LogRhythm Employee Spotlight | Meet Mark Logan

Mark Logan

At LogRhythm, our company culture is focused on helping our customers defend their organizations against cyberthreats — but this mission is fueled by the enthusiasm of our employees. LogRhythm is not your normal tech environment. We take our work very seriously — it’s high intensity, but it’s also a lot of fun. We fight the good fight against cybercrime together. Learn more about the people who found a home here at LogRhythm.

This quarter’s Employee Spotlight series showcases Mark Logan, president and chief executive officer. Here is Mr. Logan’s story, edited and condensed from a recent interview.

What is your role at LogRhythm?

I am the new president and CEO of LogRhythm. In this role I provide strategic guidance and oversight of day-to-day operations. Additionally, I work closely with our board of directors and investors at Thoma Bravo.

How long have you worked at LogRhythm?

I am starting my seventh week [as of Sept. 3] in the job. You could consider me new and a LogRhythm rookie.

What did you do before LogRhythm? What was your previous work experience?

I’ve been in the enterprise software space for nearly 30 years. In my prior role, I was president of a publicly traded company named Attunity (formerly NASDAQ: ATTU). In that capacity, I oversaw global operations and worked to define strategic direction.

Prior to my time at Attunity, I held leadership roles in several enterprise software companies, including Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, and Emptoris. While at Emptoris, the team and I helped grow the company and lead the organization through a successful acquisition by IBM. So, I’ve got an array of experiences with some large software companies and mid-size firms.

During the first year of you joining Attunity [2018] revenues grew 39%, software revenues grew 61%, and the stock responded by increasing 220%. To what do you attribute those results?

We heightened our focus on our customers. This included aligning our product to key client needs, enhancing our support and customer success organization, investing in alliance partners most important to our customers, and resetting our go-to-market strategy.

During this time, the team at Thoma Bravo began keeping a close eye on the company and ultimately purchased Attunity.

I got to know the Thoma Bravo investor, which lead me to the opportunity at LogRhythm.

Why did you decide to come work for LogRhythm?

There were several reasons why I got excited about the opportunity to join LogRhythm. First, the security software market is one of the fastest growing markets in the software technology space — that by itself is very exciting. As I began to learn more about the position, I discovered that LogRhythm has held, and continues to hold, exceptional acknowledgements from top analysts, such as Gartner and Forester. I saw tremendous opportunity in LogRhythm and was excited about tackling the challenges that come with ensuring LogRhythm continues its market leadership.

Lastly, as I got closer to making my final decision, the strong company culture really stood out as a defining feature. This quickly became the final icing on cake, and I knew this was the place for me.

Now that you’ve been with LogRhythm for some time, what does your next six months look like?

One of the observations that I’ve made in the past weeks — as great of a job we are already doing — in order to scale, we must make it easier for our customers to do business with us. There are several pivots we plan to pursue in the weeks ahead to make our licensing and channel alliance exchanges easier.

Furthermore, as a leader in the security market we need to also set the bar high for Customer Success excellence. I am making a flawless ‘customer journey’ a central part of our strategy and market differentiation.

In our pledge to re-focus on customer success, we intend to always offer flexible options to ensure we meet the need of the market and our customers. As today’s companies wrestle with the ever-growing demands of managing large data volumes, I believe CISOs shouldn’t be put in a position of balancing unpredictable SIEM costs. We’re looking to address this market issue by increasing the availability of our subscription-based model, providing enhanced license flexibility, and further supporting our cloud offering in the months ahead.

Finally, as more Global 2000 organizations come to LogRhythm to solve their SIEM needs, we plan to continue to invest in engineering to ensure we can scale to meet those global demands.

We recently completed RhythmWorld 2019, our third annual user conference, can you talk to me about your experience at the event?

Amazing. Incredible. Passionate. Customer oriented.

The customer engagement I saw was the best I’ve ever seen at an event. Whether it was our customers sharing their stories during a panel or customers coming together to compete in the LogWars Capture the Flag challenge, the involvement was outstanding.

During the event, I met one-on-one with nearly 30 different customers and had casual conversations with nearly another 100. For me, being new in this role, the timing was perfect to be involved in a customer event like RhythmWorld. During these conversations, I learned not only areas LogRhythm was doing well and where we should continue investing in, but also where we can grow as a vendor and partner. Customer feedback I received at RhythmWorld was overwhelmingly positive. Customers came, learned, and left with the assurance that they made the correct decision to partner with LogRhythm!

What is your educational background?

I went to Providence College and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a minor in Business Management. While at school, I balanced study time with playing on the lacrosse team and became Captain as a senior. The afternoons always had their fair share of excitement as I ran from the various labs to the practice field.

You’ve been working hard since you’ve started at LogRhythm, have you been able to find some time for any fun?

Yes! My family and I climbed Mount Sanitas on the outskirts of Boulder. It wasn’t quite a 14er, but it was a formidable hike. You could say I’m enjoying the Boulder lifestyle!

What do you do for fun/what are your hobbies?

I play ice hockey and snow ski! Moving out to Colorado has had a net positive impact on my hobbies.

What is your life philosophy or “motto”?

Integrity first. Always do the right thing for your customers, partners, colleagues and friends. Work hard. Surround yourself with great people, then give them the confidence and authority to excel.