Tiffany Henry, Director, GTM VM-Series

Since you’ve been with Palo Alto Networks, how have the company’s values shown up in your day-to-day experience, or for you personally?

That was one of the first questions I asked when I interviewed with each employee on my interview panel at Palo Alto Networks about 6 months ago. Each individual shared a personal story of how the company showed up and supported them during moments that truly mattered. These moments varied from the level of support and integrity the company displayed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to Palo Alto Networks’ commitment to its people and professional development. This showed me there is a true emphasis on investing and supporting the employees at PANW.

You take that feedback at face value during the interview process and hope that similar sentiments are pervasive throughout the organization. In my short 6 months, I experienced and witnessed 2 unique moments where values were lived through actions and not just spoken words.

As many parents and caregivers have experienced throughout the pandemic, the juggle between caring for children and delivering against expectations has shown up every day. Within my first 3 months, there were 2 instances where our youngest son needed to quarantine at home due to a COVID-19 outbreak in his classroom. I was concerned with being viewed as inaccessible or distracted, but this was not the case at all. I was met with empathy, flexibility, and trust in my execution. I was reassured that being present for our son was the priority and in turn that enabled me to show up and be present for my family when they needed me the most.

Additionally, as a US Navy Veteran,I have a passion for serving our military community. In support of PRIDE month, the VetsNet and LGBTQIA+ employee groups came together to support Modern Military, which is a national organization focused on supporting LGBTQIA military, veterans, and family members.

We completed a virtual volunteer event creating “Child Comfort Boxes” for children of LGBTQIA+ service members or children who identified as LGBTQIA+or Transgender. It was an amazing event that created a safe space to share experiences, become more educated on this community, and create new support systems – all while giving back!

As I reflect on these two moments, I can’t help but be proud to be a part of the Palo Alto Networks family where #inclusion sits within our core values and shows up uniquely for its employees each and every day.

Maggie Ballard, Intern Public Relations

Palo Alto Networks’ interns explain how they are equipped and ready to change the world in the #DisruptingYourFuture campaign.

Here at Palo Alto Networks, we are on a mission to disrupt the cybersecurity status quo and ensure that every day is more secure than the last. As our organization continues to configure solutions for our world’s toughest security problems and reimagine the workplace with initiatives like FLEXWORK, there seems to be no group more excited to disrupt the future than Palo Alto Networks’ interns.

The #DisruptingYourFuture campaign aims to showcase this generation of young adults and how they are focusing on challenging the status quo, both in the workplace and in the world. With the chaos of COVID-19, calls for social justice reform, and the evolution of technology, this generation is beginning their careers in a time like never before. As they continue to stand-tall in the face of adversity, those who are early-in-career are eager to make a difference.

Throughout this campaign, many of the 202 Palo Alto Networks’ interns were asked to think critically about how resilience has played a role in securing an internship at Palo Alto Networks, how they have handled remote work and stayed motivated, and most pertinent to our core value of disruption: “How do you foresee yourself and this generation disrupting the future?” 

Hear from a few of our interns below:

“This generation hasn’t been afraid of speaking out about issues from toxic work cultures to systemic racism and I don’t see that changing. If there’s a better way to do things for everyone, I think this generation will have the opportunity and motivation to try to do better.”

Kelsey Henson, Software Engineering Intern, Georgia Tech

“Inequality and injustice have long been able to exist in the structure of our society, and myself and this generation are taking a stand against them. We’re taking a stand against all forms of hate and breaking down barriers. We’re the generation that grew up with the most interconnected world and we recognize our responsibility to make it better.”

Christian Brake, Customer Success Engineering Intern, Eastern Michigan University

“In the future, I hope to be a part of the creation of software products to protect businesses, organizations, schools and even governments that will safeguard the digital future. I want to be involved in creating a safe environment for the digital world to grow.”

Yamini Mathur, Software Engineering Intern, Iowa State University

“Our generation has more resources than ever and is on the rise. We’ve been through difficulties but we are ambitious and resilient. With that, we can disrupt the future.”

Yanan Lin, Prisma Access Intern, University of Southern California

Getting the opportunity to work at Palo Alto Networks, an organization that holds disruption as a core value, interns are able to gain hands-on experience on how to truly make our world a better, safer place. Navigating a new normal is not easy — especially as one begins their career — but with a launchpad like Palo Alto Networks, the sky’s the limit. 

