Christian & Timbers is pleased to announce Derek Maki's placement at Proofpoint as SVP of Product, leading the Data Security business, including AI Data Security and AI DLP.
Derek steps into the role at a moment when security leaders are reassessing data movement across email, cloud, and collaboration workflows, especially as AI agents expand access patterns and increase policy complexity. Proofpoint positions its platform around securing how people, data, and AI agents connect across these environments.
A leadership profile built for platform scale
Derek brings three complementary perspectives that boards value in product leadership.
- Founder experience
- Derek co-founded Longbow Security, focused on security risk management for cloud native environments. Veracode announced the acquisition of Longbow in early April 2024.
- Enterprise transformation advisory
- He has also advised senior executives on technology and product transformation, bringing a structured approach to operating cadence, portfolio decisions, and measurable business outcomes.
- Operator at enterprise product scale
- Following the acquisition, Veracode rebranded the Longbow capability as Veracode Risk Manager as part of its application security posture management direction.
Why Data Security leadership sits at the center of the AI cycle
AI adoption increases the volume of sensitive content moving through collaboration channels, the number of users and systems touching it, and the variety of data types that require control. In that environment, product strategy tends to converge on a few priorities.
A unified architecture across data security controls
Proofpoint describes its approach as a convergence of DLP, DSPM, and insider threat management into a unified architecture, supported by automation and AI.
Adaptive classification that reflects real user behavior
Proofpoint has highlighted AI-powered classifiers designed to adapt to how employees handle data, aiming to improve precision and reduce the operational burden on security teams.
Security coverage that extends to AI agents
Proofpoint has stated that modern security needs to include AI agent activity alongside human activity across collaboration and data surfaces.
What success tends to look like in this seat
For a Data Security product leader, success is usually defined by clear, operational measures.
- Time to value for security teams
- Faster deployment, cleaner policy tuning, fewer escalations.
- Policy portability across channels
- Consistent controls across email, cloud, endpoints, and collaboration tools.
- Measurable risk reduction
- Lower exposure events, fewer data loss incidents, stronger governance for regulated data.
Proofpoint is a global leader in human and agent-centric cybersecurity, securing how people, data, and AI agents connect across email, cloud, and collaboration tools.
Christian & Timbers partners with cybersecurity and enterprise software companies to place senior leaders, with a focus on executives who operate at the intersection of product, platform strategy, and go-to-market execution.