In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards sits down with Donna Joyce, Public Sector Account Director at Okta (specialising in Auth0), to explore a career shaped by an unexpected beginning: elite three-day eventing.

Donna shares what it was really like working as a groom for an Olympic rider—6am starts, half a day off per week, and two years with no pay—and how that environment hard-wired principles she still relies on today: discipline, routine, resourcefulness, teamwork, and accountability. The stakes in that world were real, and “doing what you said you’d do” wasn’t a motivational quote… it was safety.

From there, the conversation moves into Donna’s work in identity and cybersecurity, including a simple, human explanation of what Okta does: helping people safely use any technology, anywhere—often invisibly behind the apps we use every day.

Donna also breaks down what’s different about selling into the UK public sector: longer buying cycles, heavy procurement constraints, shifting priorities, and a complex web of stakeholders. Finally, Mark and Donna discuss AI adoption in government—the tension between innovation and guardrails—and why identity becomes even more critical as AI tools and agentic systems spread.

They finish with a brilliant (and chaotic) corporate hospitality story: a Dell Euro Disney trip to Paris where the Eurostar allegedly had to stop to restock the bar before even leaving the UK.