New Claroty CEO talks company’s growth and COVID-19

In July, operational technology security company Claroty welcomed a new CEO. The new Claroty CEO, Yaniv Vardi, brings two decades of global executive leadership experience and a long-standing track record of developing and executing global business strategies and directing worldwide growth.

“We are living in a different world than we were even six months ago. Massive shifts have taken place in nearly every market imaginable, and industrial cybersecurity is no exception,” Amir Zilberstein, Co-founder and Chairman of Claroty, said in a July 20 press release. “Despite that, Claroty has had remarkable successes to date, including its recent record quarters, strong investment community, product innovation, and maturing executive team. The company is uniquely poised to be the preeminent leader in OT security and Yaniv’s skill set, vision and expertise are what we need to get to our next level of impressive growth.”

Vardi joins Claroty at an interesting time. While many companies are struggling under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, Claroty continues to thrive. The company recently saw two consecutive record-breaking quarters, including both year-over-year revenue and logo growth, and expanding customer acquisition even further globally and across several new verticals.

“I joined Claroty after a long journey of leading different solutions for the industrial space because I truly believe that with our talent, partners, and investors, we will lead the way in the OT security market,” Vardi said in the release. “I am excited to lead this very talented and unique team, to continue to build upon and expand our already proven vision, and to firmly secure Claroty’s place as the OT security market leader.”

Industrial Cyber spoke with the new Claroty CEO about his transition to Claroty, the company’s growth and how his team is helping companies through the pandemic.

“Claroty, during COVID-19 and post COVID-19 continues to lead and grow. We’re really answering the needs in the market  through a very robust platform,” Vardi said. “The platform we have today is really addressing the current challenges of remote access and IoT and risk management as we continue to find more and more vulnerabilities on the different systems that are being used in different industries.”

Vardi said that while digital transformation had already been revolutionizing industrial environments, COVID-19 has accelerated this advancement. Now organizations are using more remote access to manage their production line and this is creating massive exposure on the security side.

“They’re using remote access and leveraging a lot of data that was more secure before COVID-19,” Vardi said. “Industrial networks, many times are exposed, but there’s a reason to look at securing these industrial networks even more now than before.”

Prior to joining Claroty, Vardi served as the global managing director of Centrica Business Solutions, International where he was responsible for managing eight countries. Before that he served as CEO of Panoramic Power, an energy management solutions provider that was eventually acquired by Centrica.

Vardi says he was attracted to Claroty because of the company’s growth trajectory. However, in the midst of the pandemic, he also wanted a a role that would give him a sense of purpose. At Claroty, that purpose means protecting critical infrastructure operators from vulnerabilities and risks.

“I had a sense of urgency to do something useful for the world and protect these different critical infrastructures and companies that we all depend on,” Vardi says. “The electricity companies, the energy companies, water utility companies, oil and gas–we depend on them.”

Rebecca Addison

Industrial Cyber Editor. Rebecca Addison is a former newspaper editor with a decade of experience in the media industry. During her career, she has interviewed world leaders and corporate CEOs, and covered topics ranging from blockchain and CBD to healthcare and education.