Forcepoint, the Austin-based AI data security company, has appointed Vincent Merlin as its new Chief Marketing Officer. A two-decade veteran of enterprise technology and cybersecurity marketing, Merlin arrives to accelerate adoption of Forcepoint's AI Data Security platform as the company positions itself at the center of the agentic AI security conversation.
A New Marketing Leader for the Agentic AI Era
Reporting directly to CEO Ryan Windham, Merlin will oversee global marketing across brand, demand generation, product marketing and analyst relations. His mandate centers on helping Forcepoint define the AI data security category — giving enterprises the ability to stay in command of AI systems while still putting sensitive data and intelligence to productive use.
Windham framed the hire as central to Forcepoint's broader thesis that trust in AI is shifting from a marketing posture to a measurable, governed outcome, with every AI interaction with data tracked and recorded.
From Proofpoint to Forcepoint
Merlin joins Forcepoint from Proofpoint, where he spent a decade in senior marketing roles, most recently as Senior Vice President of Global Growth Marketing. In that position, he oversaw the worldwide marketing organization and inside sales, helping scale the company's annual recurring revenue from roughly $400 million to more than $2.4 billion while driving AI-led transformation across the business.
Earlier in his career, Merlin held global and regional marketing leadership positions at AVEVA, Dell EMC and RSA. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and an engineering degree in quantum photonics and optics from the Institut d'Optique Graduate School.
"The next decade won't be won by organizations using the most AI. It will be won by those that never lost control of it."— Ryan Windham, CEO, Forcepoint
Merlin's Take on Securing Emerging Technology
For his part, Merlin drew a parallel between AI adoption today and earlier waves of technology that arrived before organizations knew how to secure them, from the early web to email and cloud computing. He argued that businesses were able to move early on those technologies once someone made them safe to adopt at scale, and said Forcepoint's role is to do the same for AI — giving enterprises the confidence to put their most valuable data to work without losing oversight.