Caitlyn Hughes
Caitlyn Hughes

Connecting data, strategy, and people to turn insights into revenue growth.

Six years at Trend Micro / TrendAI uncovering opportunities in revenue data, improving how teams measure performance, and helping leadership turn insights into better business decisions.

See the outcomes Resume (PDF)
Exhibit 1Black Hat USA 2026: engaged accounts matched to the CRM, and the booking opportunities it surfaced
Bar chart of accounts. 351 accounts engaged at Black Hat USA 2026. 157 matched to CRM records. 127 matched accounts had no meeting, shown as booking opportunities. 0200400 accounts Accounts engaged Matched to CRM records Matched, no meeting yet: booking opportunities 351157127

$40.4M open pipeline and $10.9M ARR on the matched accounts.2

Drawn to scale. Source: my Black Hat USA 2026 engagement dashboard, July 31 snapshot.

$1.7B1ARR under revenue disclosure governance I owned $40M+2open pipeline made visible in one event dashboard $66.7M3AWS co-sell pipeline found missing from the CRM 100+customer–executive meetings delivered in two hours

Outcomes

  1. $1.7BARR covered by one governed set of numbersCorporate Strategy & Investor Communications, 2022–2025

    Made revenue disclosures consistent across every analyst firm

    Problem
    Gartner, Forrester and IDC define markets differently, so product revenue was double counted or classified inconsistently.
    What I did
    Established centralized controls with product-to-market data definitions, a disclosure register and Excel/Tableau reconciliations against financial-system extracts. Owned data preparation, reconciliation, validation and final approval.
    Result
    20+ analyst disclosures a year for 3+ years across 5+ segments; led 5+ formal disclosure revisions; C-suite approved market definitions. Classification framework served as single source of truth for analyst revenue disclosures.
    • Revenue data governance
    • Excel
    • Tableau
    • Executive approval
    Full story

    Each firm asks for revenue and customer counts by market, and each draws the market lines differently. Without one source of truth, the same product could appear in two markets or move between categories year to year.

    I set up the controls: a mapping of each product to each firm’s taxonomy, a log of every figure we had disclosed, and reconciliations back to finance system extracts. A project manager and an operations analyst supported the work; I kept final approval except for executive escalations.

  2. AI firstmarket category chosen over a near-term #1 rankingCorporate Strategy, 2022–2026

    Traded a cloud ranking for a long-term AI security position

    Problem
    Keeping a #1 cloud security ranking meant classifying revenue in a way that undercut the company’s AI security strategy.
    What I did
    Laid out the trade-off for leadership and recommended prioritizing the AI security category. Separately, pushed for an investor narrative on internal AI productivity.
    Result
    Leadership approved the AI-first classification. The AI productivity story appeared in Q2 2026 earnings.
    • Market positioning
    • Earnings narrative
    • Executive influence
    Full story

    I wrote every quarterly earnings release from 2023 through Q2 2026, shaping each quarter’s narrative with the COO, and supported competitive analysis, two guidance revisions and crisis-response planning. The AI productivity narrative took several quarters of persistence before it was adopted. The COO had final say.

  3. $40M+open pipeline across 350+ event accountsStrategy & Operations, 2026

    Gave Sales and executives one view of Black Hat USA 2026

    Problem
    Event engagement lived in separate spreadsheets. Leadership couldn’t see which accounts we were meeting or what pipeline was at stake.
    What I did
    Built and deployed a commercial engagement intelligence dashboard using Claude-assisted data connectors, reconciling engagement and CRM data: 1,000+ engagements, 350+ accounts, $40M+ associated pipeline and ~$11M ARR. Replaced seller discretion with a data-driven process matching leaders to the right prospects.
    Result
    100+ customer–executive meetings in two hours; 5 executives matched to 20+ priority prospects; ~40 minutes of prep saved per request (estimate).
    • Commercial intelligence
    • Dashboard design
    • AI-assisted tooling
    • Program delivery
    Full story

    The dashboard covered ~$11M in ARR and could be cut by account, segment, geography and topic. Sales, Marketing, Channel and executives used the same view. The meeting process ran in four steps:

    1. RequestLeader, attendees, three outcomes
    2. ReviewApprove, reassign, return or decline
    3. ConfirmOne invite with time and room
    4. ReportHost notes within 24 hours

    The meetings ran with about 30 leaders and 30 support staff. “Associated pipeline” means open pipeline on accounts we engaged, not pipeline the event created.

