Proofpoint, Inc. is a global leader in cybersecurity and compliance, best known for its focus on human-centric protection across email, cloud, and identity threats.
By early 2025, Proofpoint, Inc. stood at a crossroads in cybersecurity. The company, long recognized for its leadership in email and data protection, was navigating a surge in AI-enabled attacks and increasingly complex social engineering campaigns. Enterprises were spending more on fragmented point solutions, often leaving themselves vulnerable to multistage and multichannel threats.
What Proofpoint needed was not just incremental improvement—but a transformational leader who could unify strategy, technology, and execution.
A Leadership Hire to Rebuild Strategy and Acceleration
In June 2025, Proofpoint appointed Tom Corn as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Threat Protection. With more than 20 years of cybersecurity leadership experience at VMware, RSA, and AI-focused startups, Corn brought a vision of converging AI, cloud, and identity protection into one cohesive platform.
His arrival signaled a fundamental shift—from a product-driven organization to one built around platform-driven innovation, measurable risk reduction, and enterprise resilience.
Christian & Timbers, the executive search firm behind the placement, identified Corn as a transformational leader capable of aligning Proofpoint’s deep technical foundation with its go-to-market execution.
Rebuilding the Product Core to Protect the Human Attack Surface
Corn immediately set out to unify Proofpoint’s fragmented offerings under a single brand and architecture. The result was Proofpoint Prime Threat Protection—a comprehensive, human-centric cybersecurity platform designed to stop attacks across email, cloud apps, browsers, and collaboration tools.
The goal was to simplify enterprise defenses while delivering measurable security outcomes tied directly to user risk and behavior.
Prime Threat Protection merged key Proofpoint technologies—Email Security, Advanced Threat Protection, Identity Defense, Threat Research, and AI/ML capabilities—into a cohesive system.
With AI-driven defense at its core, it became the foundation for Proofpoint’s evolution into a high-efficiency, outcomes-based platform leader.
Execution Momentum Accelerated Under Corn’s Direction
Proofpoint’s transformation progressed rapidly under Corn’s leadership. Within months, he reorganized teams, accelerated product delivery cycles, and redefined the company’s roadmap around integrated, AI-powered detection and automation.
His influence extended beyond product: by emphasizing platform cohesion and measurable results, he aligned sales, engineering, and marketing functions under a singular vision of human-centric protection.
Key Events That Redefined Proofpoint’s Growth Trajectory
Under Corn’s leadership, Proofpoint’s journey between June and September 2025 was marked by coordinated milestones that reshaped its business trajectory.
- June 23, 2025: Tom Corn officially joined Proofpoint as EVP & GM of Threat Protection, reorganizing leadership and assuming full ownership of the division.
- Q2 2025 (July): Proofpoint launched Prime Threat Protection, integrating fragmented tools into a unified solution. Early customers reported significant benefits from this consolidation, including efficiency gains in SOC operations and simplified security management.
- September 2025: At Proofpoint Protect 2025, Corn unveiled the platform roadmap with Microsoft and leading cloud security partners, introducing:
- Email AI Exploit Detection to counter AI-based phishing prompts.
- SSO Password Guard to block credential reuse.
- Threat Interaction Map to visualize cross-channel threats.
- AI-Powered ThreatFlip and Satori Agents to automate simulations and response tasks.
Consolidation of acquisitions
Hornetsecurity and Nuclei, plus partnerships with Microsoft, Snowflake, and Wiz to strengthen integration.
Each event reinforced Proofpoint’s new position as a unified platform provider—transforming operations and reaffirming leadership in AI-driven security protection.
Rapid Results Validated the Leadership Shift
Within one quarter of Tom Corn’s appointment, Proofpoint achieved results that validated the company’s strategic pivot:
- 500+ enterprise customers added in the first three months.
- Double-digit ARR growth, signaling strong adoption and customer confidence.
- Over 90% gross retention, reflecting both high satisfaction and product stickiness.
- Six “Leader” analyst rankings from major firms including Forrester and Gartner.
Customer feedback pointed to measurable gains in SOC efficiency, reduced operational complexity, and improved detection accuracy—up to 99.99% on platform-wide coverage.
From Fragmented Solutions to Integrated Leadership in 90 Days
Proofpoint’s strategic EVP & GM hire successfully reshaped the company’s direction within 90 days. What began as a response to the evolving AI-driven threat landscape became a defining moment of transformation.
By uniting advanced AI with human-centric design and operational efficiency, Proofpoint not only defended against next-generation threats but also reinforced its leadership position in enterprise cybersecurity.
Under intense market pressure to secure the right leadership fast, Proofpoint needed more than a search firm—it needed precision. Corn’s leadership didn’t just deliver quarterly performance, it positioned Proofpoint for sustained growth, higher efficiency, and long-term resilience in the AI era of cyber defense.