Okta Strengthens Go to Market Leadership with Executive Appointments

• Eric Kelleher promoted to President, Customer Experience & Communications
• Ed Daly to succeed Eric Kelleher as Chief Customer Officer
• Christine Halvorsen joins Okta as CTO, Public Sector

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), the leading independent identity partner, today announced three new executive appointments on its go to market team as customers embrace the increasing importance of Identity. Eric Kelleher has been promoted to President, Customer Experience & Communications, Ed Daly has been promoted to Chief Customer Officer (CCO), and Christine Halvorsen has joined Okta as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Public Sector.

These appointments highlight Okta’s commitment to investing in its go to market leadership and unlocking new growth through stronger engagement with new and existing customers. They follow the recent appointments of Jon Addison as Chief Revenue Officer and Kerry Ok as Chief Marketing Officer.

Eric has held leadership roles at Okta for 7 years and has served as Chief Customer Officer since 2020. He has played a pivotal role in scaling Okta to over $2 billion in revenue, empowering teams, and promoting a culture of innovation to drive the success of Okta’s nearly 19,000 customers. In his new role, Eric will oversee Marketing and Communications, in addition to the Customer First organization, and will continue to co-lead the go to market function with Jon Addison. He and his leadership team will continue to focus on driving demand and growth for Okta across all stages of the customer lifecycle, delivering great customer experiences, building brand loyalty, and raising industry awareness of the importance of identity.

Ed has served as Okta’s SVP of Customer Success and Renewal Sales since 2018. He has led the company’s Global Customer Success and Renewal sales teams through the rapid growth and adoption of Okta’s platform. In his expanded role as CCO, Ed will now oversee Okta’s global customer support and education, services, customer success and renewals sales teams. He will be responsible for ensuring every customer understands and maximizes the value of Okta’s products and services to advance their identity security, reduce complexity, and improve the user experience.

Christine has joined Okta as the company’s first Public Sector CTO. During her over 20 years serving in the Federal government, Christine successfully led small to enterprise sized IT modernization projects with a focus on mission outcomes and Cybersecurity. She expanded her support to Public Sector during her time in the private sector focusing on cloud technologies, cybersecurity, & Trust and Safety. She joins Okta at a time of rapid growth for the company within U.S. Federal and State and Local organizations as they look to modernize their services and adopt Zero-Trust architectures. With Okta managing nearly 400 million authentications and over 24 million users across the public sector, Christine will focus on helping customers simplify their processes and secure their IT infrastructure allowing them to rapidly advance their mission.

“Okta has an exciting opportunity ahead as organizations around the world understand that modern identity is critical to their security, operations, and efficiency,” said Todd McKinnon, Okta’s CEO and co-founder. “With Eric and Ed taking on new roles and Christine joining the company, Okta’s go to market team is well positioned to capitalize on our customers’ interest in identity and our industry-leading innovation to drive growth.”

About Eric Kelleher

Eric has spent over 25 years leading software companies through growth, and has led SaaS customer teams for more than 20 years. During his 11 years at Salesforce.com, he helped shape the SaaS playbook for cultivating a successful enterprise subscriber base, and helped grow from $50M to $4B in revenue. He also spent 2 years at LinkedIn where he built their first Customer Success organization, growing success for their $2B Talent Solutions business. In his time at Okta, he has helped the company scale from $150 million to over $2 billion in ARR. Eric has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics from Georgetown University and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford.

About Ed Daly

Ed has over 25 years of experience in the high technology and software industries building and leading teams across sales, marketing, services, and customer success. He has extensive experience building teams for transformational companies and driving significant, profitable growth. Most recently, he built and led a global Customer Success team at Cisco, supporting Cisco’s growth in the cloud and subscription software business. Ed has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Northwestern University.

About Christine Halvorsen

Christine has a 20+ year background with the FBI, where she led teams focused on digital infrastructure modernization, counterterrorism, and law enforcement, serving as the Assistant Director, and Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer of the Counterterrorism and Criminal Justice Information Services Divisions. Her private sector experience spans public sector technology and AI-focused leadership positions at AWS and most recently, the role of Managing Director at Protiviti.

About Okta

Okta is the World’s Identity Company. As the leading independent Identity partner, we free everyone to safely use any technology—anywhere, on any device or app. The most trusted brands trust Okta to enable secure access, authentication, and automation. With flexibility and neutrality at the core of our Okta Workforce Identity and Customer Identity Clouds, business leaders and developers can focus on innovation and accelerate digital transformation, thanks to customizable solutions and more than 7,000 pre-built integrations. We’re building a world where Identity belongs to you. Learn more at okta.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240228695112/en/