Wayne Jennings joined Exeon two years ago as Head of Engineering. Today, he’s Chief Solutions Officer, leading multiple technical teams across a remote-first, international organization. We sat down with Exeon’s new Chief Solutions Officer to talk about growth, remote teams, and spicy sausages.
You joined Exeon as Head of Engineering and two years later, you’re Chief Solutions Officer. What did those two years look like – and what surprised you most about the journey?
Honestly, it’s exactly what I was looking for. I came from larger companies where processes were well-defined, and movement was slow. Coming to Exeon was a little chaotic. But a good chaos! I’m an engineer at heart, so I like to solve problems, and here there’s always something to solve, whether it’s a customer challenge, a technical problem, or a deployment and scaling challenge.
What struck me most about the team is that everyone has been genuinely open to change. Not just reactive to improvements, but also coming up with their own ideas. We’ve been able to build on each step we’ve made in customer relationships, in how we deploy the product, in the technical side. That’s not something you take for granted.
Did anything surprise me? Not really. I knew what I was signing up for. In a cybersecurity scale-up, you have to fight for your place in the market every month against much bigger players. That’s the reality, and it’s what I wanted. What confirmed I’d made the right choice was seeing that the whole team shared that same mindset. Everyone was working hard, pushing forward. That said a lot.
You’re leading multiple engineering teams across different locations and nationalities. What’s the secret to making that actually work?
Communication is everything – but maybe not in the way people expect. I prefer fewer formal meetings and more impromptu conversations. A quick unscheduled chat during the day often gets more done than a planned workshop. That’s just how I work, and I think it helps keep things moving in a distributed team.
What I’ve found is that values matter far more than nationality. Everyone in the team is hardworking, curious, and has integrity: they’re makers. Those are Exeon values, but they’re also just who these people are. If someone didn’t feel that way, I think they’d feel uncomfortable quickly, because the rest of the team takes those things seriously.
The different nationalities and backgrounds – that’s the sauce in the dish. Different perspectives make the work richer, and I genuinely like having different views and opinions around the table: things you can discuss, debate, and work through together. Sometimes that happens in one of our WTF sessions, which are regular knowledge-sharing sessions where anyone can bring an interesting problem or topic. And sometimes it happens after work, over a drink. Honestly, both are important.
What’s your philosophy on building teams, and how has your own journey at Exeon shaped it?
At Exeon, we’re known for giving people room to grow into their role rather than just fill it. My own story is a good example of that. I joined as Head of Support and Engineering, and as the company grew and the strategy evolved, the Chief Solutions Officer role emerged. It wasn’t mapped out in advance, it came about organically, and it was something I could grow into. You start with one challenge, and as you work through it, you move on to the next. The role shapes itself around the work and the person doing it.
Very few people – and very few companies – can predict exactly where something will end up in two years. So you have to build resiliently. You have to give people room to grow into a task, and sometimes even room to redefine it once they’re in it. Because once someone starts investigating a problem, they become the expert – and you have to listen to that, pay attention to their strengths and interests, and let them write their own story a little bit. As long as it fits within the broader company direction, almost everything is on the table. You never quite know what will come of it: sometimes something novel emerges, maybe even a new product. That only happens when you give people real room to explore.
What does the next chapter look like for you and the solutions organization: what are you most excited to build?
Building a scalable organization is what genuinely excites me. A lot of people find operations dry, but for me, there’s something really satisfying about getting that right, doing it efficiently, and watching it compound over time.
We still have a little bit of the baby fat of a startup. The processes aren’t fully there yet, the mindset of a larger, more global company is still developing – and that’s fine, it’s where we are. But what I want to achieve over the next two to four years is for Exeon to really act, behave, and perform like a global player. We’re sometimes still seen as a niche product, but I genuinely believe we can compete on a global scale. Building the tooling and the processes to make that possible – that’s what I’m most excited about.
Exeon celebrates its 10th anniversary. What is your wish for Exeon in the next growth phase?
My wish is simple: happy customers and happy partners. If they’re getting real value from the products we’ve built, then we’re doing something right. That’s what keeps me motivated. And I hope we keep having fun doing it. That’s an important thing in life. We shouldn’t lose that.
Bonus questions
MS Teams chat or a proper meeting?
– A proper meeting
What’s the one tool or habit that makes remote work work for you?
– Turn on your camera. That’s it.
What would your team say is your most recognizable quirk as a leader?
– I think I swear too much in meetings. But never directed at people, always at the situation. I just speak very emotionally, let’s put it that way. Honestly though, I’d love to ask the team. I think the real answer might surprise me.
If Exeon were a Swiss dish, what would it be and why?
– A Wiedikerli! It’s a Zurich sausage and the butchery that invented it is just around the corner from our office. It’s small, it’s local, but it’s spicy, and people travel far and wide to get it. I think that’s exactly what Exeon is.
