5 Things To Expect From New FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia

FireEye Focus

After four years of leadership from CEO Dave DeWalt, FireEye said Thursday that he would be stepping down to take a role as executive chairman. Assuming the top role at the company will be Kevin Mandia, who currently serves as president of the Milpitas, Calif.-based security vendor. Mandia took to the company's first-quarter earnings call Thursday evening to lay out his strategy for the "next generation" of FireEye, one he said would build on the vision he shares with DeWalt for the future of the company. Mandia said DeWalt is an "incredible leader" and a "mentor" to him and will stay actively involved with the security vendor in his new role.

"I'm eager to continue the journey we're already on. … While we've made great progress, and I'm very happy with the progress we've made, our mission is far from over," Mandia said on the call. Here are the priorities that the new CEO laid out on the call for when he assumes the role next month.

5. Focus On Innovation

Mandia said innovation is a key focus for FireEye going forward. That includes strengthening the capabilities of the security vendor's platform to meet changing customer needs around security.

"This is a company that is always transforming itself. We recognize that in security you have to move fast, you have to think fast and speed counts, because the threats are ever-pressing. So we're going to always focus on innovation, we're always going to evolve, we're always going to transform," Mandia said.

4. Building Integrations

Mandia said FireEye has done well bringing together the "puzzle pieces required to defend our customers," citing the Mandiant, nPulse, iSight, and Invotas acquisitions as examples. He said FireEye expects to build greater integration and coordination between these pieces, led by new FireEye President Travis Reese. FireEye announced one piece of this push on Thursday, rolling out the FireEye Security Orchestrator, an orchestration and automation solution for security operations, leveraging technology from the company's recent Invotas acquisition.

3. Path To Profitability

FireEye will continue its journey on the path to profitability under the new leadership team, Mandia said. Profitability is something that has eluded the security vendor thus far, though CFO Mike Berry said on the call that the company expects to reach profitability by fiscal 2018. Mandia said efforts such as additional integration, cost optimization and a "general shift towards a meaner, leaner, finer FireEye" have helped accelerate the push to profitability. Some of those cost-savings initiatives in the first and second quarters include reducing discretionary spending and a net reduction of around 200 existing and planned positions, resulting in a total estimated $30 million in savings in 2016.

"I'm absolutely confident in our ability that we will accelerate this progress," Mandia said.

2. International Expansion

Another key area for FireEye is to continue its international expansion, Mandia said. That's especially important as cyberattacks hit businesses around the world, he said, calling it a "worldwide problem." That push includes building a local presence in regions around the world, he said, as that is "key to trusted customer relationships."

"We're going to continue to expand our global presence to meet the growing demand for our products and services around the world; and we need to work with partners to strengthen our ecosystem relationships with our customers," Mandia said.

1. Strong Partner Relationships

Last but not least, Mandia said he will focus on building strong partner relationships, something he said would be key to fulfilling the company's "ambitious goals."

"What we want to achieve cannot be done without strong partners; and we are focused on establishing and strengthening these relationships that will ultimately enable us to become the best security company in the world," Mandia said.