CIO Classified

Carl Froggett, CIO at Deep Instinct, breaks down the AI-driven disruptions reshaping the cybersecurity landscape. From navigating complex security architectures to busting big data myths, Carl offers strategic advice for CIOs and CISOs on staying one step ahead in a rapidly evolving tech world.

About the Guest: 

Carl Froggett, CIO of Deep Instinct, brings nearly 30 years of experience to the role. Previously, as Head of Global Infrastructure Defense and CISO Cybersecurity Services at Citi, he led risk reduction efforts across devices and networks in 100+ countries. Now, he oversees Deep Instinct’s infrastructure growth, internal systems, security, and processes to support global expansion and strategic partnerships.

Timestamps:

*(08:10) - The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity

*(25:45) - Rising IT Spending and Persistent Breaches

*(28:00) - Challenges and Strategies for Modern CIOs and CISOs

*(32:10) - The Future of Cybersecurity and Deep Learning

Guest Highlights:

“It takes a level of leadership to say, ‘Hey, our investment over here has been great for the last 5, 6, 7, or 10 years, but that is no longer good enough. We need to replace, we need to reinvest, and we need to retrain.’”

“We need to be more aggressive on the front-foot as the defenders. Just protecting your endpoint is not enough—your endpoint's the last resort. If your endpoint fails, game over.”

“When opportunity knocks, you say, ‘Come on in.’ It doesn't matter if it’s a role that you were hired to do and it's outside of that role, say yes and get involved. More experience leads to you knowing more people.”

Get Connected:

• Carl Froggett on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carlfroggett
• Ian Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison

Resources:

• Learn more about Deep Instinct: www.deepinstinct.com
• Hungry for more tech talk? Check out these past episodes:
  • Ep 55 - Engineering Leadership for Scale, Agility, and Momentum
  • Ep 54 - AI Business Strategy for CIOs
  • Ep 53 - Business-First IT in the AI Era
• Learn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.com

Can’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. 

Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Jason LaFollette, CTO at Yext, shares his product-driven approach to leading agile teams, maintaining tech debt, and using a “top-down, bottom-up” style to keep productivity and momentum high.

About the Guest: 

Jason LaFollette is Yext's Chief of Technology. Jason joined the company in 2014 and built out the enterprise consulting side of the business before moving over to product engineering and technology. Prior to joining Yext, Jason was CEO and co-founder of Citrrus, a professional services company specializing in mobile app development and wearable devices, which Yext acquired as the company's first acquisition. 

Timestamps:

*(02:30) - Understanding Yext's Business Model

*(04:55) - Leadership and Team Management Strategies

*(14:20) - Scaling and Technical Debt Management

*(24:00) - Adopting New Technologies and AI

Guest Highlights:

“What I'm looking for is momentum with the teams, momentum with the people, momentum with the systems. If you get fixated on the tactical parts... It's a false sense that you're doing something great, but you’ll hit a ceiling quickly in terms of productivity.”

“We only want process when it accelerates us… Once we've proven that we know how to do it manually by keeping smart and talented people in the loop and making good situational decisions is our secret sauce to scale with a lot less pain.”

“If something is important to us, the company, or the management team and we aren't measuring and watching it, other people aren't going to value it either. I've come to adopt a mix of top-down and bottom-up leadership where we can't have all-of-one or all-of-the-other, or everything falls apart.”

Get Connected:

• Jason LaFollette on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlafollette
• Ian Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison

Resources:

• Learn more about Yext: www.yext.com
• Hungry for more tech talk? Check out these past episodes:
  • Ep 54 - AI Business Strategy for CIOs
  • Ep 53 - Business-First IT in the AI Era
  • Ep 52 - Empowering Citizen Developers and Reshaping Business with AI
• Learn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.com

Can’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. 

Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Naveen Zutshi, CIO at Databricks, shares his strategies for successful AI implementation. This must-listen episode is perfect for tech leaders wanting to learn how to craft an effective AI strategy, bridge gaps in tech teams, and drive innovation in your organization.

About the Guest: 

Naveen Zutshi is the CIO at Databricks, previously CIO at Palo Alto Networks where he managed analytics, applications, and infrastructure. Before that, he was SVP of Infrastructures & Ops at Gap and held roles at a SaaS startup and Cisco.

Timestamps:

*(04:40) - Cybersecurity and Data Privacy

*(20:00) - Ensuring Data Quality and AI Strategy

*(28:45) - Future Trends and Innovations in Tech

*(31:35) - Advice for CIOs 

Guest Highlights:

“There's a significant amount of pull from CEOs on the CIO to define the AI strategy for their company. As technology leaders… We have an opportunity to actually provide data and AI strategy, and then help influence that strategy towards ultimate business goals.”