  4. $66.7Mco-sell pipeline missing from SalesforceGlobal Business Operations, 2022

    Found the pipeline lost between AWS and our CRM

    Problem
    AWS co-sell opportunities weren’t reaching Salesforce, so sales couldn’t see or work them.
    What I did
    Audited 1,029 opportunities worth $96.9M against Salesforce by hand. Mapped AWS co-sell stages to internal Salesforce sales stages and reconciled stages and value mismatches. Partnered with regional Marketplace ops leads to implement standardized validation, CRM-linkage and handoff workflows globally.
    Result
    $66.7M (~69%) of co-sell pipeline wasn’t reflected in Salesforce, and only 1.75% of opportunities were linked to both account and opportunity. New validation and handoff workflows rolled out globally.
    Business context
    Part of a wider push on the AWS relationship. That year Trend Micro posted its biggest AWS Marketplace quarter and was named Global AWS Marketplace Partner of the Year.4
    • CRM process redesign
    • Pipeline reconciliation
    • Partner co-sell
    Full story

    AWS was sending us a high volume of co-sell opportunities, but nobody could say where those deals went. I compared the partner portal and Salesforce record by record. Only a small fraction were connected on both sides.

    I took regional sales and alliance leaders a short set of rules: every co-sell opportunity gets a CRM record, opportunities are qualified before acceptance, and stages stay in sync. Then I worked region by region on routing and registration so the fix held.

    Exhibit 22022 AWS co-sell audit: pipeline AWS sent us, and how much Salesforce could see
    Waterfall chart. $96.9 million in co-sell pipeline across 1,029 AWS opportunities. $30.3 million of it reflected in Salesforce. $66.7 million missing from the CRM. $0 $50M $100M $96.9M −$30.3M $66.7M Sent by AWSvia co-sell Visible inSalesforce Missing fromthe CRM

    Drawn to scale. Source: 2022 audit of 1,029 co-sell opportunities sent January–May 2022.3

    The $66.7M is a reporting gap: pipeline AWS recorded that our sales teams couldn’t see or work in Salesforce. It is pipeline, not lost or closed revenue.

    Fixing co-sell handoffs was one visible part of the company’s investment in AWS. In Q3 2022 AWS Marketplace sales rose 150% year over year with 80% ARR growth, and in November 2022 AWS named Trend Micro its Global Marketplace Partner of the Year. Those are company results that many teams contributed to.

  5. 5-yearglobal revenue scenarios for the COO and SVP FinanceGlobal Business Operations, 2021–2022

    Built the scenarios behind company revenue targets

    Problem
    Leadership needed a consolidated global view to set long-range revenue targets.
    What I did
    Consolidated regional sales forecasts and financial results from 60+ countries, then modeled five-year revenue scenarios. Presented analyses to the COO and SVP of Finance to inform enterprise planning and regional growth discussions.
    Result
    The team’s final model informed company revenue targets and regional growth discussions.
    • Financial modeling
    • Forecast consolidation
    • Excel
  6. ~$500Kglobal cloud security go-to-market programGlobal Marketing, 2020–2021

    Launched cloud security products with partner Snyk

    Problem
    A new cloud product line needed a market story and content to reach developer and security buyers.
    What I did
    Led the joint launch campaign with Snyk within a ~$500K global program. Led a ~$40K content platform launch with 50+ search-optimized articles.
    Result
    Joint launch delivered across both companies; content platform shipped on schedule.
    • Go-to-market
    • Partner launch
    • Content strategy
Six years, one company

Career

From marketing into revenue operations, data governance and commercial intelligence at a global cybersecurity company. Select a role.

