Cybersecurity Giant Tenable Hires Former HP Compliance Chief

Cybersecurity company Tenable Holdings Inc. has hired veteran technology industry lawyer Michelle VonderHaar as its new chief legal officer and general counsel.

VonderHaar joins from HP Inc., where she spent nearly five years, having been chief compliance officer and most recently deputy general counsel and assistant secretary. She exits a month after HP hired Julie Jacobs for its top legal spot.

She succeeds Stephen Riddick, a trailblazer in the world of Big Law and law department leadership who helped mentor a new generation of Black lawyers. Riddick retired Oct. 14, Tenable disclosed in a securities filing.

Tenable is among cybersecurity companies expanding operations as attacks on global supply chains have become more common. Cybersecurity stocks soared early this year as investors bet that fears over Russian hacking would lead companies to prioritize network protection.

“Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing industry, one that is absolutely critical to enterprises,” VonderHaar said in a Monday statement issued by Tenable. She and Riddick didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Prior to joining HP in 2018, VonderHaar was general counsel for Veritas Technologies LLC, a private equity-owned data management firm.

She also served as general counsel for Huawei Symantec Technologies Co. Ltd., a short-lived joint venture between the controversial Chinese technology giant and Symantec Corp., a software company now known as NortonLifeLock Inc.

During the roughly decade she spent in-house at Symantec, VonderHaar helped form one of the first networking groups for technology lawyers in Silicon Valley.

Tenable cited VonderHaar’s three decades of experience directing mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, governance, compliance, litigation, and global trade legal matters at the domestic and international level.

“Michelle has an impressive record of enabling technology innovation and international expansion,” said a statement from Amit Yoran, Tenable’s chief executive.

During her time at HP, VonderHaar and other former company lawyers helped implement an initiative that held back 10% of legal fees from law firms that didn’t meet a requirement that at least one diverse lawyer be staffed on company matters.

Similar corporate diversity programs could be affected by an affirmative action case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Riddick’s Role

Riddick joined Tenable in mid-2016, two years before the Columbia, Md.-based company raised $288 million in an initial public offering.

He previously spent a half-dozen years at Praxair Inc. after working as a partner at Greenberg Traurig and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, a now-defunct firm known for its technology expertise. Riddick, who Brobeck hired to set up shop in Washington, once led the firm’s business and technology practice in the city.

Riddick spoke out last year and urged his corporate legal counterparts to err on the side of disclosure when it comes to cybersecurity breaches.

After Riddick retired, he was replaced on an acting basis at Tenable by associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary David Bartholomew, who has since been promoted to deputy general counsel.

Tenable’s most recent proxy statement shows that Riddick received nearly $2.8 million in total compensation during 2021. Securities filings show that he’s sold off more than $4.1 million in company stock so far this year.

Riddick still owns more than $1.7 million in Tenable shares, according to Bloomberg data.