“Often, we want to move quickly into the AI world but then realize our data set is in bad shape… First and foremost, you need a clear data strategy and you need to execute on the strategy.”

“Having business and users buy-in is key — making sure that you are solving for the right problem rather than looking for a problem because you now have a solution.”

Get Connected:

• Naveen Zutshi on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nzutshi
• Ian Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison

Resources:

• Learn more about Databricks: www.databricks.com
• Read Naveen’s AI insights and more on Forbes: https://bit.ly/4frJ93t
• Learn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.com

Can’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. 

Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Cisco Sanchez, SVP and CIO at Qualcomm, shares his business-first philosophy to technology cultivated over 25 years of IT experience. Sanchez emphasizes the importance of IT professionals loving both technology and the business, creating roadmaps that align with business goals, and utilizing frameworks like Charlie Feld's approach. 

About the Guest:

Cisco Sanchez is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Qualcomm Incorporated. As the leader of Qualcomm’s global IT organization, Cisco is responsible for leading the strategic direction for IT infrastructure, Information Security & Risk Management, Cyber Resiliency, Enterprise Applications, and End User Productivity solutions. Cisco is also responsible for driving large scale Pre-Silicon, Post Silicon and Enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives improving Qualcomm’s agility, leverage, efficiency and security. He collaborates with the executive and business unit leadership and focuses on enabling forward-looking innovative technology solutions to achieve Qualcomm’s vision and deliver strategic value.

Guest Highlight:

"We love technology. I love technology. I'm a developer, but we should also love the business and understand it thoroughly. So when I first came in, my goal was to not make drastic changes, but understand the business to the best ability possible. I use a framework that looks at the models and try to understand, here's what the business does, here's how it does it, the technology underneath, here's how the enablement activity works. And I think by doing that, it gives you a different, deeper perspective of how the business is interacting and what they do.”

Timestamps:

• *(03:30) - The Role of AI in Modern IT
• *(09:10) - Frameworks for Business-First IT
• *(17:50) - Selling the Vision
• *(18:50) - AI Innovations at Qualcomm
• *(23:30) - The Convergence of IoT and AI

Links & Resources:

• Ian Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison
• Cisco Sanchez on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ciscosanchez
• Learn more about Qualcomm: www.qualcomm.com
• Hungry for more tech talk? Check out these past episodes:
  • Ep 52 - Empowering Citizen Developers and Reshaping Business with AI
  • Ep 51 - Modernizing Legacy Systems with AI
  • Ep 50 - Powerful Partnerships That Push CIOs to the Next Level
• Learn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.com

Can’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. 

Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Carter Busse, CIO at Workato, explores how AI is reshaping business decisions and empowering citizen developers. With over 20 years of IT leadership experience, Carter shares real-world automation examples and advice on navigating point solution vendors, and also discusses orchestrating data across systems, democratizing automation, and future trends that will revolutionize the industry. 

About the Guest:

Carter Busse, CIO at Workato, is one of the leading innovators in IT/Business partnerships in automation. An accomplished IT executive, Carter brings a rich history in technology, including leading IT during three IPOs—Excite@Home, Salesforce.com, and MobileIron. Carter was hired by Marc Benioff personally as employee #70 at Salesforce. Over the years, he has developed a specialty in constructing highly effective, collaborative teams (90+), executing business strategies, and driving revenue growth while reducing operating costs. Carter is a sought-after advisor of IT leaders around the country, a Bay Area Orbie CIO Award winner, and listed on the Forbes CIO Next list of the top 50 CIOs in the United States.

Guest Highlight:

“Architecture is key. Very key. So, you set up the right infrastructure in a secure place to let people iterate in a safe place—that takes a lot of architecture. You don't want stuff being put into production that these guys built and break. Who gets the first call? It's IT.  So, I really feel like our role is changing from doing more building and more enabling and more architecture.”

Timestamps:

• *(00:00) - Impact of AI on business decisions
• *(04:15) - Empowering citizen developers
• *(07:20) - Real-world automation examples
• *(20:05) - Navigating point solution vendors
• *(23:35) - Democratizing automation with training and metrics
• *(31:15) - Future trends and CIO secrets

Links & Resources:

• Ian Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison
• Carter Busse on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carterbusse
• Learn more about Workato: www.workato.com
• Hungry for more tech talk? Check out these past episodes:
  • Ep 51 - Modernizing Legacy Systems with AI
  • Ep 50 - Powerful Partnerships That Push CIOs to the Next Level
  • Ep 49 - Investment Priorities for the Transformative CIO
• Learn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.com

Can’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. 

Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

In this episode, Sheila Anderson, CIO at Aflac, discusses how the company is using AI to modernize while handling legacy systems. Sheila highlights key initiatives such as digital claims processing, establishing an AI center of excellence, and transforming internal operations.

About the Guest:

Shelia Anderson is an information technology executive with extensive Fortune 100 CIO, services, and consulting experience, particularly in Financial Services and Insurance. Partnering with C-level stakeholders, she drives business change and digitally enables organizations through multi-million dollar technology strategies, agile development, and support initiatives for applications and infrastructure. She is well-versed in a range of technologies, from legacy systems to cloud, AI, and LLMs, focusing on maturing organizations through cloud migration, agile transformation, and digital enablement. With a significant passion and proven results in mentoring and developing talent in STEM, supporting women in technology, and building exceptional teams, Shelia has demonstrated organizational leadership over 2000+ employees across multiple global locations and managed budgets exceeding $600 million.

Guest Highlights:

“[When it comes to AI] start with your business. Simple, really. Understand your business, your business challenges, and your business opportunities. Always start with ‘why’ and anything that you deliver from there, the closer you can tie the work that you're doing to the business value, the more successful both you and your company will be at the end of the day.”

Timestamps:

*(01:40) - Aflac’s AI Journey

*(03:55) - AI at Scale: Transforming Aflac

*(09:00) - Building Automation and Innovation into Culture 

*(26:15) - Leadership Insights and Advice

*(31:15) - Future Trends and Strategies

Links & Resources:

• Ian Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaison
• Shelia Anderson on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sheliaanderson
• Learn more about Aflac's services: www.aflac.com
• Check out the My Special Aflac Duck®: myduck.sproutel.com
• Hungry for more tech talk? Check out these past episodes:
  • Ep 50 - Powerful Partnerships That Push CIOs to the Next Level
  • Ep 49 - Investment Priorities for the Transformative CIO
  • Ep 48 - The Future of Employee Experience
• Learn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.com

Can’t get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. 

Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

Just like the role of the CIO has transitioned from a back-office data manager to a business enabler, how CIOs build and maintain internal and external partnerships has also greatly evolved. In this episode, Madlin Sadler, COO of the International Rescue Committee, and Colleen Berube, CIO and SVP of Operations at Zendesk, draw insights from their own collaboration to talk about the many ways partnerships can be powerful—from bringing in new perspectives to providing resources and solutions—as well as share their advice on building strategic partnerships for today's CIO.

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Quotes

“The need to have great partnerships with people who are helping us push our thinking has been more critical than ever… particularly for us, meaning that we transform and innovate in a way that I don't think we could if we didn't know what was out there and what the world was capable of achieving with us. Partnerships for us are really pushing us to the next level.” - Madlin Sadler, COO of the International Rescue Committee

“Part of the value that you can bring as a technology leader is really not about the technology at all—it's about having the visibility to see what's happening in different parts of the business, and you can bring those things together and influence different thinking by looking more holistically at what could be happening in the company.” - Colleen Berube, CIO and SVP of Operations, Zendesk

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Time Stamps:

* (1:46) Meet Madlin and Colleen, and learn about their roles

* (6:38) How the role of CIO has evolved to include operations

* (11:21) Emphasizing productivity in the hybrid workplace

* (16:46) Why internal and external partnerships are important for success 

* (23:27) Secrets every CIO and exec should know

* (24:53) Madlin and Colleen ask each other questions

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Sponsor

This podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.

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Links

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Madlin on LinkedIn
• Connect with Colleen on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the International Rescue Committee
• Learn more about Zendesk
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Spending money is easy when investment opportunities are everywhere, but it’s harder to predict if something is worth the cost. In this episode, IT leaders from the public and private sectors tell us about the times their investments paid off—from new technology to the employee experience. You’ll hear advice from Tim Chester, VP of IT and CIO at the University of Georgia, and Carrie Rasmussen, CIO at Ceridian, on how to keep pace with the increasing demand for digital transformation, and much more.

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Quotes

“Frankly, it’s time to invest… AI machine learning and science hires are key, and we're investing in our high-performance computing to support faculty in those important fields.” - Tim Chester, VP of IT, CIO, at the University of Georgia

“We do have to put certain initiatives on the back burner, but more importantly, we are being asked how do we take inefficiencies and repurpose them so that it's not a budget cut, but a reallocation of funds through proper harvesting.” - Carrie Rasmussen, CIO at Ceridian

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Time Stamps:

* (1:46) Meet Tim and Carrie, and learn about their roles

* (5:35) How to priortize spending and when to reallocate funds

* (20:54) Peer leadership advice for discussing budgets

* (23:32) Investing in human capital with DEI efforts

* (35:40) Tim and Carrie ask each other questions

* (35:40) Secrets every CIO should know

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Sponsor

This podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.

