From Cyber Defense to COVID-19 Defense
One of Palo Alto Networks’ own is on the frontlines of the United States’ fight against coronavirus. Senior Director of IT Business Operations Steve Januario has been serving the nation’s military since 1997 and currently is Inspector General for the 195th Wing of the California Air National Guard, overseeing inspections for Cyber Defense, Intelligence, Space and Combat Communications. In a typical, non-pandemic year, this involves about one weekend a month of service, but there’s nothing typical about this year. When California Governor Gavin Newsom activated the Guard on March 23rd to assist in the state’s COVID-19 response, Steve said goodbye to his family (not to mention the new desk he’d purchased for working from home) and headed for the Sacramento area to bring his leadership skills to a new kind of battle.
While living in a hotel since March 24th, Steve has been performing his Palo Alto Networks duties in the morning and heading to an Army facility to work the long, daily swing shift as Battle Captain for the Guard, working with a team on an operations floor to oversee troop movement through California as part of the Guard’s four-fold COVID-19 response effort: working at area food bank facilities, providing logistical support for medical supply distribution, managing nursing stations, and operating homeless shelters.
“The Guard is doing a lot of great things,” Steve says. “We’ve packaged over 50 million meals at these food banks over the last several months, and we’ve been able to help communities in need throughout California.”
He credits the whole Palo Alto Networks IT Services team for its support while his time has been limited, especially as the unprecedented demands of getting the entire company transitioned to remote work were at their peak. He’s optimistic that California’s aggressive efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve will pay off. “People should feel assured that we have all the necessary equipment and food, and they should continue to stay home or follow safe social distancing and wear masks when going out,” he says. “This is something we’re taking very seriously… hopefully, we’ll start to see this taper off soon.”
Stay Ready
Laramie Mergerson, Majors Account Manager, Cortex
When I joined Palo Alto Networks, I honestly didn’t expect to stay longer than a year. But the opportunities that have been offered to me and the investments made in me by some of our current and former executives showed me that the people here valued my abilities and wanted me to succeed.
When I first started here, I was an inside sales rep, which was new to me after years selling in the field. I needed to learn about cybersecurity and master our products and market in order to move up. But my commitment to learning and taking on new responsibilities led to my being able to continually move up inside the company. That has inspired loyalty to the brand that has allowed me to see many different parts of the cybersecurity industry that I didn’t expect to encounter.
For example, I was given an opportunity to stretch my abilities and was the first employee to take on a special assignment with our current Vice President of Business Development, which revealed many different aspects of the business to me. After that, I was selected in the first cohort for a new hybrid position working with Palo Alto Networks’ Major and Global Accounts. After a very successful year in that role, I was promoted as the first sales rep covering Major Accounts in Texas for Cortex, our detection and response platform that utilizes collected data to stop cyber attacks. That’s a lot of firsts! These opportunities have not only given me a high level of work satisfaction, but they’ve shown me that there’s still plenty of room for me to grow and learn with this company.
Something else I’m really proud of and personally enjoy is having the opportunity to take some of my black customers to events that are tailored to their interests — many of which received a response and attendance rate of around 90%, which is almost unheard of in sales. To see the smiles and appreciation from my customers and watch our relationships grow over the years has been exciting and fulfilling. I look forward to nurturing these relationships for years to come.
Keys to Success
I ran a marketplace startup for a few years before coming to Palo Alto Networks. I believe it was this experience, more than any other prior role, that prepared me for working here. In fact, I’ve found that wearing different hats in order to achieve results has been a tremendous asset to me throughout my career because it has made me versatile and demonstrated my willingness to take on new responsibilities.
Additionally, I spent time in the military early in my career and played basketball at high levels. I believe both of these experiences have contributed to my success as well because they taught me about working with teams and having a “no excuses” mentality that is all about results, both of which are key to success in sales.
At the end of the day, I feel any experience can be valuable if you are always looking for opportunities to learn and challenge yourself. Some of the best advice I’ve ever received was to be ready when your number is called. You might only get one shot to prove yourself. The black community has a saying, which I fully believe: If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready. I’ve made it a priority to stay ready, and I believe that has helped me to achieve career success.