Aryaka appoints Shailesh Shukla as new CEO & chairman

Aryaka, the renowned network and security firm, has announced the appointment of Shailesh Shukla as its new CEO and chairman. Shukla, with over 25 years of experience in cloud, networking, and cybersecurity, previously served as the Vice President and General Manager of Google Cloud. As part of his role, Shukla played a fundamental role in the development of a multi-billion dollar networking and security business.

Shukla's appointment was announced by Aryaka, known best for its leadership in Unified SASE solutions. The company has confirmed that Shukla has accepted the dual role of CEO and chairman effective immediately. Prior to this appointment, Shukla served as an independent board member at Aryaka and held the position of Executive Chairman of the Board since September 2023.

Shukla brings a variety of experience to the role, having worked with both entrepreneurial start-ups such as Instart Logic and Redback Networks, as well as influential corporations like Google and Cisco Systems. Career highlights encompass roles as Chief Operating Officer at Instart and VP/GM of several routing and software businesses at Cisco.

Aryaka investor and Board member, Rob Schwartz of Third Point Ventures expressed high expectations for Shukla's impact on the company's future, stating: "We're very excited to bring a well-known industry leader like Shailesh as CEO and chairman to lead Aryaka's business. He's had a tremendous track record of success in everything he's done, with a particular mastery of networking and security, as well as scaling companies to their next stage of growth. He's the ideal person to lead this company as it revolutionizes the industry and elevates SASE to new heights."

Aryaka currently finds itself pivoting to address the boom in the SASE market, driven by the increasing necessity to secure the increasingly complex and globally accessed applications on hybrid cloud and data-centre based IT infrastructures. Aryaka, with its Unified SASE solution, is poised to effectively address these challenges by providing a unique approach to distributed policy enforcement, unified control plane, and single-pane-of-glass management that guarantees optimal network and security performance.

Shukla expressed his enthusiasm and confidence in his new role, stating: "Working closely with Aryaka and its customers over the last five months, I've been extremely impressed with the capability and innovations from the team, as well as the recent customer wins such as Cathay Pacific's global SASE deployment. It's an honor for me to lead Aryaka, with its incredible group of people and technical assets, and propel the company to its next phase of growth. Aryaka has already reached the $100M ARR milestone that 98% of venture-backed companies never do. Now that the markets for networking and security are converging, we have an opportunity for Aryaka to become the next billion-dollar security industry player."