# Dan Lorenc

> Dan Lorenc is the co-founder and CEO of Chainguard and a former Google engineer whose work on Minikube, Sigstore and software provenance shaped his approach to open source security. An early Minikube release made him question why users trusted downloaded code so readily; he later helped build verification tools and a company supplying maintained open source components.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Chainguard
- **Organizations:** Chainguard, Google, Sigstore, Open Source Security Foundation, Continuous Delivery Foundation
- **Education:** S.B. in Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- **Known for:** Co-founded Chainguard in 2021., Helped found Minikube, Tekton, Sigstore and the SLSA framework., Contributed to container developer tools including Skaffold and Kaniko.

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Completed an MIT mechanical engineering thesis on a desktop milling machine for teaching.
- **2012-2021** — Worked at Google on infrastructure and open source development.
- **2016** — Published the first release of Minikube, an experience he later identified as the start of his interest in software supply chain security.
- **2021** — Helped launch Sigstore; left Google and co-founded Chainguard later that year.
- **2024** — Chainguard shifted its primary focus toward hardened container images.
- **2025** — Chainguard announced a $356 million Series D; Lorenc described the company's shift from its initial product to containers.
- **2026** — Led Chainguard's Athena coalition for coordinated response to AI-discovered open source vulnerabilities.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Chainguard in 2021.
- Helped found Minikube, Tekton, Sigstore and the SLSA framework.
- Contributed to container developer tools including Skaffold and Kaniko.
- Served in open source foundation leadership roles, including OpenSSF and the Continuous Delivery Foundation.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Published an Athena update arguing for coordinated handling of AI-discovered vulnerabilities and describing the coalition's technical approach.
- **2026-07** — Reported that Athena had processed more than 40,000 vulnerability findings in its first three weeks.
- **2026-04** — Discussed Chainguard's growth and the future of software security in an Inspired with Alexa von Tobel interview.

## Links

- Website: https://www.chainguard.dev/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlorenc/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/lorenc_dan
- GitHub: https://github.com/dlorenc

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dan-lorenc
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-29