{"id":341855,"date":"2026-06-18T21:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341855\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T21:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:10:16","slug":"cybersecurity-firm-icounter-names-former-u-s-intelligence-official-as-coo-dallas-innovates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341855\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity Firm iCOUNTER Names Former U.S. Intelligence Official as\u00a0COO \u00bb Dallas Innovates"},"content":{"rendered":"

iCOUNTER, a Dallas-based cybersecurity risk intelligence company, has appointed Joel Molinoff as its new chief operating officer. Molinoff has nearly 30 years in senior operational, security, and risk leadership at some of the world\u2019s most recognizable enterprises and cybersecurity firms, the company said.<\/p>\n

iCOUNTER Chairman and CEO John P. Watters said Molinoff\u2019s background \u201cspans every dimension of operational excellence in cybersecurity, from running global P&Ls to building products that enterprise customers depend on every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing him onto the executive team reflects iCOUNTER\u2019s commitment to operating with the rigor and discipline our customers expect,\u201d Watters added in a statement.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Molinoff served as global head of third-party risk products and services at BlueVoyant, where he guided the development and growth of the company\u2019s third-party risk management business serving commercial and government clients around the world. Previously, he served as vice chairman of BlueVoyant. Earlier in his career, Molinoff was EVP and chief information risk officer at CBS Corporation, following six years as the company\u2019s SVP and chief information security officer.<\/p>\n

Molinoff previously worked in intelligence for the U.S. government, with roles at the National Security Agency and the White House. Molinoff has also served on numerous advisory boards as well as the FCC\u2019s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), and is an advisory council member with American Corporate Partners, an organization that supports U.S. veterans transitioning to civilian careers.<\/p>\n

\u201ciCOUNTER is solving a category-defining problem with a team that has the credibility to do it right,\u201d Molinoff said. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to join at this stage and to help scale the operations behind the technology our customers rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Launched by Dallas-based Apollo Information Systems,\u00a0iCOUNTER emerged from stealth<\/a> last July with $30 million in Series A funding. In recent months, the company added new chief financial and marketing officers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n

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As chairman, outgoing CEO Ken Pedersen will concentrate on board leadership and overall strategy while incoming CEO Kyle Carter and the executive team oversee day-to-day operations, the Dallas- based company said. Carter has been with Zenylitics since its founding, providing leadership in customer acquisition, client delivery, and the development of the company’s capabilities in India.<\/p>\n

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The new C-suite appointees are Lisa Hayashi as chief marketing officer and Bob Kalchthaler as chief financial officer. Both are seasoned tech leaders who help position iCOUNTER for growth, the Dallas-based company said.<\/p>\n

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As CEO, Andrew Robson will prioritize product innovation, customer engagement, and expanding global market opportunities at the Addison-based digital signage and workplace experience software company, Korbyt said\u2014while further scaling the Korbyt Anywhere platform. The company also announced two other C-suite additions.<\/p>\n

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The nearly $5 billion startup ranked No. 28 on CNBC\u2019s 2026 list alongside AI giants Anthropic, OpenAI and Databricks\u2014making it the highest-ranked Texas company and the only Dallas-Fort Worth company in this year\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n

Russell Weaver will lead Embark’s talent acquisition and people strategy, guiding the optimization of people, process, and technology for faster hiring, excellent quality of talent, and diversity within the firm’s growing workforce, Embark said.<\/p>\n

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Ash Spiegelberg will work with Disruptive’s founder and CEO Alex Davis and the global team on refining strategy, investing, and close engagement with portfolio companies and their founders.<\/p>\n

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HCM CEO Tim Barnhill said that with its new Greenville Avenue office, his firm is “strategically positioned to serve the Dallas area and tap into the economic driver that is the DFW market.” HCM has already made its mark on the Arlington Entertainment District, among other projects for North Texas clients.<\/p>\n

Cenly Chen has been tapped as CEO and board member of Dallas-based ChronoScale, which was formed recently via a business combination of Applied Digital\u2019s cloud computing business and California-based EKSO Bionics Holdings. It now operates as an independent public company delivering scalable, GPU-based infrastructure optimized for AI training, inference, and high-performance computing.<\/p>\n

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Viral Tripathi will oversee Diversified’s enterprise technology strategy, leading global IT across applications, cybersecurity, data and analytics, digital innovation, infrastructure, and business systems.<\/p>\n

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James Franks returns to Unleashed Brands after serving as head of franchise growth for WellBiz Brands. During his previous stint with Unleashed Brands, he helped grow franchise recruitment efforts throughout the platform, awarding more than 330 franchise locations and supporting the company’s evolution into a multi-brand youth enrichment organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"iCOUNTER, a Dallas-based cybersecurity risk intelligence company, has appointed Joel Molinoff as its new chief operating officer. Molinoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[121922,121923,121924,121925,121926,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-341855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-apollo-information-systems-corp","tag-cybersecurity-risk-intelligence","tag-icounter","tag-joel-molinoff","tag-john-p-watters","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}