When Tim Eades, CEO of vArmour, a 4-year-old data center security startup based in Mountain View, Calif., met with Fortune over tea a few weeks ago, he hinted that the company would soon name a couple of heavy-hitting business veterans to its board of directors. The cybersecurity firm made the additions official on Wednesday: Gary Moore, a seasoned Cisco alum, and Meg McCarthy, a top exec at Aetna.
The first appointee is Moore, former president and chief operations officer at networking gear-maker Cisco (CSCO), whom industry watchers this year had pegged as a potential successor to the company’s longtime CEO John Chambers. A Cisco search committee ultimately elevated Chuck Robbins, one-time senior VP of worldwide field operations, to the role in May. Moore, who had spent 14 years at the company, left shortly thereafter.
In the months following his departure, Moore mulled his next steps, he told Fortune on a call. He decided to join Ohio State University’s school of business as an executive in residence and lecturer. He also joined the board of Finjan (FNJN), a small cap Cisco-backed cybersecurity company that boasts a raft of enterprise IT security patents, last week.
“Everyone wanted me to take on a role as either a vice chair of a board or a COO,” Moore said, describing how he declined some of the opportunities that came his way. “I’ll tell you what I told them: ‘Look, if I want to work full time, I’ll go be a CEO somewhere.'”
At this point in his career, Moore said, he has the good fortune of not needing to work for money. Instead, he’s interested in “adding value and having fun.” He has ruled out an operational role for now, he said.
“I’m not ready to go hang up my wingtips for my loafers and jeans, if you will,” he added.
vArmour’s second board appointee is Meg McCarthy, executive vice president of operations and technology at the health insurer Aetna (AET). McCarthy serves on the board of the financial services firm First American Financial Corporation (FAF). She is also a member of multiple committees at the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Council on Affordable Quality Healthcare as well as the gender parity council at the World Economic Forum.
“The great thing about [vArmour CEO] Tim and how he conducts his board meetings today,” she told Fortune on a call, “is that he always starts every board meeting with a customer sharing what is going on in their industry and in their company.”
McCarthy herself will share with the board her learnings and expertise from the healthcare industry, a sector that must protect highly sensitive health information, yet that suffered several big data breaches in the past year, such as those that befell Anthem (ANTM) and Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. (It’s worth noting that McCarthy has helped bring Aetna to the fore in certain areas of cybersecurity, too.)
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Eades, who sold his last company, the fraud analytics firm Silver Tail Systems, to EMC-owned RSA a few years ago, said he is thrilled about the new appointments. “Healthcare is going through an incredible digital transformation where data is becoming more distributed,” he said. “Having someone like Meg on the board to navigate the dynamic regulatory controls you have to go through is just priceless.”
“Gary, on the other hand, is a scaler,” he said. “His history is as a guy who helps and partners with you to help you grow a company.”
Moore and McCarthy will join existing board members David Stevens and Lane Bess, former CEOs of Palo Alto Networks (PANW), along with others, including the company’s co-founder and former CEO Roger Lian and investors.
vArmour, whose software secures network traffic within data centers and across cloud services, has raised $42 million to date from investment firms such as Highland Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Allegis Capital. Fortune earlier this year speculated that the startup could eventually achieve “unicorn” status, reaching a valuation at or exceeding $1 billion. A competitor, the data center security startup Illumio, already earned its horn this year.
The company last week named Mark Weatherford, a former senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, as its chief cybersecurity strategist, too.
Follow Robert Hackett on Twitter at @rhhackett. Read his cybersecurity, technology, and business coverage here. And subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.
