Joe Payne

President and CEO at Code42

Joe Payne is the President and CEO of Code42 Software. Joe is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience and a proven track record leading high growth security and technology companies. With a passion for identifying and solving emerging market needs, Joe engages personally in product strategy and direction, while growing and providing vision and guidance to a world-class team of security executives. Previously, Joe served as CEO of eSecurity, the first SIEM software company. He also served as the president of iDefense prior to its acquisition by VeriSign. At iDefense, Joe led some of the best white-hat security researchers in the world and worked with the top financial institutions and government agencies in the United States to improve their risk profile.

Joe also has held additional executive positions at eGrail, MicroStrategy, InteliData and Eloqua. As CEO of Eloqua, Joe led the team to $125 million in revenue, a successful IPO and a subsequent acquisition by Oracle. Joe currently serves on the Board of Directors of First Focus Campaign for Children, a non-partisan, not-for-profit advocacy organization. Joe previously served on the boards of Dealertrack (NASDAQ: TRAK), Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD), Eloqua (NASDAQ: ELOQ), Workfront, TrackMaven, Plex, e-Security, eGrail, and Ecutel.

Joe is a co-author of Inside Jobs: Why Insider Risk Is the Biggest Cyber Threat You Can't Ignore, which shines a light on insider risk and details what business and security leaders can do to keep their workforces productive and data protected.

Joe received his Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business where he was a Fuqua scholar. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University. When not hard at work, you can find Joe cheering for the US National Soccer Team or his beloved Duke Blue Devils. Joe is married with four children.


Keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats, newly discovered vulnerabilities, data breach information, and emerging trends. Delivered daily or weekly right to your email inbox.