To find more on the #DisruptingYourFuture campaign, follow us on social media:

Instagram and Facebook @lifeatpaloaltonetworks

Twitter @wehireleaders

Interested in learning more about our internship and early career opportunities? Visit our Early in Career Site.

Patty Hatter, SVP Global Customer Services

Originally published on: https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/blogs/celebrating-latinx-heritage-month-meet-patty-hatter/ba-p/351312

1. Q: What does inclusion and diversity mean to you? 

A: Across Palo Alto Networks, inclusion and diversity is a key focus for all of us, especially in our hiring practices. We’re welcoming many diverse folks with a variety of backgrounds—including age, gender, gender expression and identity, race, and cultural background. On a global scale, we’re broadening the portfolio of what we offer to an expanding market and to our customers. That means we need to broaden our teams to be more reflective of our immensely diverse customers in how we’re approaching and solving their cybersecurity needs. It’s all about what we can bring to the table to meet them where they are and to get them where they need to be.

With the exceptional growth that this company is experiencing, we have an opportunity to make a huge difference with regard to inclusion and diversity in the cybersecurity market. Clearly, if we approach the same old things with the same old mindsets we’ll end up with the same results we got in the past. The market needs to move and the company needs to move. The opportunity is right in front of us.

From an inclusion perspective, it’s about getting everybody to understand the different biases or lenses that they look at things and to be more conscious of opening their perspective of how they see, relate, or react to people. We need to strive for active, inclusive collaboration and make sure everybody feels respected and heard when they express themselves. I want a company where everybody recognizes the value of inclusion and diversity because they feel it in their lives—in and out of the workplace. Who wouldn’t?

2. Q: How has diversity in the workplace impacted your way of thinking and leading?

A: For me, the more experience I’ve gotten the more I’ve learned that it’s great to be different. You don’t have to try and fit in, just be yourself. That brings uniqueness to the table. The more you adopt that behavior for yourself, the more you’re going to understand and accept the uniqueness of others. You learn to seek out people with different opinions because that’s where the really unique ideas and “a-ha!” moments are going to come, whether it’s from a business perspective inside the company or community perspective outside of the company. I find myself seeking out folks that are bringing those different ideas to the table because that’s where the bigger impact will be. Different is definitely better!

3. Q: What made you want to become the Executive Sponsor, for Juntos, the Latinx Employee Network Group at Palo Alto Networks?

A: In my own experience, two of my best friends are Hispanic. Through the years I’ve had the pleasure of being around their families quite a bit and forging meaningful and loving bonds. When my mom passed away a few years ago, I got very close with both of their moms—sharing stories, both joyful and sad, and looking to them for motherly advice. To this day, I continue to confide in both of them. I believe that you can pick your own family, and with both of my best friends and their families, we’ve all self-selected each other. Growing up, my friends both had very interesting backgrounds and life experiences. I was raised in Western Pennsylvania, and though my early experiences were not like theirs, I’ve grown to understand and have compassion for what they’ve gone through. Across many deeply engaging conversations, I’ve come to learn of their family experiences and tragedies and truly understand their point of view. Their life experiences. Since I’d developed a close relationship with a strong sense of caring for them — I realized that their painful experiences could have happened to any of us. What would we do? What would I do? And, most importantly; How do I help make sure they never have to go through something like that again? The point is that our relationship is a safe place where we can bring our full selves based on trust and compassion. Being able to see them, I could see myself in them and all the ways that we are interconnected. It leads me to this thought: I might be technically German, but inside I’m a Latina, given who I associate myself with.

4. Q: What values do you believe inclusion and diversity has brought and will continue to bring to Palo Alto Networks?

A: Hopefully it will enable us to collaborate even more. The more we get in our heads of opening up who we are talking to, the types of folks, and their backgrounds, that will get us thinking more from a collaborative and bigger picture perspective. To me, there is such a tie into how we need to evolve our business to not just be one product. We don’t just want one type of person with one background, from one community in this organization. It needs to be much more broad than that. We need to think of how we can actively collaborate and make sure everybody feels like they’re being respected and that they’re being heard when they have something to contribute.

