Sumit Dhawan in

Sumit Dhawan

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CEO at Proofpoint
📍 Palo Alto, California, United States

Sumit Dhawan is the CEO of Proofpoint, focusing on human-centric cybersecurity. With an MBA from the University of Florida, he has a strong record of scaling businesses, notably driving over $13B in revenue as President of VMware. Colleagues describe him as a results-oriented, strategic, and energetic leader.

Outside of work, Sumit is a family man who enjoys reading nonfiction spanning history, politics, and business. He picked up golf during the pandemic, which he plays with his wife, and is an avid fan of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.

As President of VMware, he was responsible for all go-to-market functions and grew the companys revenue to over $13 billion.

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Current Role
CEO
Location
Palo Alto, California, United States
Personality Overview

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Priorities

Topics Sumit cares about

Human-Centric Security
He is leading Proofpoint's strategy to provide a holistic platform focused on preventing threats and data loss by protecting people, a concept he frequently discusses publicly.
AI in Cybersecurity
He often speaks about how AI is supercharging attackers through social engineering and how Proofpoint is using 'Agentic AI' to empower defenders and enhance data security.
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Career

Work history

11-2023
CEO
Proofpoint
7-2025
Member Board of Directors
Moody's Corporation
2-2020 - 11-2023
President
VMware
5-2018 - 2-2020
CEO
Instart
10-2013 - 5-2018
Senior Vice President And General Manager
VMware
In the press

Media appearances

Sumit Dhawan: Leading Proofpoint's AI evolution and building .... Featured in Apple Podcasts (Inside the Network)
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Proofpoint CEO Sumit Dhawan Announces Platform That .... Featured in YouTube
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Education
2015 - 2015
Stanford Executive Program
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
2001 - 2003
MBA
University of Florida - Warrington College of Business
MS
University of Minnesota
Social presence
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Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

DISC behavioral profile

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