Mickey Boodaei steps down as Transmit Security CEO after 12 years
Matt Thompson, the former Socure president and ID.me co-founder, takes over day-to-day leadership as Boodaei moves into the role of chairman to focus on product strategy and the security challenges posed by AI agents.
Mickey Boodaei, the Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneur who co-founded Transmit Security in 2014 and led it from day one, is stepping down as CEO and becoming chairman, handing day-to-day leadership to Matt Thompson, the former president of identity verification company Socure and co-founder of ID.me. Boodaei will remain actively involved in the company, focusing on product vision, strategy and its efforts to secure AI agents.
Boodaei built Transmit alongside co-founder Rakesh Loonkar after a career that included helping build Imperva and co-founding Trusteer, a fraud-prevention company sold to IBM in 2013. The pair initially financed Transmit themselves, avoiding outside investors for years as they developed a platform designed to simplify customer authentication and identity management.
That approach culminated in 2021, when Transmit raised $543 million in a Series A round at a $2.2 billion valuation, then one of the largest funding rounds in Israeli cybersecurity history. Much of the money went to existing shareholders and employees rather than into the company itself.
Boodaei had previously described Transmit as a long-term project rather than a company he was building to sell. In a 2022 interview with Calcalist, he rejected the suggestion that he was preparing the business for an exit, saying, “Selling is ‘I got tired’. I’m far from that.” He described the company’s development as what motivated him to get up in the morning, adding that it had become “such a part of my life.”
The change marks a shift in Boodaei’s responsibilities rather than an exit from the company. In a LinkedIn post announcing Thompson’s appointment, Boodaei said Transmit had been working for a long time to bring the new CEO on board. He described Thompson as someone who understands the industry and its customers and has the experience to turn a major opportunity into reality. Boodaei’s LinkedIn profile now lists him as chairman of Transmit Security, while his post says he will continue to focus on product vision, strategy and the company’s transformation for an era of AI agents.
Thompson’s appointment comes as Transmit seeks to build on its identity-security business while addressing the emerging challenge of AI agents carrying out transactions on behalf of people. The company is introducing Agentic Trust, a product designed to help businesses identify AI agents accessing their digital services, understand their activity and determine what they should be allowed to do.
The problem is becoming more pressing as AI assistants move beyond answering questions and begin carrying out tasks such as purchases, account openings and money transfers. These agents may use valid customer credentials, making them difficult to distinguish from the people they represent or from malicious activity using compromised accounts. Security systems built around the distinction between human users and automated bots may struggle to determine whether an agent is authorized to act and how much access it should receive.
Transmit’s proposed approach is to detect agent traffic, classify the software involved, investigate its capabilities and govern its permissions. Businesses would be able to allow an agent to proceed, restrict its actions, pause a transaction for customer approval or block it. The company says the system is intended to work across online channels, including cases in which agents do not explicitly identify themselves.
Boodaei said the transition comes at a moment when AI assistants are changing how people interact with banks, retailers, insurers and other businesses. As applications increasingly serve customers through agents acting on their behalf, he argued, identity, fraud prevention and security need to evolve. He said he would continue to support the company while focusing on its product direction and strategic transformation.
Thompson brings experience in identity verification and financial services to the role. He most recently served as president and chief commercial officer at Socure, where he helped grow the business by more than 500% over five years, according to Transmit. He also co-founded ID.me and held identity-related roles at Capital One and IDEMIA. Before entering the technology industry, he served for more than a decade in the U.S. Army, including four combat deployments and service as a Special Operations officer.
