Virtru Taps Microsoft, AWS Vets to Lead Public Sector Security Push

WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 20, 2026 – Data-centric security leader Virtru has announced the appointment of two seasoned technology executives from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, a strategic move signaling an aggressive push to scale its operations within the critical public sector and global enterprise markets. Angel Smith, a former Microsoft Vice President, joins as President of Global Public Sector, while John Dancy, an AWS and Nightwing veteran, takes the role of Executive Vice President of Customer Solutions and Engineering.

The high-profile hires come as organizations worldwide grapple with the limitations of traditional perimeter-based security and accelerate their adoption of Zero Trust architectures. Virtru, which champions a model where security is embedded directly into the data itself, is positioning itself to capitalize on this industry-wide shift. The addition of Smith and Dancy provides the company with deep federal and operational expertise needed to expand its footprint and solidify its platform as a standard for protecting sensitive information.

“Angel and John give us exactly the leadership combination we need at this stage of Virtru’s growth,” said John Ackerly, CEO and Co-Founder of Virtru, in a statement. “Their skills and expertise will help to ensure that, as demand for data-centric security grows, Virtru is positioned to deliver consistently, operate effectively, and create lasting value for our customers.”

A Strategic Play for Public Sector Dominance

Angel Smith’s appointment is a clear indicator of Virtru’s intent to deepen its engagement with government, defense, and intelligence agencies. She will lead the go-to-market strategy and customer success for the company's global public sector business, a segment that has already shown explosive growth. The company reported a 220% increase in revenue from the national defense and intelligence sectors in 2024, reflecting a surge in government investment in data-centric security.

Smith joins from Microsoft, where she most recently served as Vice President for Americas Worldwide Public Sector and Global Defense and Intelligence. Her experience is extensive, having managed a 150-person team delivering custom Azure cloud solutions—including AI and machine learning workloads—into highly secure and classified government environments across the DoD, Intelligence Community, and international partners like the Five Eyes and AUKUS alliances.

Her credentials extend beyond the corporate world. Smith is a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, where she rose from an enlisted electronics technician to a KC-130 pilot and detachment commander. Crucially, she also served as a Senior Professional Staff Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw military intelligence programs and was involved in the Pentagon’s early cloud migration efforts. This unique blend of military, policy, and technology leadership experience makes her ideally suited to navigate the complex federal landscape.

“Virtru is solving one of the hardest and most urgent problems facing the public sector today: how to protect sensitive data as it inevitably travels outside of the perimeter,” said Smith. “The platform, the mission, and the team all deeply resonate with me, and I’m excited to help scale Virtru’s impact across the national security community and with global partners.”

Scaling Operations for a Data-Centric World

While Smith focuses on expanding Virtru’s public sector reach, John Dancy is tasked with ensuring the company can deliver on its promises at scale. As Executive Vice President of Customer Solutions and Engineering, he will oversee the entire post-sale customer journey, from deployment and solutions architecture to training and support across both government and commercial clients.

Dancy’s background is rooted in building and scaling massive customer delivery organizations. He most recently served as Chief Transformation Officer at Nightwing and previously spent five years at Amazon Web Services as the Global Director of Professional Services for its Worldwide Public Sector. During his tenure at AWS, he scaled the business to operate in over 30 countries and built specialized practices in high-demand areas like AI/ML and Data Science. His team was responsible for the development of the Landing Zone Accelerator on AWS, a solution that significantly streamlined cloud deployment and compliance for government customers.

His role is critical as Virtru’s platform is adopted by an expanding roster of clients, including financial giants like JPMorganChase, Equifax, and Capital One. These organizations require robust, scalable, and operationally sound solutions that can be integrated into complex, multi-cloud environments without disrupting workflows.

“My priority is ensuring that Virtru’s customers can deploy, operate, and scale the Data Security Platform in ways that create real, lasting value in their environments,” Dancy stated.

The Technology at the Core: TDF and Zero Trust

Driving Virtru’s strategy is its core technology, the Trusted Data Format (TDF). Invented by Virtru Co-Founder and Chief Architect Will Ackerly while at the National Security Agency, TDF is an open standard for embedding persistent protection and access policies directly into any piece of data. This creates a secure wrapper that travels with the data, ensuring it remains encrypted and controlled regardless of where it is shared or stored.

This data-centric approach is a foundational element of a modern Zero Trust security strategy, which assumes no implicit trust and continuously verifies every user and device. As the U.S. government, led by the DoD's goal to implement Zero Trust capabilities by 2027, moves away from network-based defenses, technologies like TDF are becoming essential. They address the most challenging aspects of the new paradigm: ensuring data itself remains secure and accessible only to authorized users, no matter the network.

Virtru’s leadership in this area has been further solidified by the development of the Zero Trust Data Format (ZTDF), an interoperable variant of TDF created with Five Eyes partners. This evolution positions the standard as a potential linchpin for secure data sharing among NATO allies and other international coalitions, solving a critical challenge in joint operations.

Shifting Tides of Cybersecurity Talent

The recruitment of Smith and Dancy reflects a broader industry trend where top talent from cloud hyperscalers and tech giants is migrating to more specialized cybersecurity firms. This movement underscores a market realization: as cloud adoption becomes ubiquitous, the next frontier of security innovation lies not in the infrastructure itself, but in protecting the data that flows through it. Investors have taken note, with Virtru securing a $50 million Series D funding round in 2025 that doubled its valuation to $500 million, signaling strong confidence in its “microsecurity” approach.

The appointments reinforce Virtru’s focus on intentional growth, pairing platform adoption with the operational rigor required to support a rapidly expanding customer base. With government mandates for Zero Trust tightening and enterprises facing a relentless barrage of sophisticated threats, the demand for effective, data-centric protection has never been higher. By bringing in leaders with proven track records in the world's most demanding technology environments, Virtru is making a definitive statement about its readiness to meet that demand and establish a new standard for data security.