Jan 4 (Reuters) - Amit Yoran, the chairman and chief

executive of cybersecurity firm Tenable Holdings ( TENB ) died

on Friday following a battle with cancer, the company said on

Saturday.

Yoran, 54, joined Tenable as CEO in 2016 and was credited

with steering the company's growth, including its 2018 initial

public offering.

The company said it would continue to operate under the

leadership of Chief Financial Officer Steve Vintz and Chief

Operating Officer Mark Thurmond, who were appointed as co-CEOs

when Yoran took medical leave in December last year.

Yoran was also the chair of the company's board, a position

that now will be held by Art Coviello, Tenable's lead

independent director.

Yoran's career was marked by influential leadership roles in

the cybersecurity industry.

Before joining Tenable, he served as president of Dell

Technologies' ( DELL ) RSA cybersecurity unit and as the

founding director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's

now-retired United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team

(US-CERT), an agency in protecting Americans from cyberattacks.

Columbia, Maryland-based Tenable competes with Crowdstrike ( CRWD )

, Qualys ( QLYS ) and Rapid7 ( RPD ) in selling software

that businesses and governments use to monitor large computer

networks for security vulnerabilities and anomalies that

indicate cyber attacks.