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I’m making a big jump, literally and figuratively. I’m starting June off on a new adventure as CFO of JumpCloud.
I’m excited about taking my experience with growth at scale in some innovative tech platforms innovating for consumers to one of the most innovative companies that is reimagining the directory as a complete platform for identity, access, and device management, and delivering value to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
You’re probably asking yourself, “Why JumpCloud?”
The answer is easy: people, process, and product.
People
Early in my career I learned the value of great people. Not only did great people make their companies better, but they also made me better. They made me learn and grow. They made work interesting, challenging, and fun. They became some of my best sounding boards and advisors as I navigated my roles and my career. They became some of my closest lifelong friends.
JumpCloud has brilliant people who are passionate about solving problems for our customers every day. The executive team brings a wealth of experience to the table and it shows in the company’s success and customer satisfaction. The experience and caliber of the board of directors are unparalleled. And I’ve only skimmed the surface of the great talent I’ll be able to partner with every day.
Process
I’ve spent years helping companies who are at that inflection point where they need a catalyst for growth at scale, and operational and financial efficiencies that create more time for strategy and value creation.
JumpCloud has built some great foundations for operational and finance processes and I see so much opportunity to take those foundations to the next level with my principles of scale centered around simplicity, standardization, data, and automation. I’m energized by the opportunity to continue to build and refine with the team and find ways to amplify and accelerate our processes to enable growth.
Product
At the risk of dating myself, when I started my career managing access and identities was a lot simpler. Your data was stored in massive machines that sat in a locked and temperature controlled room guarded by the company IT department. Your “device” was a beast of a machine that sat on a desk in a locked office guarded by badges and security professionals.
With few exceptions, you didn’t take a laptop home, because even if you had one, dial up internet was not practical for work and the VPN solutions were pretty few and far between. Cell phones were rare and were for making calls, not doing work. There were no iPads, tablets, watches, or other wearables, and the cloud was that fluffy white thing you watched float by in the sky.
Your biggest threat when it came to hackers was some 17 year-old wunderkind with too much technology and time who just wanted to hack into your stuff to prove to their friends they could do it.
Fast forward and your data is everywhere connected by a virtual network. Your employees work in your offices, in a co-working space, in an airport, in a Starbucks, and in their home offices around the world. They do their work on multiple devices, both personal and company issued, and they access platforms and systems hosted in numerous public and private clouds.
Your threats are now sophisticated criminals monetizing your data on the dark web and hostile governments using information for international dominance. You are trying to protect customers, suppliers, employees, and investors. It’s mind-boggling, not to mention downright hard, particularly if you’re an SME without an army of IT professionals. Managing identities, access, and devices is just plain hard.
If there is anything I’ve learned in the last five years in companies navigating growth, disruption, or change is that simplicity creates scale and operational efficiency that benefit companies at every stage of their life cycle. Platforms that create simple solutions to manage complexity will give your business a boost when it comes to scale.
Being able to manage multiple aspects from one simple user interface like JumpCloud will let you grow your business without growing the people or products to manage an ever-expanding body of identities and access points.
So what am I bringing to this game changing company?
Perspective and Passion
Having worked in everything from the original Silicon Valley “titans of tech” to startups, including some of the more notable high-growth tech “unicorns”, I bring years of perspective on building best in class finance, operational, and governance processes that have helped improve and transform companies, and navigate the ups and downs of the past two decades, no matter where they were in their organizational life cycle.
I bring perspectives on:
- Best in class finance process that can shift the time spent on operational activities to more high-value analysis that drives business strategy and stakeholder value
- High-quality governance that allows companies to meet the growing expectations of shareholders, boards, and regulators while still enabling customer-centric innovation and value delivery
- Decision-making strategies for leadership teams and their boards to navigate business strategy in good times and in times of change
- Building and developing talent globally
I couple these broad perspectives with my personal passions, including my passion for:
- Scaling companies by helping them develop world-class finance and operational processes so that we have more time to focus on value drivers for customers and business strategy
- Developing and growing teams and people through transparent, positive, and human-centric leadership
- Creating an environment of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging that helps companies thrive
I am so excited to be part of the journey . . . don’t be afraid to “jump” on board with me!
