# Dave Merkel

> Dave ‘Merk’ Merkel is the co-founder and CEO of Expel, a Herndon, Virginia managed detection and response company. His path runs from Air Force cyber investigations and AOL’s first incident-response capability through product leadership at Mandiant and the global CTO role at FireEye. After swearing off another cybersecurity startup, he returned to build one around transparent service, restrained marketing, automation, and human judgment.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Expel
- **Organizations:** Expel, FireEye, Mandiant, AOL, United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder
- **Known for:** Created and ran the first incident-response capability for AOL and Time Warner., Built Mandiant’s endpoint product operation from a two-person start and later became CTO and vice president of products., Served as global chief technology officer of FireEye after its roughly $1 billion acquisition of Mandiant.

## Career timeline

- **1990-1994** — Studied computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder on an Air Force scholarship.
- **mid-1990s** — Served as a special agent and computer-crime specialist with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, conducting digital-forensics work and pursuing cybercriminals.
- **1998-2006** — Worked at AOL, ultimately leading technical security and creating the first incident-response capability for AOL and Time Warner.
- **2006** — Joined the small Mandiant product business to build its endpoint-security platform.
- **2011** — Named Mandiant chief technology officer after serving in product leadership.
- **2013-2015** — Continued after FireEye acquired Mandiant for roughly $1 billion, serving about 18 months as FireEye’s global CTO.
- **2015-2016** — A tweet comparing legacy managed-security service to bad taxi service helped prompt Merkel, Yanek Korff and Justin Bajko to develop the company that became Expel.
- **2016-present** — Co-founded Expel and has served as chief executive officer.
- **2021** — Expel raised $140.3 million in Series E financing and announced a valuation above $1 billion.
- **2024** — Invited longtime colleague Kevin Mandia to join Expel’s board as an independent director.
- **2026** — Presented Expel’s human-AI SOC framework and argued that AI autonomy in security should be earned through demonstrated outcomes.

## Achievements

- Created and ran the first incident-response capability for AOL and Time Warner.
- Built Mandiant’s endpoint product operation from a two-person start and later became CTO and vice president of products.
- Served as global chief technology officer of FireEye after its roughly $1 billion acquisition of Mandiant.
- Co-founded Expel, which reached a valuation above $1 billion in 2021.
- Named to Washingtonian’s Tech Titans list multiple times, including in 2024 and 2025.
- Helped frame an automation-first model for managed detection and response that keeps humans responsible for judgment and relationships.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Published ‘Questions are the work,’ reflecting on Expel’s origins and revisiting the difficult questions security vendors and customers must ask in the AI era.
- **2026-06** — Continued advancing a human-AI partnership model for security operations, emphasizing AI for scale and people for consequential decisions.
- **2026-05** — Published ‘Speed without judgment is a faster way to fail’ and introduced a Trust vs. Impact framework for deciding where AI belongs in a security operations center.
- **2026-03** — Presented ‘Operational Defense-in-Depth: The Human-AI SOC Framework’ at RSAC 2026.
- **2025-09** — Named to Washingtonian’s 2025 Tech Titans list, where his approach was described as combining cybersecurity experience with client care.

## Links

- Website: https://expel.com/blog/author/davidmerkel/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemerkel
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/expel_io
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expel.io/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dave-merkel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27