After eight and a half years at Ping Identity, I am amazed to say that I’m moving on. I have had the privilege of working with incredibly talented people, from the CTO team to the product management team, to the entire field sales and technical corps.  I am so proud of what Ping has made in the last eight years and of the things that we have chosen to hold dear: quality software, long-term deep relationships with customers, and leadership in identity standards through practicing what we preach.  Also, serious costume parties 🤪

Some of my favorite PingIdentians

My other incredible windfall has been to meet brilliant and talented customer architects. They have taught me so much about the bigger picture, the reality that all the vision has to fit into, before it can resonate.

Last, I want to say something about the two people who were my direct superiors at Ping, Patrick Harding and Andre Durand.

Andre and Patrick (and costume parties)

Patrick and Andre took a chance on a relatively unknown Canadian identity geek, brought her onto the team and gave her support, autonomy, and opportunity.  I would not be the person I am without the mentorship and friendship of these two amazing people.  Thank you for believing in me.

Sometimes life surprises you – and I was recently surprised by an opportunity to really challenge myself in terms of growth and impact. So – onwards!  I am excited to say I am joining the Microsoft Identity team, working for Alex Simons as Director of Identity Standards. I can’t believe that I somehow get to work in the rarified air of this team, with some of the people I admire the most in Identity.  It took about 30 seconds of discussion with Alex to realize that this opportunity represented a chance to work with incredibly smart people, participate in complex problems that have to be solved at massive scale, and most importantly, to be able to advocate for standardized solutions to those problems, allowing for the whole industry to adopt secure patterns even if they don’t have the reach or resources of a company like Microsoft.

Anyone who knows me knows that getting to talk identity standards like OAuth & OpenID Connect all day every day is my idea of heaven; I can’t wait to see how the bits fit together for customers at the consumer and multi-tenant enterprise scale of MSFT.  What will the future hold for identity standards? I have a few strong opinions in this area, but there is a whole new world of perspective awaiting. I hope I can some part in defining that future, wherever we all end up.

Stay tuned, I hope to do a lot more writing here, now that I can really focus on driving industry conversation, and I can’t wait to work with everybody in my new role!

Wish me luck!

I will miss you all, stay in touch!