada, the United States, and/or other countries.