When it comes to the timing and discussion around inclusion and diversity, first off it’s the right thing to do, but to me there is such a tie to the growth of our business, that hopefully, people see both sides of that. We have to open up the opportunity for everyone coming from every corner of the world. Getting us to collaborate differently is just so important as we grow from one product company to a much broader platform company. To me, it’s such a metaphor for what we have to do.

5. Q: What is your vision for the future of inclusion and diversity at Palo Alto Networks?

A: I want a company where everybody feels the importance of inclusion and diversity because they feel it in their lives and they feel it in the workplace, that this focus helps drive better results. The more we can shift perceptions in the workplace, of why being inclusive and bringing diverse opinions to the table is good for us as a company, I think that helps broaden perceptions in our communities. It gives us the patience, willingness, and desire to listen to different perspectives, which are needed right now. Maybe, if we can start that here at Palo Alto Networks—do our part in our corner of the world—by exploring different ideas and experiences with every decision, we can add significant richness to our employees’ lives and help them feel more empowered and engaged.

In 1843, a boat containing a 14-year-old Japanese fisherman named Manjiro became America’s first Asian immigrant. Manjiro and his crew were caught in a violent storm during a routine fishing trip. The little boat was carried out to sea, eventually washing up on a desert island some 300 miles away from Manjiro’s coastal Japanese village. 

After Manjiro and the crew spent nearly five months on the island, an American whaling ship finally arrived at the island and rescued them, which is how the Japanese boy became the first Japanese immigrant in America. Manjiro was eventually adopted by American Captain William Whitfield, and he went on to not only become a samurai, but also a political emissary between his home country and the West. 

Since Manjiro first stepped foot on American soil, the journeys of Asians and Pacific Islanders have been synonymous with America’s journey. They have included Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii to work the sugarcane fields, and the Chinese laborers who, in May 1869, were integral in building the First Transcontinental Railroad. They’ve included activists such as Larry Itliong, a Filipino activist who was instrumental in creating the United Farm Workers, as well as an array of artists and writers who have produced some of the greatest works of art and literature, ranging from The Ramayana to The Joy Luck Club, as well as fashion icon Vera Wang and the architect behind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Gallery of Art. They include Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese immigrant whose persistence laid the groundwork for landmark legislation on birthright citizenship. And they include technological pioneers who conceived such revolutionary ideas as Yahoo!, YouTube, and the USB.

In fact, Asian and Pacific Islanders’ cultures are inextricably woven into the fabric of American life. As President Ronald Reagan once said, “In a variety of fields that span the spectrum of human endeavor — including art, dance, agriculture, the sciences, medicine, commerce, government, and philosophy — Asian and Pacific Americans have made outstanding contributions to the cultural and technological development of their adopted Nation.”

Palo Alto Networks also benefits from the tremendous contributions of many Asian and Pacific Americans, whose career journeys are a vital part of the story of our company. 

They include Hien La, who escaped Communist Vietnam in a small fishing boat with his siblings and cousins, eventually making his way to America, where his determination to teach himself to fix computers helped him to begin a career in asset management. Today, he is Palo Alto Networks’ IT Asset Management Specialist at headquarters. 

They include Bobo Yu, a first-generation Chinese American who took STEM courses in college as a default because she was a stereotypical “good-at-math” Asian student who wasn’t confident to speak in public. As a woman in engineering, Bobo earned an internship in Hawaii with the U.S. Coast Guard and an opportunity to participate in a rotational leadership program while at her first job. After a sabbatical, during which she traveled through five continents, she returned to the U.S. and began working as a yoga teacher, enjoying this chance to practice what she needed and do what she loved. Eventually, she returned to technology and earned a Systems Engineer role with Palo Alto Networks, utilizing her engineering skills as well as the public speaking skills she developed and her talents for putting others at ease. 

