I’ve Spent More Than a Decade in Federal Sales for Security. Here’s Why I Joined Netskope.

Throughout my career, I’ve come to know both the federal government space and the world of cloud security well. Selling security to the federal sector requires a deep appreciation of the fact that you’re not only protecting government employees and data, but also the warfighters on the battlefield. It’s the kind of work that fills me with a sense of pride and citizenship knowing that the technology I am selling is helping keep those who protect us safe from today’s ever-evolving threat landscape.

In addition to my background in the federal sector, I also know how to recognize an opportunity when it comes along. Last summer, I received a phone call from John Giacomini—SVP of Sales at Netskope and a former colleague of mine from out times at Forcepoint—about an opportunity at Netskope to come and build a team to tackle the federal sector. I’ll always be a sales guy at heart, but I can’t deny my entrepreneurial side; I love getting my teeth into new challenges and building out fresh business. Netskope was therefore particularly attractive to me because there isn’t a lot of red tape or and long established (but probably not perfectly fitting) processes to contend with as someone new coming in. 

And then John mentioned that Netskope was on the cusp of achieving FedRAMP High Certification… 

We now have that certification, and if you read my recent blog about it, you’ll see that  this achievement opens Netskope up to a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to selling to civilian government agencies in the US. As the latest addition to Team Netskope, I am so excited to see what the team I am building can accomplish in this new market. That, plus an open culture and existing team full of contagious optimism made me feel like Netskope was the right fit for me.

There’s one—maybe two—times in your career that you run into the right product at the right place, at the right time. And a number of those things came together for me here. The product is rock solid, and with the FedRAMP High certification we now have the necessary credentials to be able to sell to the people in my patch.

With the recent Presidential Executive Order around zero trust, the US government is picking up the pace in transforming architectures to provide the very best security for applications and workloads in the cloud. The federal government is looking to consolidate an excess of technology vendors into strategic consolidated platforms, and Netskope is offering the very best in consolidated network and security platforms for zero trust.  That’s why I am here.