Eden Prairie cyber firm Arctic Wolf names new CEO

Coming off a $150 million capital raise, Eden Prairie cyber security-operations firm Arctic Wolf has named the person largely responsible for its fast financial growth as its next chief executive.

Nick Schneider, previously the company's president and chief revenue officer, succeeds Brian NeSmith, who will remain as executive chairman of the company's board.

"We are in rarefied air, as few enterprise technology companies have ever reached our scale of growth and velocity, and I am thrilled to lead the company through the next phase of growth and market leadership as CEO," said Schneider in a statement.

Arctic Wolf was most recently valued at $4.3 billion. In less than two years under Schneider, the company has raised $410 million and has doubled both in revenue and head count. The company closed on $60 million in March of last year, followed by a $200 million capital raise in October, during which time the company announced it was moving its headquarters from Sunnyvale, Calif., to Eden Prairie.

The company added almost 400 employees in the past year and has plans to add 500 in the coming year, with as many as one-third of those new employees being based in Minnesota. More than 260 of the firm's nearly 1,000 employees are now in Minnesota.

Schneider also said a public offering is on the horizon, but did not disclose a specific time frame.

Arctic Wolf is currently building a third security operations center on its Eden Prairie campus. That operations center, which will house several hundred people, is expected to be completed by next summer. The company is also establishing its European headquarters in the United Kingdom and expects to open its first European security operations center in Germany later this year.