They include Jerry Poon, who immigrated with his family from Hong Kong to Toronto, Canada, when he was only three. His family began their life in North America with almost no belongings of their own, finding discarded mattresses on which they could sleep. Jerry’s early love of computers led to him earning a degree in IT support services, working his way to Palo Alto Networks’ Sales team. Today, he works as a Sales Engineer for Channel Partners

They also include Yumei Peterson, Go To Market Strategic Program Manager. Born in Korea, Yumei moved with her family to New York City when she was just eight years old. After starting her career with a degree in education and experience operating a daycare center, Yumei took a risk and connected with a representative from HP at a career fair, indicating her interest in working in IT. The risk paid off. She eventually worked her way up through the organization by exceeding sales goals and joined Palo Alto Networks four years ago. Since coming here, she has earned three promotions, built enablement programs for the Inside Sales team, built the Sales Academy program in collaboration with the LEAP team for early-in-career graduates, and is now executing strategic initiatives for our WorldWide Shared Services organization. 

These are just a few of the many members of the Asian and Pacific Island American community whose backgrounds, experiences, and contributions we celebrate. 

By Daniel Do, Executive Researcher / Sourcer

Upon university graduation, I was so scared of entering Corporate America because I was different. I have had internships where I have heard and seen, a Director make fun of the way I talk and even mimic my mannerisms around the office. From that moment on, I was genuinely scared that I wasn’t going to be taken seriously in Corporate America because of my age, the way I sound, or because I identify as LGBTQIA, but this was definitely not the case at Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto Network’s vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before, starting with its people.

Since the moment I stepped foot into this organization, Palo Alto Networks has never once made me feel different but has actually made me feel empowered to celebrate my difference. This company has given me an opportunity to scale my career as an Executive Recruiting Researcher, partnering with our top-level executives to build their next-gen teams, while allowing me to overcome my preconceived fears of corporate America. But what I am most thankful for is the opportunity to co-lead our amazing LGBTQIA+ Employee Network Group. Through the work of the Employee Network Group, we are able to foster an inclusive and safe working environment for our employees, while also building ties to the community at large.

During covid, we partnered with the Open House Senior Center in San Francisco to create 20 covid-safe care packages, for LGBTQIA+ Seniors consisting of no-sew scarves, hats, and gloves. Our Employee Network Group also hosted a Family Planning Webinar to promote our inclusive adoption, fertility, and surrogacy benefits offered to our employees and families, including those of the same sex. To further promote an inclusive culture and equal rights, PANW has also declared its support for the #EqualityAct, a federal legislation that would provide the basic protections to LGBTQ people as are provided to other protected groups under federal law.

Through our work volunteering with the LGBTQIA community, inclusive company benefits, and declaring our support for the #EqualityAct, I am excited to share that for the second year in a row Palo Alto Networks has achieved 100% rating in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2021 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) and achieved designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality. Palo Alto Networks is taking its stand for equality and letting its employees know that they have our back. With our growing accomplishments year over year, I am excited to continue to help make PANW a “safer and more secure” environment for current and future LGBTQIA+ employees. 

Go Palo Alto Networks! 

The COVID-19 crisis has taught us many things we never expected to learn, but perhaps at the top of the list is resilience. We’ve learned to take unexpected challenges — and frequent disasters — in stride and come back swinging. Perhaps no segment of the world’s population has been more resilient than mothers. 

Achieving the elusive “work-life balance” has notoriously been a struggle for women, who often are expected to bear the brunt of the child care and domestic duties while maintaining their careers. And just as they were making big strides in the workplace, as research into the last year reveals, the pandemic came along and turned everything upside down.

Here at Palo Alto Networks, we realize that mothers bring a remarkable set of skills that make them invaluable in the workplace. Nothing about the pandemic has been easy, especially for mothers, who almost overnight had to change how and where they work, perhaps even their job titles and descriptions, while also becoming teachers, chefs, nurses, counselors, activity coordinators, and playmates. 

Here you’ll meet just a few of the mothers working at Palo Alto Networks’ and discover what helped, what didn’t, and what this year has taught them. 

What’s one thing Palo Alto Networks did during this time that made it easier to be a working mom?

Swati Bhosale, Principal UI Engineer

It takes a village to raise kids, and for me, that village is my employer. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) created a strong support system with a parents’ Slack channel and Connect Groups, providing a safe space to talk and help one another navigate this temporary normal. Being a mom of two kids, it was difficult for me to attend every Connect Group meeting, but when I did, just listening to other parents made me feel like I wasn’t alone and helped me become a better person/parent/employee by being more patient and empathetic toward everyone around me. These groups kept me strong and kept me going.

