John Zissimos joins Okta as Chief Digital Officer
Okta welcomes industry veteran John Zissimos as its first Chief Digital Officer. Zissimos will report to Kendall Collins, Chief Marketing Officer, and will be responsible for the holistic creative, campaign, digital, and brand strategy for the company.
Zissimos joins Okta’s executive team with extensive brand and leadership expertise. He most recently served as Vice President of Creative, Brand, Media, and Customer Programs at Google and led the team responsible for marketing the Google Cloud Platform globally.
Prior to joining Google, Zissimos was Salesforce’s Chief Design Officer, where he worked closely with CEO Marc Benioff to reinvent the company’s brand and story, inspire a data-driven, design-led culture, and help drive tremendous growth. Zissimos’s experience also includes two decades as an award-winning advertising and design executive, film director, and photographer, with top creative positions at McCann Erickson and J. Walter Thompson.
“Okta has the incredible potential to become an iconic brand, and we are so excited to have John lead this effort and creatively influence our next phase of growth,” said Collins, Chief Marketing Officer. “The Okta Identity Cloud touches tens of millions of knowledge workers and customers every day and John has the ideal skill set to evolve Okta’s brand strategy and deliver the delightful digital experiences that our users have come to expect. Okta will benefit tremendously from John’s pedigree in building the most recognizable software brands in the world. His brand vision, award-winning creative expertise, and empathetic approach to leadership and culture are unmatched. We are thrilled to welcome him to the team.”
“Okta is a remarkable company and I was immediately drawn to the people, purpose, and product,” said Zissimos. “I’m a storyteller and teambuilder at heart and am humbled to play a role in telling the Okta story and leading the creative brand strategy in the next phase of the company’s journey. I’ve long admired the company’s culture, values, and effective method of empowering people and teams. In doing so, Okta has become the most trusted platform to secure every identity and I look forward to building on its strong brand foundation to create work that inspires and drives value for customers and workforces worldwide.”