Okta appoints Alvina Antar as CIO

Alvina Antar has been appointed as CIO or chief information officer at Okta Inc. As an experienced IT leader, she will bring more than 20 years experience from high-performing organisations.

Antar formerly headed up subscription-management company Zuora, where she spent six years as the company’s first ever CIO, leading it through a successful IPO in 2018 and seeing its revenue grow from $30 million to $300 million. Prior to this, she spent 17 years at Dell focused on digital transformation, global delivery, and mergers and acquisitions.

At Okta, Antar will report directly to Hector Aguilar, president of technology.

Antar joins amid continued momentum, with the company having added around one thousand new clients since the start of the Covid-19 crisis as businesses turned to its cloud-based identity platform to bolster cybersecurity for remote workers.

Commenting on her new role, Antar said: “From my experience at leading technology organisations, I deeply understand the agility required to scale and the importance of enabling business transformation through disruptive technologies.

“As a long-time customer and partner, I’m thrilled to be joining Okta’s thriving culture and talented team to evolve Okta’s operating model into our next phase of growth.”

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The CIO role at Okta

Part of Antar’s role will involve delving deeper into the large quantity of data on how Okta’s customers use its platform to help generate insights and guide decision-making. She will also help with mergers and acquisitions, a familiar area from her tenure at Dell, by assisting with due diligence and evolving the company’s playbook for integrating acquisitions.

“Customer success is core to everything we do at Okta, and is more important than ever as we work to support our customers amidst the current health crisis,” said Aguilar.

“I believe Alvina’s passion, customer-centricity, and proven track record for success with high-performing IT organisations uniquely positions her to succeed in this role, and I’m excited for her to bring her expertise to Okta,” he added.

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Nick Ismail

Nick Ismail is a former editor for Information Age (from 2018 to 2022) before moving on to become Global Head of Brand Journalism at HCLTech. He has a particular interest in smart technologies, AI and...