For the latest edition of Life @ Netskope, we sat down to chat with Guillermo Ubeda Sanz, Regional Marketing Manager for Iberia & Latin America. Guillermo has been with Netskope since 2018 and has only watched our presence in Latin America and Iberia grow since then! We chatted about how his path led him to Netskope, his first day, and what fulfills him most about his globe-spanning role. Here’s our conversation:
So what made you choose Netskope?
I was working at an IT distributer as a marketing manager when Netskope called me, and my daughter had just been born. It was a crazy time because we were managing a very high marketing budget with many manufacturers, and with a newborn at home, I was exhausted. When Netskope came to me, I was thankful because I knew that the next step in my career was to go from working with a distributor to working with a vendor. And what a vendor to join! Because Netskope is a startup, you get to do everything and help the company grow from the very beginning. When we started in Latin America, for example, it was just Alain Karioty, Daniel Junqueira, and myself. And now in LATAM, we now have over 30 people, so it’s really growing. At first, It was definitely a little difficult because change is always difficult, but I’m so glad I made the change, and I’m really happy with my growth after two years.
What was your first day like with Netskope?
It was super exciting, but I was also super nervous. I went to the UK, to Netskope’s office in London. On the first day, I had more than 30 pages of questions for my team. I did an analysis of everything about our marketing: email, marketing platforms, how many partners we had. And my team was very surprised! That day, Paul Hennin took me to The Shard, the tallest building in the UK, where we had a meeting with a partner. I remember that there were maybe 20 or 30 CISOs there. For the first question, our EMEA Sales Engineer Manager asked, “Please raise your hand, if you know what CASB means.” And hardly anyone raised their hand, it was at that moment I realized I had a lot of work to do in my region!
What is your favorite thing about Netskope and why?
I think it’s amazing to be part of this team and to be able to write the history of this company because we were here at the very beginning. Coming to Netskope, the most important thing for me was to be part of a team and to be able to see how you are helping the company grow. The entire Netskope team is so easy to work with, even when they are based super far away, we feel so close. An RSM from Mexico recently said to me, “Guillermo it’s super easy to work with you because even when you’re in Spain, and I am in Mexico, I feel very close to you.” That’s the most important thing for me, to be part of these projects, build these relationships with my team, and to help a company grow.
What’s one thing on your bucket list that you’d like to check off?
I would love to retire someday and continue living a happy life. I would like to buy a motorhome to travel and visit all of Europe with my family. I wouldn’t want to just spend a few days in each country, I want to spend a few months there! Then, whenever we get tired, we can move on to somewhere else.