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This episode features an interview with Alvina Antar, CIO at Okta. Alvina leads the Business Technology Organization and is responsible for enabling a smooth customer and employee experience. Prior to joining Okta, she spent 17 years at Dell and served as Zuora’s first ever CIO.

In this episode, Mike and Alvina discuss identity-first security, automating business processes through AI and ML, and leading by example to achieve a more diverse industry.

The only way we can really build a security-first culture is if we operate as one team. And not only just between IT and security, it’s really building security champions across every part of the business. Every single employee should feel accountable for hardening our security posture.

—Alvina Antar, Chief Information Officer at Okta

 

Timestamps

*(02:37): Alvina’s journey to becoming a CIO*(26:29): How Alvina is building a human firewall
*(05:01): How Okta uses Okta*(30:31): 2030 Goggles
*(10:38): How Alvina thinks of her role in the current environment*(33:10): How we can get more diversity in security
*(18:17): Alvina’s take on security as a team sport*(35:29): Quick Hits
*(22:22): Alvina’s advice for speaking to the board about security*(38:09): Mike’s takeaways from his conversation with Alvina

 

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On this episode

Alvina Antar
CIO at Okta

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Alvina Antar

Alvina is the Chief Information Officer at Okta. She is responsible for enabling a seamless customer and employee experience, and leads our Business Technology Organization. She is focused on evolving Okta’s operating model through people, process, technology and data.

Prior to Okta, she spent six years as Zuora’s first ever CIO enabling business growth from $30M to $300M, and taking the company through a successful IPO in 2018. Labeled “The subscription economy CIO,” she enabled digital enterprises to thrive in a Subscription Economy. Alvina has advised a multitude of companies on how to launch and monetize recurring revenue products and services to differentiate their business. She also formed a Subscription CIO Exchange to gather a new breed of technology leaders enabling business transformation through disruptive technology and challenging the status quo.

Prior to Zuora, Alvina spent 17 years at Dell where she was an integral part of their expansion from hardware to an end-to-end software and solutions provider. Alvina has a combination of Fortune 50 and high-growth start up experience which makes her an invaluable part of the Okta team.

When she’s not working, Alvina is an active member of her community, having co-founded the Silicon Valley CIO Women’s Network, as a member of the Girls in Tech Board of Directors, and on the board of BUILD. Alvina has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and lives in Menlo Park, California with her husband and three children.

Mike Anderson
Chief Digital & Information Officer at Netskope

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Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson serves as Chief Digital and Information Officer for Netskope. Over the past 25 years, he has built and led high-performing teams across various disciplines, including sales, operations, business development, and information technology. He joined Netskope from Schneider Electric, a global fortune 500 company, serving as SVP, CIO and Digital Leader for North America. In 2020, Constellation Research named him a member of the Business Transformation 150, an elite list that recognizes the top global executives leading business transformation efforts in their organizations. The National Diversity Council also recognized him as a Top 50 CIO for diversity and inclusion in 2020 and 2021. Before Schneider Electric, Mike served as CIO for CROSSMARK, where he digitally transformed the business capabilities for the 40,000 employee service provider to the retail and consumer goods industry. Also, he has held executive leadership roles at Enterprise Mobile, a Microsoft joint venture that is now part of Honeywell, Insight, Software Spectrum, and InVerge, a web services pioneer he co-founded in 1999. Mike serves on numerous technology and industry advisory boards and volunteers his time working with nonprofits focused on mental health and suicide prevention and those that benefit the development of our future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Alvina Antar

Alvina is the Chief Information Officer at Okta. She is responsible for enabling a seamless customer and employee experience, and leads our Business Technology Organization. She is focused on evolving Okta’s operating model through people, process, technology and data.

Prior to Okta, she spent six years as Zuora’s first ever CIO enabling business growth from $30M to $300M, and taking the company through a successful IPO in 2018. Labeled “The subscription economy CIO,” she enabled digital enterprises to thrive in a Subscription Economy. Alvina has advised a multitude of companies on how to launch and monetize recurring revenue products and services to differentiate their business. She also formed a Subscription CIO Exchange to gather a new breed of technology leaders enabling business transformation through disruptive technology and challenging the status quo.

Prior to Zuora, Alvina spent 17 years at Dell where she was an integral part of their expansion from hardware to an end-to-end software and solutions provider. Alvina has a combination of Fortune 50 and high-growth start up experience which makes her an invaluable part of the Okta team.

When she’s not working, Alvina is an active member of her community, having co-founded the Silicon Valley CIO Women’s Network, as a member of the Girls in Tech Board of Directors, and on the board of BUILD. Alvina has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and lives in Menlo Park, California with her husband and three children.

Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson serves as Chief Digital and Information Officer for Netskope. Over the past 25 years, he has built and led high-performing teams across various disciplines, including sales, operations, business development, and information technology. He joined Netskope from Schneider Electric, a global fortune 500 company, serving as SVP, CIO and Digital Leader for North America. In 2020, Constellation Research named him a member of the Business Transformation 150, an elite list that recognizes the top global executives leading business transformation efforts in their organizations. The National Diversity Council also recognized him as a Top 50 CIO for diversity and inclusion in 2020 and 2021. Before Schneider Electric, Mike served as CIO for CROSSMARK, where he digitally transformed the business capabilities for the 40,000 employee service provider to the retail and consumer goods industry. Also, he has held executive leadership roles at Enterprise Mobile, a Microsoft joint venture that is now part of Honeywell, Insight, Software Spectrum, and InVerge, a web services pioneer he co-founded in 1999. Mike serves on numerous technology and industry advisory boards and volunteers his time working with nonprofits focused on mental health and suicide prevention and those that benefit the development of our future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Episode transcript

Open for transcript

Alvina Antar: For the longest time, we've heard how there's a ton of friction between the CIO and CISO and IT and security teams, where the security organization is developing strategies and IT hears about it and has to somehow deliver and execute against that strategy without any input around the decisions or choices that are made. And in reality, in order for us to be successful, we really need to operate as one team. And that's exactly what we're doing here, is the only way we can really build a security-first culture is if we operate as one team and not only just between IT and security, it's really building security champions across every part of the business. Every single employee should feel accountable for hardening our security posture.

[music]

Speaker: Hello and welcome to Security Visionaries. You just heard from today's guest, Alvina Antar, CIO at Okta. With an ever-growing list of responsibilities, one of the biggest challenges CIOs face today is prioritization of decisions. These key choices require strategic focus and alignment across an organization to deliver on business initiatives. It's also a critical step in the overall effectiveness and the efficiency of security. Before we dive into Alvina's interview, here's a brief word from our sponsor.

Speaker: The Security Visionaries Podcast is powered by the team at Netskope. At Netskope, we are redefining cloud, data, and network security with a platform that provides optimized access and zero trust security for people, devices, and data anywhere they go. To learn more about how Netskope helps customers be ready for anything on their sassy journey, visit netskope.com.

Speaker: Without further ado, please enjoy episode 19 of Security Visionaries with Alvina Antar, CIO at Okta, and your host Mike Anderson.

[music]

Mike Anderson: Welcome to today's episode of the Security Visionaries Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Anderson. I'm the Chief digital and information officer here at Netskope. Today I'm joined by a special guest, Alvina Antar. We've basically lived parallel lives at different security companies, so this is gonna be a super fun conversation. Alvina, how are you doing today?

Alvina Antar: Wonderful, Mike, I'm so excited to hang out with you today.

Mike Anderson: Yeah, that's gonna be great. Funny story, Alvina and I share a similar boss in our background. We both work for a gentleman named Steve Schuckenbrock. Alvina worked for him at Dell, I work for him at Crossmark, but we share some common friends in our path as well. So look forward to that conversation as well. So the first thing off I have to start I always like to hear about people's journeys. So Alvina, tell me about your journey to becoming a CIO, especially like, I know you were in the SaaS space at Zuora, coming to Okta. Tell me a little bit about that journey that you went through.

Alvina Antar: Well, first off, Mike, yeah, we do have tons of mutual friends and I have loved to see what you're bringing in terms of thought leadership focused on security. So thank you for all that you're doing for the industry. So in terms of my journey, it's been fun and I just, I couldn't be more blessed. I journeyed to CIO what I... I wanted to be a professor, I wanted to be a math professor and ended up having my father convince me to study computer science instead since the heavy, heavy math influence. And then I ended up starting at Dell as you mentioned. So that was my first gig right outta college as a programmer at Dell in IT. I spent 17 years there and it was really magical and incredible 17 years and was able to touch on every part of the business, which was incredible. And I reached an inflection point in my time there where I really didn't feel like I was challenging myself and I was getting a little too comfortable and made a decision. It was a huge decision for me. Even after 17 years, it was a huge decision for me to leave. And then it was a leap of faith I and ended up landing as my first role as a CIO at Zuora. I was a customer at Zuora at the time at Dell and it was an incredible opportunity for me to really be their first CIO and spent six amazing years there. Now, I've been at Okta for two and a half years and having a blast.

Mike Anderson: You joined Okta I think around the same time that I joined Netskope, which was interesting 'cause we both joined. I don't know, did you join before the pandemic started or was it during the pandemic?

Alvina Antar: Oh no, it was at the heart of the pandemic. The interviews were all over Zoom and it was a tough time to switch companies, but it was really the best decision that I made. I knew Okta as a customer, long, long-time customer. And obviously I've followed the company and Todd and Freddie and all that they've built now over 14 years. And really it was the product, the vision, and the culture. The culture of builders and owners is what led me to Okta.

Mike Anderson: No, that's great. Definitely Okta is a great product. We've been a customer for a long time. I've been a customer for a very long time as well. And so it's a definitely a great product. It's been fun to see the journey not as a customer, it's been fun to see things evolve at Netskope. I play the role of customer zero and I know you do the same at Okta. Tell me a little bit, how does that play into your role today and what are you doing around that? How much do you get out talking about how Okta uses Okta?

Alvina Antar: Yeah, well that's a huge, huge part of all that we do. It's been an integral focus for our organization and actually when I joined two and a half years ago, we had a effort and program around Okta-on-Okta but over the last two and a half years we've really accelerated our investment as truly customer zero. And it's just been amazing to see our positioning in being able to really push our product and building strong, strong relationship with our product and engineering organization and being first adopters. Just this last year we adopted our Okta identity engine to drive passwordless experience for all of our employees. And it's just been, just an incredible experience to be able to be one of the first enterprise customers on our OIE platform and realize true business value realization as an internal customer and then being able to share the story.

Alvina Antar