Light Point Security's Gonzalez takes on CEO role

Cyber startup Light Point Security has a new CEO, someone who has already been the face of the company without the formal title.

Zuly Gonzalez, chief operating officer at Light Point, will take on the title as CEO in a move she says has been discussed between her and her business partner Beau Adkins for the past five months but just became official.

Adkins had been CEO and will now just hold the role as chief technology officer of the firm.

“We had discussed it, but we kind of just dropped it because we weren’t really pushing it,” Gonzalez said of the CEO shift. “After I got back from RSA (a cyber conference in San Francisco) we had another conversation and we figured let’s just do it.”

Light Point, which launched in 2010, is based at bwtech@UMBC Research and Development Park.

The duo developed a software product to protect computers from Web-based malware attacks. The software allows users to browse the Web from a virtual cloud, meaning any attacks go there, instead of users’ own computers.

Gonzalez was already performing the roles of a top executive, Adkins said.

“She has been doing a lot of public speaking for our company, she talks to customers, she coordinates sales, pilots, and partnerships, and she keeps us in the news,” he said.

Light Point now has four employees.