Security Leaders Spin Out Of ECS Group To Form Adarma

Management buyout backed by private equity firm Livingbridge creates one of the largest independent security services companies in the UK serving FTSE 250 organisations.

Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 12th June 2019 – Adarma, an independent security services company, previously ECS Security, has successfully launched following a private management buyout led by David Calder and Nathan Dornbrook with capital from Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, and debt from Bank of Scotland.

With over 250 staff and experience spanning over two decades, Adarma provides a broad range of IT security consulting, solution and services with deep expertise in threat management including Security Operations Centre (SOC) design, build and operation. Adarma helps large enterprises to establish operational security capabilities including in-house, co-managed and fully managed SOC environments. The company’s expertise also helps clients to extend existing SOC capabilities to respond to evolving threats and establish a high-value proactive approach to hunting and effectively defending against attackers through addressing control gaps.

From launch, Adarma has an extensive client roster that includes market leading brands from FTSE 250 organisations. In fact, Adarma’s 20 largest clients have a combined annual turnover in excess of £150bn and rely on Adarma’s expertise to help protect sensitive data covering over half of the UK population.

David Calder, MD and co-founder of Adarma says, “Our decision to create Adarma is part of our desire to focus exclusively on the security space with the aim of becoming the UK market leader for FTSE 250 organisations across a broad range of industries. We are thrilled to receive backing from Livingbridge as we start this new chapter in our journey.”

“Typically, our customer base consists of larger organisations who accept that attacks and breaches are inevitable. Security is a priority at board level as well as within Security Operations departments at these organisations. They realise that it is not a case of if, but when they will face critical security incidents and want to be prepared for this. Our tailored solutions and in-depth engagements with our customers ensure a deeper understanding of their business and requirements, enabling us to deliver improved results for each client.”

Adarma is based on the Latin phrase ‘call to arms’ to represent the security it offers clients and its core founding objective – to make the world a safer place.

Nathan Dornbrook, CTO and co-founder of Adarma said: “Another core principle of the Adarma ethos is a focus on skills and experience that is complemented by, but not replaced by, technology. Our clients tend to have complex environments, with technical and cultural requirements that define them in often unique ways. Our teams are made up of skilled and highly certified practitioners that have deep, real world expertise in working with large organisations. Many of our staff and clients have been with us for a decade or more and we see this partnership journey as key to building a sustainable and trusted business as well as assisting in fulfilling our objective to help close the security skills gap in the UK.”

Adarma runs its own dedicated UK based 24/7 SOC which is staffed by practitioners with deep relevant skills. All teams hold qualifications to degree level in cybersecurity related subjects and technology specific accreditations plus extensive rapid response capabilities. Core Adarma technology partners include Splunk, ServiceNow and Tenable.

Paul Thomson, Group Chief Executive at ECS, said: “Over the last 6 years ECS’s security business has grown rapidly within the Group into a truly industry leading provider of cybersecurity services. Strategically it makes sense for ECS Group and Security to separate, allowing both companies to further focus on their core areas of expertise. For Group, this also enables us to expand our core offerings and expertise in digital transformation in our key markets namely, enterprise IT infrastructure and public cloud, as well as investing heavily to build out other areas of the business. We wish David, Nathan, the management team and the staff at Adarma all the very best and anticipate working in close partnership with them moving forwards.”

Commenting on the investment, Matthew Caffrey, Partner at Livingbridge said: “Adarma is a very exciting business for us to partner with. We believe there is an opportunity to partner with the team to build a business of real scale in the growing cybersecurity market. The team have built up a great business and we’re excited to work with them as they grow.”

David Calder and Nathan Dornbrook are available for interviews to discuss the launch of Adarma as well as the wider managed security sector.

About Adarma
We are Adarma, one of the largest independent security services companies in the UK. As a business formed and run by veteran senior security leaders, we know security and how to deliver real value in the real world. This is why our clients are successful FTSE 250 organisations from all industry sectors.

See us as your true partner in security. We have the experience, proven track record and industry recognition, to provide best-of-breed services for all our clients. Our team are specialists in Threat Management including SOC design, build & operation. And we always tailor our cybersecurity services to your needs. For more information, please visit www.adarma.com.

About Livingbridge
Livingbridge is a mid-market private equity firm with offices in the UK, the US and Australia, investing in fast growing companies valued up to £200m.

Our team have been backing growing businesses together for twenty years. We’ve done it over a hundred times, turning many into household names both at home and abroad. We get growth.

We understand the people behind growing companies in consumer markets; healthcare and education; technology, media and telecommunications; financial services and business services, and help them achieve what’s right for them and their business. More information at www.livingbridge.com

About David Calder, MD of Adarma
David Calder has over twenty years’ experience in the security industry and has been the Managing Director of the ECS Security and Splunk Practice since 2013. During this period the practice has grown by more than twenty times with Managed Services and Splunk being key parts of this growth. From 2010 to 2012 David held Head of Security positions at two separate UK high street banks and was the Global Head of Threat Management for one of the UK’s biggest global banks from 2006-2009. David started his career at UK investment business, Standard Life, and from there has built a career as a recognised security expert within UK financial services. David holds an honours degree in Computing Science from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

About Nathan Dornbrook, CTO of Adarma
Nathan Dornbrook is Chief Technology Officer and a co-founder at Adarma. He has 20 years’ IT security experience in high street banking. Nathan is recognised as a visionary and evangelist within the security industry. Nathan is an advocate of using search to replace AI and has long been a champion of using search and humans to manage threats for security customers. The current use of Big Data in the security space has validated that view.

For further information, please contact:

Kate Wallyn, Head of Marketing at Adarma

PR@adarma.com

Or

Anne Harding

The Message Machine

anne@themessagemachine.com

07887 682943