I have always felt that boards of companies need to be chosen very carefully—and that they need to embody the culture and values of the company. Furthermore, they need to be made up of a diverse set of people with different skill sets and backgrounds, all united on the mission and goals of the company. Boards can be a powerful additive force to a company if done right. That is why I have been so selective in formulating our board since I started Netskope nearly a decade ago.
It is also why I am very excited to welcome Kimberly Alexy to Netskope’s Board of Directors. As I got to know Kimberly over time, it was clear to me she embodied the collaborative, open, and innovative culture Netskope is built on. Technology and market fit is only part of building a company that can succeed long-term. We must have the critical ingredients in culture, too. I am very proud of the amazing team we’re building, and that we stay true to our core values of openness, honesty, and transparency. In our earliest discussions about potentially making this move, Kimberly made it clear to me that openness, collaboration, the importance of people, and the positive impact companies like ours can have on the world are some of her biggest care-abouts, too.
We also talked tech and the industry. We had a great dialogue about what she was passionate about and Netskope’s long-standing mission to build an independent, iconic security company that helps solve some of the biggest challenges for enterprises and institutions across the world in securing their data and users no matter what they accessed, and no matter from what or from where. These things resonated with Kimberly—she understands these challenges well. Digital transformation can’t happen without security and networking transformation, and that’s where Netskope comes in. Now, with SASE poised to be the cloud-centric security and networking architecture of the future, we see ourselves in the early innings of a massive market opportunity, and we’re honored that our strength in SASE has been recognized by industry analysts and customers alike. We are the protectors of the most critical companies in the world’s most valuable asset: their data. We are enablers for—and protectors of—their most critical resource: their people. That is a mission Kimberly believed strongly in and wanted to be part of.
Among other areas of focus, Kimberly will chair our Audit committee. To describe Kimberly as deeply experienced in finance, accounting, capital markets, M&A, and investments still doesn’t approximate the impact she’s made on more than a dozen pre-IPO and public company boards. She is, of course, also well familiar with the security space from her long career working in and around the industry. We are truly delighted that she has chosen Netskope, and that we have chosen her, for this next phase of our journey.
From the worldwide team of Netskopers, welcome Kimberly!