DALLAS, April 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Conifers.ai, the agentic AI platform designed to transform security operations, today announced the appointment of three new board members, Chairman Art Coviello of SYN Ventures, David Johnson of TLG Holding and Ryan Permeh of SYN Ventures. These industry veterans bring decades of experience in business strategy, M&A and technology leadership to their positions as advisors for the already fast–growing cybersecurity startup.
This announcement follows the company's recent $25 million funding round led by SYN Ventures and Picus Capital. Since emerging from stealth in January of this year, Conifers has experienced rapid success, more than doubling its headcount to meet growing demand. Additionally, it has expanded its headquarters in Dallas, TX, and is actively hiring for a variety of roles.
“The increasing need for both greater quality and efficiency in security operations, as well as delivering measurable, strategic results, underscores the importance of providing advanced SOC security solutions that directly address our customers' pain points,” said Tom Findling, Co–founder and CEO of Conifers. “We’re seeing significant demand for our unique approach, which is transforming security operations for both the enterprise and security service providers through advanced AI, disruptive pricing, and a staged implementation model. The extensive expertise these new advisors offer will be invaluable to our growth and long–term success.”
New board members include:
Art Coviello
Managing Partner & IC Chairman for Flagship Funds, SYN Ventures
Art Coviello has been a central figure within the information security industry for more than 25 years. Most notably, Coviello served as President and CEO of RSA and following RSA’s acquisition by EMC (for $2.1B) as an Executive Vice President of EMC and head of its Security Division. Since stepping down from RSA in 2015 Coviello has been an active investor and advisor in the technology industry, guiding many startups as a private investor and currently as a Managing Partner of SYN Ventures.
David Johnson
Senior Partner/Member of Investment Committee, TLG Holding
David Johnson is a globally recognized corporate strategist and expert in M&A and related integration, having successfully completed more than 120 acquisitions representing more than $40B of equity investment, divestitures, and venture capital investments. Johnson co–founded TLG Capital Partners, after having joined the Blackstone Group where he was a Senior Advisor and Senior Managing Director. While at Blackstone, Johnson led the firm’s technology sector where he was responsible for numerous domestic and international acquisitions in Cyber Security, Cloud Solutions, IT Services, Consulting and Outsourcing.
Ryan Permeh
Operating Partner at SYN Ventures
Ryan Permeh was previously the Co–Founder and Chief Scientist of Cylance, acquired by Blackberry for $1.4b in 2020. He led the architecture behind Cylance’s mathematical engine and groundbreaking approach to security. Permeh has been in the security industry for over 20 years and has a long history in both offensive and defensive security. Prior to co–founding Cylance, he served as Chief Scientist for McAfee, focused on technology strategy, and as a Distinguished Engineer at eEye Digital Security, focused on building security assessment tools.
“Conifers’ approach to leveraging AI in cybersecurity is innovative, solving complex challenges SecOps teams face as a result of escalating threats, and directly addressing pain points in the industry while increasing value for the customer,” said Coviello. “As their growth accelerates, I look forward to contributing to their strategic vision and business objectives to help make them successful in the market as they scale.”
To learn more about the Conifers platform and its leadership team, visit the website.
About Conifers.ai
Conifers.ai is transforming security operations centers (SOCs) with its AI–native Conifers CognitiveSOC™ platform, enabling enterprises and managed security service providers (MSSPs) to achieve SOC excellence. By leveraging agentic AI, Conifers empowers security teams to investigate complex, multi–tier incidents at scale with confidence, efficiency, and accuracy. Led by seasoned industry veterans and supported by SYN Ventures, Conifers is committed to addressing critical SecOps challenges through innovative solutions that enhance operational effectiveness, advanced investigation reasoning, and decision–making capabilities. With its unique staged implementation framework and patent–pending architecture, Conifers.ai builds trust in AI adoption, delivering measurable ROI and business impact. Learn more at https://www.conifers.ai or on LinkedIn and X.
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