Obsidian Security appoints Xinran Wang as EVP of Engineering

Obsidian Security announced Xinran Wang has joined as the EVP of engineering.

Wang bolsters an already strong technical bench of industry veterans including Glenn Chisholm, CPO, previously the CTO at Cylance, and Ben Johnson, CTO, previously co-founder of Carbon Black, to help accelerate innovation and scale the Obsidian SaaS security platform for exponential growth. Wang has been the driver behind best-in-class security products at both Palo Alto Networks and Shape Security, and his leadership and expertise will help Obsidian Security achieve its goal of delivering a category-leading solution in SaaS security.

Wang has more than 20 years of extensive experience in malware research, cloud security and anti-fraud solutions, with a proven track record of scaling business-critical applications at high growth companies in disruptive markets. He most recently served as the SVP of engineering for Shape Security which was acquired by F5 and led the malware research team at Palo Alto Networks in the early 2010s. Wang was instrumental in building WildFire, the company’s flagship malware detection and analysis solution.

“In a lot of ways, Obsidian gives me the same exciting feeling that Palo Alto Networks did when I joined more than ten years ago. The SaaS security market is ripe for disruption, which creates technical challenges that require a strong engineering team within the organization,” said Wang. “I’m incredibly excited to join Obsidian to not only focus my efforts on further scaling the platform and ecosystem to deliver on the incredible market demand, but also deliver the most efficacious and complete solution for SaaS security and posture management.”

“I am thrilled to have Xinran onboard to help create a world-class engineering team,” said Hasan Imam, CEO of Obsidian. “His experience leading some of the industry’s most dynamic security engineering teams brings a wealth of knowledge that will allow us to continue innovating rapidly at an even greater scale. Xinran has a unique way of unlocking people’s potential, encouraging them to be self-actualized and creating a space for them to grow, learn and innovate.”

With Wang leading the charge, Obsidian hopes to double the size of the engineering and data science team by the end of this year as the company continues its rapid growth.