WatchGuard Appoints Kaseya President Joe Smolarski as New CEO

WatchGuard Technologies, a provider of unified cybersecurity, recently announced the appointment of Joe Smolarski as its new CEO.

Interim president Srivatsan transitions to board of directors

Smolarski comes over from Kaseya, a global provider of IT management solutions, where he served as President since 2023, and as their COO from 2018 to 2022.

Vats Srivatsan, who has been interim CEO since May 2025, will continue to serve on WatchGuard’s board of directors.

“WatchGuard has an incredible foundation, a world-class technology platform, an MSP-first business model, and a reputation for trust and performance that stands out in the market,” said Smolarski. “Cybersecurity has become central to every MSPs’ growth strategy, and WatchGuard is perfectly positioned to lead that evolution. I’m excited to build on the company’s strong trajectory and make WatchGuard the cybersecurity vendor synonymous with the MSP community.”

Kaseya vet brings decades of experience to new role at WatchGuard

Smolarski has over 25 years of leadership experience across technology, operations, and strategy. While at Kaseya, he helped drive growth by uniting teams, technologies, and partners around a single, customer-first platform. He’ll now work closely with WatchGuard’s executive leadership team and Board to drive strategic initiatives, operational excellence, and global partner success.

“I want to thank Vats for stepping in as interim CEO and architecting such rapid performance acceleration in such a short time. I am happy that Vats will continue to guide future growth and strategy as a Board Member,” said Alex Slusky, Founding Partner of Vector Capital and Chairman of WatchGuard. “In Joe, we have the right leader to build on this momentum to drive WatchGuard through this next chapter of growth. Joe has a proven track record of delivering phenomenal growth in MSP-focused technology organizations through both organic and M&A investments. Joe’s ability to integrate teams and technologies at scale while staying focused on partner success makes him uniquely qualified to accelerate WatchGuard’s operational and innovation momentum.”

According to WatchGuard, Smolarski’s experience leading Kaseya through phases of growth aligns directly with WatchGuard’s cybersecurity mission, “where the company’s Unified Security Platform brings together advanced protection technologies, automation, and simplified management to give MSPs the power to deliver enterprise-grade security at scale.”

The channel is coming off a big month for leadership changes in October. Read about some of the other key moves in the ecosystem for channel partners.