Appointment Closely Follows Debut of Largest Dedicated Cybersecurity Seed Fund in the U.S.; Firm Now Has Three Former Fortune 500 CISOs as Partners
SYN Ventures, the only venture capital firm founded and led exclusively by former Fortune 500 CISOs and C-level security leaders, announced the appointment of former SAP global chief security officer Tim McKnight as Operating Partner. McKnight is the third SYN Ventures partner with experience as a Fortune 500 CISO, further distinguishing the firm as providing the deepest experience, relationships and opportunities to help its portfolio companies succeed in building the next generation of great cyber security solutions and companies.
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“His unparalleled experience as a multiple-time Fortune 500 CISO will not only help identify transformational and disruptive solutions in which to invest, but also ensure the success of founders in building their companies and understanding how to solve enterprise-level problems. Tim is an extremely strategic addition to the Firm.”
McKnight will be focused on SYN Ventures’ $75+ Million cybersecurity seed fund – the largest dedicated cyber seed fund domiciled in the United States. The SYN Seed Fund invests in transformational and disruptive solutions, not incremental features, where there is an opportunity to reduce technology risk, address the talent gap and help automate and enhance security programs.
“We have known Tim as a fellow CISO for over 20 years and worked with him directly as a founding member of our CISO Board of Advisors since 2017. We’re honored that he’s joining SYN full time,” said Jay Leek, Managing Partner and co-founder of SYN Ventures. “His unparalleled experience as a multiple-time Fortune 500 CISO will not only help identify transformational and disruptive solutions in which to invest, but also ensure the success of founders in building their companies and understanding how to solve enterprise-level problems. Tim is an extremely strategic addition to the Firm.”
McKnight joins SYN from SAP, where he served as executive vice president and chief security officer. In his role, Tim developed, implemented, and managed SAP’s overall security policies, standards and guidelines in accordance with ongoing security initiatives and worldwide IT, physical and personnel security, cybersecurity activities, data protection and privacy laws.
Before joining SAP, Tim was chief information security officer for Thomson Reuters, responsible for all aspects of the company’s global information security risk management program. Prior to that, he served as Chief Information Security Officer for General Electric, executing its information security and IT risk strategy. Previously, Tim was executive vice president of Fidelity Investments’ Information Security and Technology Risk. He also served in various IT Security leadership roles at Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and Cisco Systems. Tim began his career at the Federal Bureau of Investigation as lead investigator of all National Infrastructure Protection Center matters, including high-tech crimes, corporate espionage, foreign counterintelligence and telecommunications fraud.
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“There has never been a better time to invest in cybersecurity, which makes joining the SYN Ventures team a f******** opportunity,” said Tim McKnight. “The overwhelming amount of operational work CISOs face makes it challenging to think about solving problems in an innovative way, especially from within. This is the perfect moment to bring my experience to bear in connecting CISOs with early-stage startups that enable innovation, while helping founders validate problem sets and understand how CISOs look at procuring solutions and put them into practice.”
The SYN Ventures team combines over 250 years of operational security experience with investing acumen and a trusted network of dozens of CISOs spanning multiple industries that actively help entrepreneurs accelerate the growth of their companies to better protect against the ever-evolving threat landscape.
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