Quade joins cybersecurity venture capital firm after serving as Chief Information Security Officer of Fortinet, 30 years as senior executive at the National Security Agency (NSA), and advising cybersecurity strategy at the White House

NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolution Equity Partners today announced the appointment of Phil Quade as Chief Operating Officer. Quade will take responsibility of the day-to-day operations of the firm and as a member of the investment team. He will report to Managing Partners, Richard Seewald and Dennis Smith.

Quade joins Evolution after 5 years at cybersecurity company Fortinet where he served as Chief Information Security Officer, where he also led strategy for the Operational Technology / Critical Infrastructure business practice, advised business and government executives, and was board chairman of the company's US Federal subsidiary.

Prior to that, he was a long-time executive of the National Security Agency, with diverse assignments such as the creation and execution of highly-disruptive technical and operational worldwide capabilities within the guidelines of the President, Congress, and Courts; formation and execution of forward-leaning national security strategies and policies at the White House, and; day-to-day operations of the national security organization responsible for the worldwide protection of classified information, generation of nuclear command and control codes, and production of the nation's and our allies' cryptographic keys. Other assignments included US Cyber Command; the US Senate; the Director of National Intelligence, and a special CIA/Pentagon joint technology and operations center.   

Richard Seewald, Founder & Managing Partner at Evolution stated: "Phil will leverage his considerable experience as a cybersecurity executive, technologist and operator to ensure that the day-to-day operations of our firm are run best in class. At the same time, he becomes a valuable member of our investment team and will be of tremendous value to our portfolio companies. Phil's vison for delivering value to rapidly growing cybersecurity software companies aligns perfectly with how we have designed the Evolution platform.

Dennis Smith, Founder & Managing Partner at Evolution added: "On the heels of our recent $400 million capital raise, we continue to build this institution and add resources to address a highly attractive investment opportunity and to deliver on our mission to back best-of-breed cybersecurity companies and technology that safeguards our digital world. We welcome Phil Quade to our team."  

Phil Quade, Chief Operating Officer at Evolution stated: "Our, and our allies', economies, governments, and critical infrastructures depend, more than ever, on entrepreneurial leaps-forward, with well-executed and trustworthy commercial technology solutions.  I look forward to helping Evolution Equity Partners provide opportunities for investors and solution providers to profitably and responsibly serve our nations' needs."

About Evolution Equity Partners

Evolution Equity Partners, based in New York City, Palo Alto, London and Zurich makes investments in rapidly growing cybersecurity and enterprise software companies that safeguard our digital world. The firm was founded by investor and technology entrepreneurs Richard Seewald and Dennis Smith, who manage and lead the firm and its partners Karthik Subramanian, J.R. Smith and Karel Obluk who have been involved as founders, investors and as senior operating executives in leading software companies around the world. Evolution currently has over $1 billion of assets under management in a growing portfolio of market leading companies. Current and past portfolio companies include Carbon Black, SecurityScorecard, Arqit Quantum, AVG Technologies, OpenDNS, Quantexa, Truefort, Onapsis, Elliptic, Solidus Labs Learn more at www.evolutionequity.com and follow us at LinkedIn and Twitter.