Strategy & Operations, Global Marketing

TrendAI (Trend Micro), Dallas, 2026

  • Prototyped a scalable event scorecard across 3 global events, linking leading indicators (registrations, meetings, target-account and vertical attendance) to pipeline, ARR, NRR and GRR; aligned KPIs with the Head of Global Sales and classified events as new-logo, expansion or retention.
  • Built and deployed a commercial intelligence dashboard for Black Hat USA 2026 using Claude-assisted data connectors, reconciling engagement and CRM data: 1,000+ engagements, 350+ accounts, $40M+ associated pipeline and ~$11M ARR.
  • Developed the strategy and KPI framework for AWS re:Invent 2026; secured leadership approval and drove adoption across field teams ahead of the event.
  • Led delivery of 100+ customer–executive meetings in a two-hour program; connected 5 executives with 20+ high-value prospects.
See the Black Hat outcome
How I work

Toolkit

What I use, how deeply, and how I work with people, stated plainly so there are no surprises in an interview.

KPI Scorecards

Design & deploy

Leading and lagging indicators linking registrations, meetings and target-account attendance to pipeline, ARR, NRR and GRR.

Data Definitions & Governance

Build from scratch

Product-to-market classification frameworks, disclosure registers and revenue reconciliation controls across a $1.7B ARR business.

Pipeline & CRM Analysis

Advanced

Pipeline reconciliation, co-sell stage mapping, CRM data integrity audits. ARR/NRR/GRR analysis and forecasting.

Excel

Advanced

Financial scenario modeling, revenue reconciliations, five-year forecasting and disclosure history.

Tableau

Build dashboards

Revenue analysis dashboards and commercial intelligence reporting built from scratch.

Salesforce, Dynamics & ACE

Process and reporting

CRM process redesign, opportunity reconciliation, account reporting. AWS Partner Central (ACE) co-sell pipeline management.

AI tools

Build with AI

Claude and Claude Code for data connectors, interactive dashboards and artifacts; ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot for analysis and drafting.

Power BI

Use and refine

Working in and improving existing dashboards.

PowerPoint

Advanced

Executive decks, earnings materials, decision memos.

Working with people

Executive communication

Earnings and decisions

Wrote every quarterly earnings release from 2023 through Q2 2026, shaping each quarter’s narrative with the COO; took market-definition and KPI decisions to the C-suite for sign-off.

Cross-functional alignment

Sales, Finance, Marketing

Aligned event KPIs with the Head of Global Sales on ARR, NRR and GRR; gave Sales, Marketing, Channel and executives one shared view.

Influence without authority

Change that held

Got regional sales and alliance leaders to adopt co-sell rules region by region; argued for an AI-first market position over several quarters until leadership approved it.

Delivery under pressure

Live programs

Ran 100+ customer–executive meetings in two hours with about 30 leaders and 30 support staff.

Ownership and judgment

Final sign-off

Held final approval on 20+ analyst disclosures a year for three years; led the joint Snyk launch campaign.

Developing others

Team oversight

Oversaw a project manager and an operations analyst on the disclosure program.

Recognition

  • 2026
    Speaker, NIRI Southwest Regional ConferencePanel on AI, risk and opportunity
  • 2026
    Board Member, NIRI Dallas–Fort WorthThe Association for Investor Relations
  • 2025
    NIRI Rising Leaders Under 40National recognition in investor relations
  • 2024
    NIRI IR Competency Suite10-part investor relations training course

Writing samples

  • 2023–26
    Quarterly earnings releasesWrote every Trend Micro quarterly earnings release from 2023 through Q2 2026, shaping each quarter’s narrative with the COO.
  • Nasdaq
    Why cybersecurity companies need a global playbookGhostwritten for COO Kevin Simzer.
  • Nasdaq
    To build or to buy? Why M&A can be a roadblock to cybersecurity innovationGhostwritten for COO Kevin Simzer.
  • 2021
    Nefilim ransomware attack through a MITRE ATT&CK lensTrend Micro Research. Each attack step mapped to the control that would stop it.
  • 2021
    Open source vulnerabilities and the DevOps–SecOps divideLaunch article for Trend Micro Cloud One with Snyk.

Notes to the figures

  1. Annual recurring revenue covered by analyst revenue disclosures I reviewed and approved; not revenue I generated.
  2. Open pipeline on accounts engaged at Black Hat USA 2026; associated with the event, not created by it.
  3. Pipeline in AWS’s co-sell portal not reflected in Salesforce, from a 2022 audit of 1,029 opportunities ($96.9M) sent January–May 2022. A reporting gap in pipeline, not closed bookings.
  4. Company results, not mine alone. Trend Micro reported its biggest AWS Marketplace quarter in Q3 2022 (sales up 150% year over year, ARR up 80%) and won the Global AWS Marketplace Partner of the Year award in November 2022. Source: Trend Micro, Nov 28, 2022.

