Executive Intelligence

Nicole Eagan

Co-founder and Strategic Advisor

Co-founder and Strategic Advisor of Darktrace, the AI cybersecurity company with more than ten thousand customers and two thousand three hundred plus employees.

In this profile

Quick Facts

  • Role Co-founder and Strategic Advisor
  • Company Darktrace
  • Country United Kingdom
  • Industry AI in Cybersecurity
  • Founded 2013
  • Known For Darktrace helped popularize self-learning, unsupervised-AI threat detection years before generative AI reshaped the security industry's marketing…
  • Last Reviewed Jul 2026

Executive Summary

Nicole Eagan is Co-founder and Strategic Advisor of Darktrace per the company leadership page. Ed Jennings serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. Darktrace reports more than 2,300 employees, thirty plus offices, and more than 10,000 customers on its company page.Darktrace has been building its AI cybersecurity platform since 2013 per verified materials for this profile. Eagan's current strategic advisor role indicates continued founder involvement beyond day-to-day CEO operations.Enterprise cybersecurity buyers in 2026 increasingly evaluate whether vendors can integrate AI detection with existing SOC workflows, reduce mean time to respond, and demonstrate measurable outcomes across email, cloud, endpoint, and identity attack surfaces without multiplying analyst alert fatigue.

Career Timeline

Verified company milestones linked to this executive’s organization.

  1. 2013 Company founded

    Darktrace was founded in 2013 per the company profile source on file.

    Source
  2. 2013 Development

    2013: Darktrace is founded in Cambridge, United Kingdom, by mathematicians and cyber-defense experts backed by Invoke Capital, the investment firm of entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

    Source
  3. 2021 Development

    2021: Darktrace lists on the London Stock Exchange under ticker DARK.

    Source
  4. 2022 Acquisition

    March 2022: Darktrace acquires Dutch attack-surface management company Cybersprint for u20ac47.5 million.

    Source
  5. 2024 Acquisition

    April 26, 2024: Thoma Bravo agrees to acquire Darktrace for approximately $5.3 billion, a 44% premium to its recent trading price.

    Source
  6. 2024 Acquisition

    October 1, 2024: Thoma Bravo completes its acquisition of Darktrace, delisting it from the London Stock Exchange; Jill Popelka becomes CEO.

    Source
  7. 2026 Leadership

    January 2026: Jill Popelka steps down as CEO after roughly 16 months; chairman Charles Goodman serves as interim CEO.

    Source
  8. 2026 Leadership

    March 2026: Ed Jennings is named president and CEO of Darktrace, its third chief executive in eighteen months.

    Source

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Overview

Nicole Eagan is Co-founder and Strategic Advisor of Darktrace per the company leadership page. Ed Jennings serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. Darktrace reports more than 2,300 employees, thirty plus offices, and more than 10,000 customers on its company page.

Darktrace has been building its AI cybersecurity platform since 2013 per verified materials for this profile. Eagan’s current strategic advisor role indicates continued founder involvement beyond day-to-day CEO operations.

Enterprise cybersecurity buyers in 2026 increasingly evaluate whether vendors can integrate AI detection with existing SOC workflows, reduce mean time to respond, and demonstrate measurable outcomes across email, cloud, endpoint, and identity attack surfaces without multiplying analyst alert fatigue.

Role

Eagan holds Co-founder and Strategic Advisor on Darktrace’s leadership page — a title signaling ongoing strategic counsel while Jennings leads as President and CEO.

Strategic advisor roles at scaled cybersecurity vendors often preserve founder voice in product philosophy, major partnerships, and public thought leadership without operating responsibility.

This profile uses only the leadership page title string; no additional roles are inferred.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Background

Darktrace’s leadership page identifies Eagan as co-founder and strategic advisor without listing prior titles or employers on the cited official page.

Company scale metrics — 2,300 plus employees, thirty plus offices, 10,000 plus customers — contextualize the organization Eagan helped create.

No education or pre-Darktrace employment claims appear on cited leadership materials and are therefore excluded.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Career

Eagan’s verified public career arc on Darktrace official pages centers on co-founding Darktrace and serving as Co-founder and Strategic Advisor with Ed Jennings as operating President and CEO.

Building since 2013 places Darktrace’s founding era in the first wave of enterprise AI security commercialization.

Founder-to-advisor transitions at ten-thousand-customer scale reflect common governance evolution in European cybersecurity unicorns.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Company Journey

Darktrace’s journey since building began in 2013 includes scaling to more than 10,000 customers, 2,300 plus employees, and thirty plus offices per company page.

Leadership transition to Ed Jennings as President and CEO with Eagan as strategic advisor marks professionalization while retaining founder governance input.

United Kingdom headquarters context aligns with Darktrace’s global office footprint described on company materials.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Leadership

Eagan’s leadership identity is Co-founder and Strategic Advisor — preserving founding credibility while Jennings executes operationally.

Ten-thousand-customer scale underlines the institutional weight of Eagan’s co-founding contribution even in advisory capacity.

Researchers tracking Darktrace should distinguish Eagan’s advisor role from Jennings’ operating CEO authority on leadership page.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Public Milestones

Documented: co-founder and strategic advisor; Darktrace 2,300 plus employees; thirty plus offices; 10,000 plus customers; building since 2013; Ed Jennings President and CEO.

Company page metrics are primary quantitative milestones.

Funding and IPO details not in verified fact list excluded.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Why This Founder Matters

Nicole Eagan matters as co-founder of a ten-thousand-customer AI cybersecurity vendor — among the largest independent AI security footprints in enterprise markets.

Her advisor role illustrates how founding executives remain strategically visible after CEO succession.

For Brel readers mapping UK cybersecurity leadership, Eagan represents sustained founder association at Darktrace scale.

The cybersecurity sector continues consolidating around platform vendors that unify detection, response, and exposure management while embedding machine learning into products born in the appliance era. Founder and executive profiles in this category help researchers compare governance models, technical pedigree, and go-to-market evolution across vendors serving Fortune 500 and global enterprise accounts.

Sources

Primary sourcing for this profile of Nicole Eagan at Darktrace is limited to the official company pages cited below, reviewed July 11, 2026.

  • Darktrace — official page: https://www.darktrace.com/company/leadership
  • Darktrace — supporting page: https://www.darktrace.com/company

No education, employer, funding, or personal claims beyond those stated in the verified facts and cited pages are included. Sector analysis in narrative sections is interpretive context about the cybersecurity market, not additional biography.

Last Reviewed

This profile was last reviewed on July 11, 2026.

Correction Request

If you believe any fact in this founder profile is inaccurate or outdated, please submit a correction through Brel Digital’s Corrections Policy. We review documented corrections against official company sources and update profiles accordingly.

Sources and references

This article draws on publicly available company information, official websites, filings, interviews, announcements, and other cited sources. Information may change over time.

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