MIAMI BEACH, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–With deep sadness, TrustedSite and Halo Security announce the passing of its co-founder and CEO, Tim Dowling, after a courageous battle with ampullary adenocarcinoma, a rare pancreatic cancer. He was 59.
Dowling was a man of great faith. He was a lifelong sailor and golfer who embodied the traits necessary to persevere and succeed — deep knowledge, mental toughness, and the ability to fully commit to the adventure. “Practice makes perfect” was his motto, with 10,000 hours as a minimum time investment. His passion for security, unrivaled work ethic and selfless mentorship fostered success across everything he built, from his early days at Intel, to Pure Networks, to McAfee’s first web-oriented business unit, to TrustedSite, and, the recently launched Halo Security.
He is survived by his wife and business partner of 35 years, Lisa Dowling and daughters Chelsea and Mackenzie, all of whom were by his side for the end of his life’s journey. He is also survived by parents Karen and Richard (Dick) Dowling, brother Chris Dowling, and their extended families.
“Losing Tim is devastating to us all because he was not just an executive, but a friend or mentor to every employee in each of his companies,” said Ben Tyler, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Halo Security. “It’s been my honor to work alongside him for 14 years, back to when we first started an adventure at McAfee. One of Tim’s last acts was to launch Halo Security. As ill as he may have been, his determination shone through everything he was battling.”
Dowling was an active entrepreneur and angel investor. After 13 years at Intel, he became the CEO of Pure Networks (acquired by Cisco) and was recruited to senior and C-level positions at McAfee, OneLogin, and Kenna Security (formerly Risk I/O) before co-founding TrustedSite, a leader in web business security and certification services, in 2013.
He led the company for nearly a decade through a changing and challenging landscape, steadfastly focused on bringing the best security and trust solutions to market. Tens of thousands of sites have earned TrustedSite certifications by demonstrating their commitment to data security and customer service. TrustedSite trustmarks are seen across these sites more than 1 billion times each month. TrustedSite created a security operation in 2020, which came out of stealth in August as Halo Security, a partner to thousands of businesses to protect and manage their external assets from the hacker’s perspective.
In accordance with its succession plan, Halo Security has appointed board members Lisa Dowling and 30-year security veteran Todd Gebhart interim co-CEOs while an executive search is conducted. Learn more about Dowling’s legacy and career in technology.
About Halo Security
Halo Security is a complete attack surface management platform, offering asset discovery, risk and vulnerability assessment, and penetration testing services in a unified, easy-to-use dashboard. Founded by experienced and trusted penetration testers, scanning leaders, and reformed hackers, Halo Security brings the attacker’s perspective to the modern organization. Halo Security’s leadership team has held key roles at McAfee, Intel, Kenna Security, OneLogin, and WhiteHat Security. Learn more at halosecurity.com.