Let’s talk revenue operations.

LinkedIn Resume (PDF)
© 2026 Caitlyn HughesFigures describe my role in team efforts. See notes to the figures.
Work sample, Black Hat USA 2026

Meeting and engagement dashboard

351accounts engaged
1,121total engagements
$40.4Mopen pipeline on those accounts
$10.9Mestimated ARR
Dashboard summary view with totals for accounts, meetings, engagements, ARR and open pipeline, and charts by audience type
Summary: the shared view Sales, Marketing, Channel and executives used before and during the event.

What it replaced

Separate event spreadsheets that each team read differently, with no link to accounts or pipeline.

How I built it

Claude-assisted connectors pulled meetings, registrations and CRM data into one page, cut by account, owner, vertical, industry and partner.

Open the interactive dashboard

Portfolio version. Customer, partner and person names are replaced with pseudonyms; counts, ARR and pipeline totals are unchanged. The interactive version opens in a new tab and works best on a laptop or desktop.
Work sample, Q2 2026 earnings

The AI output slide in the COO’s earnings presentation

92%of employees using AI daily, 1H 2026
2XClaude usage
2XGitHub pull requests
5Xissue-resolution throughput

The narrative

Kevin Simzer presented a slide titled “AI Investment Is Already Increasing Output” and spoke to it on the Q2 2026 call. It framed internal AI adoption as a productivity story for investors, in the same quarter the company named rising AI costs in its revised guidance.

My part

I had pushed for an investor story on internal AI productivity for several quarters. Leadership adopted it for Q2 2026. The COO had final say on the narrative and delivered it.

Open the presentation (PDF)Q2 2026 earnings release

Figures as published by Trend Micro. The slide is in the COO’s Q2 2026 presentation on the investor relations site.
Writing sample, Earnings releases

Quarterly earnings releases, 2023–2026

Q2 2026, August 13

  • Net sales up 13% year over year; ARR above $1.7B.
  • TrendAI Vision One ARR up 49%, now 45% of enterprise ARR.
  • Full-year operating income guidance revised, citing cloud and AI token costs.
Read the release

Q1 2026, May 14

  • Net sales up 9%; 21% operating margin.
  • Vision One ARR up 50%; enterprise ARR above $1.3B.
  • Launch of the TrendAI and TrendLife brands.
Read the release

My part

I wrote every quarterly earnings release from 2023 through Q2 2026, working with the COO on each quarter’s narrative, and supported two guidance revisions. The two most recent are shown above. Company leadership approved each release before publication.
Writing sample, Nasdaq

Why cybersecurity companies need a global playbook

The argument

Cost pressure is pushing enterprises to consolidate tools and fold regional IT decisions into one global strategy led by the CISO. Security vendors that pair a global platform with local needs, such as data residency and regional compliance, are best placed to win.

My part

Ghostwritten for COO Kevin Simzer and published under his byline.

Read on Nasdaq
Writing sample, Nasdaq

To build or to buy? Why M&A can be a roadblock to cybersecurity innovation

The argument

Acquisitions are common in cybersecurity but often slow innovation through culture clashes, talent loss and disconnected data. Vendors should build core capabilities in-house and keep acquisitions to tightly integrated tuck-ins; investors should judge how acquired technology is actually integrated.

My part

Ghostwritten for COO Kevin Simzer and published under his byline.

Read on Nasdaq
Writing sample, Trend Micro Research

Nefilim ransomware attack through a MITRE ATT&CK lens

The approach

A fictional $1B manufacturer is followed through a real ransomware group’s playbook, from an unpatched remote-access gateway to the ransom note. Each attacker step is tied to its MITRE ATT&CK technique and the control that would have stopped it.

Three of the steps

  • T1133 entry through exposed remote services; stopped by multi-factor authentication (M1032).
  • T1003.001 credentials dumped from memory; limited by restricting privileged accounts (M1026).
  • T1486 data encrypted for impact; recovered with offline, tested backups (M1053).
Read the article