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Links

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Tim on LinkedIn
• Connect with Carrie on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the University of Georgia
• Learn more about Ceridian
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

The competition to attract and retain talent remains fierce, and today’s leading CIOs understand that creating an employee experience model should be just as high of a priority as technology and innovation. In this episode, we’ve compiled advice from CIOs and technology leaders who are creating employee-centric cultures at their companies, and examine strategies used by successful organizations—from VMware to the Boston Red Sox—that keep employees engaged, productive, and happy.

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Quotes

“The key is to offload work that doesn't require synchronous co-creation to the machine. Find ways to make that work readable, visible, doable, and extensible by the machine.” - Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO, Nutanix 

“You need to have a defined workflow that is the map of how work gets done across the organizations. Then, have some monitoring on them to make sure that you're continually reflecting and speeding yourselves up.” - Alex Hood, CPO, Asana

“We've done a few things to mix it up a bit in town halls. For example, we've had people on the team kick off the meeting. We've had some people singing—some people play the guitar. We've even had some people singing and playing guitar at the same time. We always try to mix it up and have something interesting upfront.” - David Vidoni, VP of IT, Pegasystems 

“There's a tendency to throw human capital at problems. We're looking at ways where we can bring a lot more automation and hopefully, a lot more efficiency to how their particular jobs operate. This way, people can be better informed and able to leverage data that they've never had before—really make decisions that otherwise were historically time-consuming.” - Brian Shield, SVP and CTO, Boston Redsox.

“If we can fundamentally change the culture and get into a place where people feel genuinely and sincerely delighted, surprised, and amazed by the experience of using technology, they will be more productive. They will feel good about who they work with and what they're doing.” - Jason Conyard, SVP and CIO, VMWare

“We've been really focused on the onboarding experience because so many people boarded during the pandemic. We've been trying to keep our game up by making it very simple and seamless, especially when you're doing it from a remote perspective.” - Ginna Raahauge, EVP and CIO, Zayo Group

“We get employees involved in the decision-making process. We want them to have a say in which tool, vendor, and features they like… We believe technology is now a utility and everybody needs to participate in the decision-making process.” - Prasad Ramakrishnan, SVP of IT and CIO, Freshworks

“We can't just assume people coming in know how to be a technologist, or know the basics of tackling technology. We have to create a great employee experience before they start, the day they start, and all the way through.” - Carter Busse, CIO, Workato

“Continuously learning about new technologies or new ways of working… that creates a resilient culture by default.” - Apratim Purakayastha, CTO, SkillSoft and SumTotal

“If your team is happy and productive, that customer experience will resonate and other people in the organization will look to IT to help solve their problems rather than a potential blocker to getting things done.” - Johan Dowdy, Global Head of IT, Asana

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Time Stamps:

* (1:45) Why it’s important to create less work about work

* (8:05) Creative solutions to increase employee engagement

* (11:50) Ideas for optimizing the employee onboarding process

* (16:57) How to make employees feel like their voices are heard

* (21:36) How to build resilience into the workplace culture 

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Sponsor

This podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.

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Links

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Key partnerships between CIOs and their internal departments are evolving rapidly, creating new ways of working and opening up new revenue streams. In this episode, we talk to Adam Glick, CISO at SimpliSafe, and Marc Linster, CTO at EDB, about where they see relationships with CIOs going in the future and ask them their secrets for success when it comes to cloud infrastructure, data security, and more. 

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Quotes

“Where you're going to see a big separation between organizations is how they're wielding technology, so the CIO has a really large task. They're most successful when they're thinking about the needs of the business and the employee experience.” - Adam Glick, CISO, SimpliSafe

“I see more and more the CIO becoming a facilitator of information. Yes, IT has to be managed in the right way securely, but it has to be accessible – it has to be usable.” - Marc Linster, CTO, EDB

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Time Stamps:

* (1:47) Meet our guests, Marc & Adam

* (6:40) How to strategize for creating cloud infrastructure 

* (9:30) Cloud security best practices for CIOs

* (14:15) The CIOs role in strengthening data security

* (18:35) How CIOs can help CTOs turn volumes of data into actionable insights

* (20:42) What does the future role of the CIO look like?

* (23:25) Working with other departments to improve the employee experience

* (29:51)  Projects on the horizon for EDB and SimpliSafe

* (33:06) Marc and Adam ask each other questions

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Sponsor

This podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.

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Links

• Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
• Connect with Marc on LinkedIn
• Learn more about SimpliSafe
• Learn more about EDB