Rapid7 Names Wael Mohamed CEO Amid Ongoing Growth Struggles

Advanced SOC Operations / CSOC , Agentic AI , Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Rapid7 Names Wael Mohamed CEO Amid Ongoing Growth Struggles Former Forescout CEO, Trend Micro COO Mohamed Succeeds Corey Thomas After 13 Years Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) • June 1, 2026     Credit Eligible Get Permission Wael Mohamed, CEO, Forescout (Image: Forescout) Rapid7 has tapped former Forescout CEO Wael Mohamed to be its next leader as the beleaguered vulnerability management vendor pushes into the security operations market. See Also: Cloud NGFW for Azure Mohamed, 58, will replace Corey Thomas, 50, who had served as Rapid7's CEO since October 2012 and now returns to being chairman, a role he had held until June 2025. Mohamed joined Rapid7's board in March 2025 as part of a truce with activist investor Jana Partners that also resulted in Rapid7 adding former Imperva and Gigamon CFO Michael Burns and Jana Director of Research Kevin Galligan to its board. "I join Rapid7 with gratitude, confidence and excitement," Mohamed said in a statement. "We have the customers, technology, leadership and talent to own the artificial intelligence-SOC market. I am committed to driving focus on the core businesses where Rapid7 is excellent and honing all of our resources and effort into the success of that vision." Rapid7's stock was up $0.45 - or 5.43% - to $8.84 per share Monday afternoon, which is the highest the company's stock has traded since Feb. 10. But the company's stock has struggled mightily this decade as vulnerability management becomes commoditized, with Rapid7's valuation dropping a whopping 62% over the past year and nearly 90% over the past half-decade. Rapid7 today is worth just $584.4 million. As Rapid7's CEO, Mohamed will receive an annual base salary of $625,000, an annual performance bonus equaling up to $625,000, a $6 million restricted stock unit award vesting over a three-year period and a performance-based RSU award covering 2.13 million Rapid7 shares. Thomas in 2025 received $9.2 million of stock awards, a base salary of $545,000 and a performance bonus of $315,000 (see: Rapid7 Gets Truce With Activist Investor, Adds 3 Board Seats). Rapid7's Sales, Stock Weaken Since Mohamed Joined Board Rapid7 said Thomas and Mohamed have collaborated closely over the last year to define and develop the company's strategy, with the company bringing on a new CFO, chief commercial officer, and chief product and technology officer. Despite all these changes, Rapid7's stock price has fallen by 68.6% since Mohamed joined the board. Jana is Rapid7's largest stockholder, owning 10.1% of the company's shares. The company's sales inched ahead in 2025 to $859.8 million, up just 1.9% from $844 million the year prior. Rapid7's net income dipped to $23.4 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, down 8.4% from $25.5 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, the year prior. This year has been even worse, with sales falling 0.3% to $209.7 million in the quarter ended March 31 and expected to sink 2% in the quarter ended June 30. "After joining our board last year, Wael quickly became an invaluable strategic advisor and partner to me," Thomas said in a statement. "He has built and transformed cybersecurity companies, balancing precise execution with strategic investment and his leadership will help customers see the benefit of Rapid7's vision faster." Mohamed most recently served as CEO of IoT security vendor Forescout from March 2021 to October 2022, where he spearheaded the acquisition of medical device security firm CyberMDX and threat detection and response vendor Cysiv. Forescout carried out layoffs at the time of Mohamed's resignation. Prior to that, Mohamed spent more than three years as Trend Micro's president and COO. Jana in October 2024 disclosed a 13% economic interest in Rapid7 and said issues with operational execution, forecasting, investor communication, corporate governance, board composition and worker retention have led to the company's stock being undervalued. But the company's stock is down a staggering 77.5% since Jana disclosed its stake in Rapid7. Rapid7's current valuation is well below competitors Qualys and Tenable, which are worth $4.04 billion and $3.25 billion, respectively. The company's stock is down 93.6% from its all-time high of $138.41 per share in November 2021. Thomas took Rapid7 public in July 2015 at $16 per share, raising $110.4 million on a valuation of $605 million. Despite Rapid7's financial troubles, the company continues to increase headcount, which has grown to 2,613 employees as of Dec. 31, 2025, up 17.3% from 2,228 workers at the end of 2023 and 41.5% from 1,847 workers at the end of 2020. But the geographic mix of Rapid7's workforce has shifted rapidly, with just 45.2% of workers based in the U.S. today, down from 57.3% in late 2023 and 71.3% in late 2020. Rapid7 has only disclosed one round of layoffs in recent years, cutting 18% of its workforce in August 2023 to streamline management layers, reduce role overlap and optimize its mix of onshore and offshore talent. Rapid7 said at the time the layoffs would help the company realign its business toward expanding its managed detection and response capabilities across all of security operations.