Airspace security leader welcomes Smulders as Chief Marketing Officer and Wenger as Chief Revenue Officer
Dedrone, the market leader in airspace security, appointed Mary-Lou Smulders as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Ben Wenger as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Smulders will lead Dedrone's global marketing and communications team, and Wenger will head global sales to provide best-in-class counter-drone technology to enterprise and government customers around the world.
Mary-Lou Smulders joins Dedrone, having served as strategic advisor at the company since February 2020, formally being appointed CMO in December 2020. Prior to Dedrone, Smulders served as CMO at financial technology company 9th Gear Technologies as well as at crisis communication systems leader AtHoc, growing the brand and supporting their acquisition by security software and services provider BlackBerry in 2015. During her twenty-year career in enterprise software, Smulders also served as Senior Vice President of Global Applications and Services Marketing for Oracle Corporation and has advised on strategic transformation initiatives at Booz & Co. Early in her career, she was an engineer on multiple oil rigs for ExxonMobil and Shell Oil.
Ben Wenger joins Dedrone as CRO following a two-decade career in enterprise technology sales and was formally appointed as Dedrone CRO in December 2020. Wenger was previously the Vice President of Sales for emergency communication technology company Everbridge, where built the go-to-market strategy to include strategic global integrators and scaled the global sales team to meet significant revenue growth. An experienced enterprise software sales leader, Wenger built his career at enterprise software company CA Technologies, where he managed a team of sales directors focused on CA's most strategic customers, culminating in CA Technologies acquisition by Broadcom, Inc. in 2018.
"Our executive team has strengthened with the additions of Mary-Lou and Ben, our team is fully aligned to meet the challenges of leading the global airspace security market.” shares Aaditya Devarakonda, CEO of Dedrone. “Mary-Lou and Ben are seasoned leaders who have storied careers in enterprise security and defense systems and provide practical experience to scale Dedrone and support our company’s mission of protecting people, assets and information against unwanted drones. On behalf of Dedrone, we are confident in the leadership and market expertise that both Mary-Lou and Ben bring to their respective roles and are thrilled to welcome them to our team.”
On behalf of Dedrone's board, Venky Ganesan, Partner at Menlo Ventures, shares, “We are pleased Mary-Lou and Ben have joined Dedrone’s executive bench, as they bring the depth of experience and success in scaling enterprise security technology companies for a global market. We look forward to supporting Mary-Lou, Ben, and the entire Dedrone team as they continue to deliver the world’s leading airspace security technology to protect organizations against drone threats. “
Dedrone is the market leader in airspace security. Dedrone’s counter-drone system is trusted by critical infrastructure, government operations, military assets, correctional facilities, and enterprises to protect against unauthorized small drones. With flexibility to host in the cloud, or on premise, Dedrone’s SaaS technology combines machine-learning software with best-in-class sensors and effectors, to provide early warning, classification of, and mitigation against all drone threats. Dedrone systems are deployed by hundreds of customers globally. Established in 2014, Dedrone is headquartered in San Francisco, with operations in the Washington, D.C.-area, Columbus, Ohio, London and Germany. For more information about Dedrone and to reach our counter-drone subject matter experts, visit dedrone.com and follow @Dedrone on Twitter and LinkedIn.
