Company news · 3 MIN READ · SCOUT SCHOLES · DEC 31, 2024 · TAGS: Expletives / in the media / leadership & management
TL;DR
- As 2024 comes to an end, we’re reviewing everything that happened this year at Expel—inside and out!
- Check out our greatest accomplishments in 2024, including adding Kevin Mandia to our board, and announcing three new partnerships
- And keep an eye out for our first accomplishment of 2025, coming in January–our latest Expel Annual Threat Report
As 2024 draws to a close, we’re reflecting on all the great things that happened at Expel this year. Here’s a recap of what we accomplished, with even more to look forward to in 2025!
We tended to our cultural garden
“Many have said that company culture is like a garden: it needs to be nurtured, watered, and weeded constantly to thrive.” – David Merkel, Expel CEO
We’re incredibly proud of the culture we’ve built (and continue to build), so let’s start there.
- We hosted 55 team touchdowns (both at headquarters and across the country). Teams are encouraged to meet in-person as needed since we’re a fully remote company, and those often happen at our HQ in Virginia. It’s our way of accommodating the best talent regardless of their geography, while also making time for those invaluable, face-to-face connections and meeting the needs of today’s workforce.
- Our Expletives led 18 Live ‘n Learns (LnLs) on topics of their choosing. LnLs can be about anything (I hosted one in 2023 on Taylor Swift, and our Chief of Staff Yanek Korff hosts a yearly tutorial on pumpkin carving). From the inner workings of media relations to pasta making and managing grief, we covered it all this year, with sign-ups already pouring in for 2025!
We never stopped innovating
We shared 16 press releases this year, spanning partnership announcements, awards, integrations, and new board members. Here are a few of our favorites:
- We kicked off 2024 by publishing our Expel Annual Threat Report, which enriches the trends of last year and includes predictions for the coming year with detailed data from our SOC’s experiences. And we’re starting 2025 the same way, so keep your eyes open for the latest from our SOC in January.
- IDC named Expel a Leader in the 2024 MarketScape for Worldwide Emerging MDR services in April. As we continue to evolve our MDR services to better serve our customers and keep them secure, it’s always exciting when the industry agrees with what we’re accomplishing. The full report is designed to provide a clear framework to meaningfully evaluate MDR providers, and commended Expel for the automation at its core that enables rapid alert enrichment, triage, and auto-responses.
- In August, we announced not one but two new strategic partnerships with IR firm provider modePUSH and leading CNAPP Wiz. This came after our first partnership announcement of the year with ivision in July, and sets the stage for our continued joint efforts to improve cybersecurity as a community, because beating bad actors is a team sport.
- Kevin Mandia, cybersecurity titan and Mandiant founder, joined Expel’s Board of Directors in October. His appointment to our board reunited him with CEO David Merkel, combining their deep expertise and shared roots in the defense community. The announcement was even picked up by Axios! Since October, Mandia and Merkel have joined forces for a variety of internal and external communications, with more witty banter and cybersecurity expertise to come in 2025.
And we made some noise in the news
We’re proud of the security we provide and the experiences our team brings to the table, so it’s always special when others think it’s worth shouting from the proverbial rooftops, too. Here are some of our favorite features from 2024:
We’re proud of the security we provide and the experiences our team brings to the table, so it’s always special when others think it’s worth shouting from the proverbial rooftops, too. Here are some of our favorite features from 2024:
- Expel’s CEO David Merkel sat down with the New York Stock Exchange to discuss our technology-first approach, and how it created the foundation of Expel’s business (including the story of what inspired Expel!). You can watch it here.
- Our VP of engineering, Cat Starkey, was promoted to Chief Technology Officer (CTO). She shared that “Our software is at the core of solutions that deliver some of the best outcomes in cybersecurity, but our people are the propelling force behind our engineering success. I feel incredibly grateful to be part of a leadership team that cares about delivering results through empowering and energizing the humans that drive it.”
- Aaron Walton, Threat Intelligence Analyst, authored a byline for Dark Reading. He discussed the LockBit takedown, where a prominent ransomware group was foiled after government agencies worked together to share information to disrupt the group’s malicious work. As we say all the time at Expel, security is a team sport, and this is a great example of why that mindset is critical in our industry.
- Expel CSO (then-CISO) Greg Notch was featured alongside other executives in this Raconteur article on digital certificates, and how to manage them securely as network endpoints expand exponentially. The TL;DR on Greg’s thoughts? Digital certificates are essential for remaining secure, so automating the identification and renewal process can reduce their burden (and human error), while keeping this critical piece of security management in play.
While 2024 was jam-packed, we can’t wait to see what 2025 brings—see you next year!