Cequence Security Appoints Russ Schafer as CMO Amid Record Growth and Rising AI Security Demand

Cequence Security has appointed Russ Schafer, former Executive Vice President of Marketing at Fortinet, as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), as the cybersecurity company expands its application, API and agentic artificial intelligence security business.

Schafer will report to Cequence CEO and co-founder Ameya Talwalkar. His appointment follows what the company described as its strongest quarter and largest deal in its history, alongside new customer wins across the United States, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and the Middle East.

The company is also expanding its agentic AI security and governance solutions amid growing demand from enterprises seeking to manage risks associated with AI agents accessing applications, data and digital infrastructure.

Russ Schafer Brings More Than 25 Years of Marketing Experience

Schafer brings more than 25 years of marketing leadership experience across cybersecurity, software-as-a-service (SaaS), enterprise software, semiconductors and media.

During his career, he has led global teams of more than 200 professionals, managed budgets exceeding $300 million and generated billions of dollars in sales pipeline. At Cequence, he will oversee corporate marketing, product marketing, demand generation, field marketing, analyst relations and creative services.

Before joining Cequence, Schafer served as Executive Vice President of Marketing at Fortinet, where he led global demand generation across a portfolio of more than 60 network, cloud and AI security products.

He previously led product marketing and analyst relations at Check Point Software and served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Technology at THX. His earlier roles include Vice President of Product Marketing at Adap.tv, which was acquired by AOL for $405 million, as well as senior leadership positions at Intel, IBM, Sybase and Yahoo!.

Schafer holds an MBA from Duke University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University. He also presented on agentic AI for coordinated and unified cybersecurity defence at RSAC 2026.

Cequence Expands Protection for AI Agents and APIs

Cequence has spent 12 years protecting APIs and stopping bot activity for large organisations across telecommunications, financial services, retail and transportation.

According to the company, its platform processes more than 10 billion API calls per day while protecting four billion user accounts. As AI agents increasingly use APIs to access enterprise applications and information, Cequence is extending its established security capabilities to address the associated risks.

Its expanded portfolio includes Application and API Protection version 9 and the AI Gateway, designed to address different aspects of AI agent security and governance.

Application and API Protection v9

The latest version of Cequence Application and API Protection helps security teams discover APIs and defend against attacks, bots and abuse. The platform is now AI-native, incorporating a built-in AI assistant and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

Its Agent Trust capability verifies agent identities and blocks harmful behaviour in real time.

Cequence also reported that it detected Meta's Muse at more than half of the customers included in its study within two weeks of the agent's launch.

AI Gateway for Agent Governance

Cequence's AI Gateway is designed to manage AI agents as onboarded digital employees. It links tools, APIs, skills, large language models (LLMs) and permissions to defined Agent Personas, helping organisations contain agent activity and prevent unauthorised actions in real time.

The offering also includes AI Discovery to bring unauthorised or ungoverned AI use, commonly described as shadow AI, under organisational oversight. LLM Continuity and Budgets & AI Spend provide model failover and AI expenditure controls.

Together, Application and API Protection, including Agent Trust, and AI Gateway are designed to secure traffic in both directions: external agents accessing enterprise applications and an organisation's own agents connecting to tools, data and models.

NTT DOCOMO Among Cequence's Major Customer Wins

The company's reported growth comes as organisations face increasing security demands involving bots, APIs and autonomous AI agents.

One of its recent customer wins is NTT DOCOMO, Japan's leading mobile operator, which has more than 91 million subscribers. The operator deployed Cequence's application and API protection solution to safeguard its service infrastructure, applications and APIs against sophisticated attacks, business logic abuse and unauthorised access.

Cequence also said it is working with a dozen global telecommunications providers on autonomous network initiatives designed to enable the safe use of agentic AI.

The company is participating in industry efforts to develop security guidance for emerging AI technologies. It is co-authoring the CIS Critical Security Controls Companion Guides for AI agents, LLMs and MCP, while co-chairing TM Forum's AI-Native Blueprint initiative.

These activities form part of Cequence's effort to establish security practices for enterprises deploying AI agents across increasingly interconnected digital environments.

CEO Highlights Growing Need for AI Security and Governance

Ameya Talwalkar, co-founder and CEO of Cequence Security, said enterprises are only beginning to understand the scale of the security and governance challenges associated with AI agents.

“Because AI agents rely on the very APIs Cequence already protects, we are uniquely positioned to give enterprises complete visibility and real-time control and governance of AI agents,” Talwalkar said.

He added that Schafer's strategic experience and marketing expertise would help the company build awareness, generate sales opportunities and strengthen its position in agentic AI security.

Schafer said Cequence's experience in preventing bot and API abuse, combined with newer capabilities such as Agent Trust and full-lifecycle AI governance, positions the company to address emerging enterprise security requirements.

“I'm thrilled to join the team and empower enterprises to adopt AI agents with complete confidence and control,” Schafer said.

As businesses expand their use of AI agents, Cequence is positioning its security platform around identity verification, access controls, real-time monitoring and governance across the AI lifecycle.