San Francisco, CA — November 4, 2016 — Okta, a leading provider of identity for the enterprise, announced today a key new hire: president of worldwide field operations, Charles Race. In this role, Race will help Okta as it scales operations globally.
An accomplished technology leader, Race spent over a decade at Informatica where he helped grow the company into a major player in enterprise technology, leading teams across sales, business development, services, customer support and international growth. Race will bring his talent and experience to Okta and lead Okta’s go-to-market teams internationally, reporting directly to Todd McKinnon, Okta CEO and cofounder.
“When we were thinking about the next strategic hire at Okta, we knew we wanted a skilled senior leader that would be dedicated to helping us build a foundational company, and had a proven track record of valuing customer success, transparency, and teamwork,” said McKinnon. “Charles is exactly the kind of colleague we want at Okta, and his knowledge and extensive experience across key parts of our business will be a great addition to our already unparalleled team.”
This news comes as Okta’s footprint is expanding, having opened new offices in two major markets in 2016, London and Bellevue, Washington, while growing its customer presence around the world. Okta also announced the opening of its San Jose, California office for March 2017. Additionally, the company is increasing its focus in the public sector, recently securing a contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, achieving HIPAA compliance and pursuing FedRAMP authorization under the sponsorship of the Department of Justice. Okta was also named a leader in Gartner’s 2016 “Magic Quadrant for Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS), Worldwide” for the third year in a row.
“I’m thrilled to join Okta, which has one of the most impressive leadership teams of seasoned executives from Salesforce, Microsoft, BMC, Apptio and Sun Microsystems,” said Charles Race, Okta’s new president of worldwide field operations. “From a technology perspective, there’s no other company doing the same kind of significant work in enterprise identity that equips companies of any size to enable true digital transformation. I’m excited to help extend Okta’s footprint globally and help the company achieve its vision to enable any company to adopt any technology."