Mark Bernardin

Senior Customer Success Manager for enterprise cybersecurity SaaS, specializing in at-risk account turnarounds

For 12 years I have helped enterprise security customers stay, grow their use of the product, and expand. When an account goes RED, I rebuild executive trust and follow a clear recovery plan until it is healthy again.

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Portrait of Mark Bernardin
$8.5M
ARR portfolio managed at Palo Alto Networks
115%+
Net revenue retention on that portfolio
$4M+
ARR brought back to health across three at-risk accounts
$2M+
Expansion pipeline built

About

I am a Customer Success Manager with 12 years in cybersecurity SaaS, focused on keeping enterprise customers, growing their use of the product, and expanding revenue. I have managed portfolios of more than $8.5M ARR with 115%+ net revenue retention.

Much of my best work has been with accounts in trouble. I brought three unhappy enterprise accounts worth more than $4M in ARR back to health by rebuilding executive trust and following a clear recovery plan, including a Lowe’s turnaround that led one of their executives to call me “the greatest CSM we’ve ever had.”

I am comfortable running executive business reviews, building account plans, spotting expansion opportunities, and explaining complex security products in terms of business results.

Turnarounds

Two of the Fortune 100 accounts I took over at Palo Alto Networks while they were at their most unhappy, and where each one ended up.

Lowe’s

Red to Green in six months

Renewed and expanded with the Focused Services offering. A Lowe’s executive called me “the greatest CSM we’ve ever had.”

The Home Depot

Red to Yellow in four months

Renewed and expanded with the Focused Services offering.

Across three at-risk Fortune 100 and Big Four accounts worth more than $4M in ARR, the approach was the same: rebuild the executive relationships, coordinate across internal teams, and follow the recovery plan.

Experience

Every role since 2014 has been in cybersecurity SaaS Customer Success.

Aug 2024 to Jan 2025

DTEX Systems

Customer Success Manager
  • Reviewed every enterprise Insider Risk account within 30 days and documented the process gaps that slowed onboarding and made adoption hard to track.
  • Built and proposed readiness playbooks with Sales and Product to close those gaps.
Jun 2022 to Aug 2024

Palo Alto Networks

Customer Success Manager, Cortex Cybersecurity Platform
  • Brought three at-risk Fortune 100 and Big Four accounts worth $4M+ in ARR back to health by rebuilding executive relationships, coordinating across internal teams, and following recovery plans.
  • Moved Lowe’s from RED to GREEN in six months and The Home Depot from RED to YELLOW in four months; both accounts renewed and expanded with the Focused Services offering.
  • Managed an $8.5M ARR portfolio with 115%+ net revenue retention and built $2M+ in expansion pipeline.
  • Supported public sector customers including the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Space Force alongside Fortune 100 and Big Four accounts.
  • Created the Account Success Plan program and led the pilot, building plans for XDR, XSOAR, and Xpanse accounts that uncovered new expansion opportunities and gave the CS team a repeatable process.
  • Created the handoff process between Professional Services and Customer Success, cutting time-to-value by 20% and raising CSAT from 7.1 to 8.8.
  • Mentored seven CSMs during the manager’s extended leave, keeping every account covered and the team on track.
Oct 2021 to May 2022

Deepwatch

Customer Success Manager
  • Kept 100% of customers in an enterprise MDR portfolio by setting up regular health checks with Security Operations, cutting customer MTTD and MTTR by 15% and showing executives how the service improved their security.
  • Worked side by side with customer security teams in an MSSP-style role, keeping the SOC and customer leaders on the same page about priorities and expectations.
Mar 2020 to Jun 2021

Swimlane

Customer Success Manager
  • Reached 120% net revenue retention and closed $1.5M+ in expansion by tying SOAR workflows to what each customer’s security team needed most.
  • Turned around a stalled enterprise implementation by pulling together a cross-functional team, making up a four-month delay, and securing renewal weeks before the contract expired. Used near real-time reporting on dollars and hours saved to show customer leadership the value.
  • Improved onboarding and account management processes and saved several other at-risk accounts while sales slowed.
Jan 2019 to Feb 2020

Proofpoint

Managed Services Representative, Customer Success
  • Kept 95%+ of a 50+ account enterprise portfolio by tying security awareness programs to the results each customer cared about.
  • Cut average phishing click rates by 40% across managed programs and used those results to drive renewals and influence $1M+ in expansion.
  • Ran security awareness programs as an extension of customer security teams in a staff-augmentation role.
Aug 2014 to Nov 2018

Cofense (formerly PhishMe)

Senior Information Security Program Manager / CSM
  • Managed enterprise and public sector accounts, including DHS, State, Transportation, and Education, keeping programs compliant in highly regulated environments.
  • Joined as employee #62 and built the company’s first onboarding, account management, and security awareness training processes during rapid growth, laying the groundwork for a global CS team.
  • Created the first version of a 30/60/90-day recovery plan for at-risk accounts, later used to turn around Fortune 100 accounts.
  • Covered team lead duties during manager travel (about 50% of the time), keeping daily operations running and coaching peers.
  • Interviewed candidates and helped make hiring decisions for the early CS team; several of those hires are now Directors of Customer Success.

Expertise

What I bring to an enterprise Customer Success team.

At-risk account recovery
Root cause analysis, rebuilding executive trust, recovery planning, escalation management
Revenue and growth
Net revenue retention (115%+), $8.5M+ ARR portfolios, expansion pipeline
Enterprise accounts
Fortune 100 and Big Four customers, C-suite relationships, EBRs and QBRs, project and program management
Cybersecurity
SOAR, XDR, XSIAM, attack surface management, MDR, SIEM, UEBA, insider risk, phishing defense
CS operations
Account health scoring, Account Success Plans, playbooks, Gainsight, Salesforce, Planhat

Recommendations

From colleagues and customers I have worked with.

“Customer Success is ultimately about trust, and that is something that comes naturally to him. He knows how to listen, understand what a customer actually needs, build strong relationships at every level, and translate those relationships into meaningful business outcomes.”

Melanie JohnsonSenior People Operations Manager, worked with Mark at Deepwatch

“Whether supporting a customer, helping work through a difficult situation, or stepping in for the team, Mark was dependable, knowledgeable, and focused on getting to the right outcome.”

Clinton KoshFounder, Clintware, worked with Mark at PhishMe/Cofense

“You are the best CSM we’ve ever had.”

Executive, Lowe’sCustomer at Palo Alto Networks

“You are the best CSM I’ve had since I started my career.”

Information Security Engineer, SHAZAMCustomer at Palo Alto Networks

“You get it. You understand the customers.”

Systems Engineer, Palo Alto NetworksCross-functional partner

Certifications and professional development

Security and Customer Success credentials.

Contact

I am looking for Senior and Enterprise Customer Success Manager roles in cybersecurity SaaS. Email or phone is the best way to reach me.

Email
mark.bernardin@gmail.com
Phone
(614) 499-5044
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/markbernardin
Location
Lewis Center (Columbus), Ohio