Sofia Dona, Manager, Safety and Security 

During the first company all-hands meeting of the pandemic, some executives had their babies or children either join them on their laps or playing in the background. Being a mom of two toddlers, it meant a lot to me to see that they wanted to normalize kids interrupting meetings and becoming our new coworkers. I really felt comforted and supported. 

Vickie Gladieux, Senior Cyber Transformation Leader

Palo Alto Networks cares about its employees and helped me truly excel, as a female worker, daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, volunteer, coach, mentor, and more. The people here are not just supporting women in the workplace; they are helping women thrive!  Equal opportunity, rewarding career roles, a strong learning environment, encouragement and support — it’s all here. The company also has exceptional leadership, challenging work assignments, and flexible schedules, which has further helped me grow my career.  As many know, maintaining a manageable work-life balance is not always easy. Palo Alto Networks supports me all the way.  I love it here. 

Bobo Yu, Systems Engineer 1 

Oftentimes, the role of motherhood doesn’t just stop just because the workday begins.  As I went into the lockdown, I took on the role of teacher, around-the-clock chef, mediator of sibling rivalry, and house cleaner, all while being a Systems Engineer in a new company, learning awesome new platforms, and configuring VPN for students who need access for remote learning! Life can be overwhelming at times. I was fortunate that everyone, from our CEO (Nikesh) to my director and my manager, echoed their support and understanding of the “new normal.” There is a culture within the team of everyone being so willing to help each other. Nikesh hosts roundtable discussions, just to check in on the employees on the field, and Liane (our CPO) put words into action by creating the FLEXWORK and FLEXLearn programs. I’m so grateful to be part of this family. 

What’s one way that being a mom has made you a better employee?

Dilruba Malik, SQA Manager

Being a mother, I became extremely efficient in multitasking and prioritizing the goals to execute in a timely manner. I developed a sense of maturity in decision-making, approaching human interactions with patience, and gaining empathy while driving team members with business urgency. I became more productive in generating results.

My two daughters are likely to learn and follow my examples. It motivates me to do well in both my career and family life. Motherhood has taught me how to balance, which is an essential component to being a better employee and people manager. My work energizes me to give my best to the family.

Soundarya Sivaramakrishnan, Senior Manager, SW Engineering

I’ve learned planning and executing efficiently! Managing both my children’s interests and activities while working as a software engineer for the most competitive cybersecurity company will not happen if I don’t plan my time efficiently. Working efficiently with the resources I have at hand makes me create wonders at home and at work.

As a mom, I have come to understand that each individual is different and special in their own ways, and there is a way to work with each of them. This makes it easier for me to work amicably with everyone. After all, I want to work in a happy environment! 

(Picture from an at-home volunteer project provided by Palo Alto Networks. We made a beehive using bee pollinator kits, it was so much fun!)

Can you share one funny or memorable story that illustrates your life as a pandemic mom?

Wailohia Woolsey, Sr. Mgr, Information Security Governance, Risk & Compliance

During a company all-hands meeting, the CEO was interrupted by his 5-year-old. I have never identified with him more than I did while witnessing that moment. There’s not one meeting that goes by without one of my kids interrupting to ask me a question. My kids have been introduced to most of my teammates, and they don’t hesitate to drop in on my Zooms to share how their distance learning day is going. The kids have also been participating in Ujima (our Black Employee Network) at home volunteer projects and Black to Yoga fitness classes The pandemic has brought work into the home, and we’ve all been doing the best we can to survive. But I can say one thing: The kids are fine! 

Sonal Sethia, Manager, Service Delivery   

The pandemic has challenged us working mothers to be our efficient best at multitasking, juggling between our jobs and caregiving multiple times through the day, working smarter to make more out of less time. 

Trust me, this is nothing short of an extreme sport. What is most important right now is that we sometimes lower our expectations, always keep our sense of humor, and hang up that SuperMom cape from time to time to recharge!   

My 5-year-old daughter, Kiara, loves to be in front of the camera. She is often found pressing herself against the glass on my office door, making funny faces, strutting around wearing her princess crown, and passing her special drawings through the door to “show to my friends from work.” 

Early into the pandemic, one bright morning, I was hosting an Executive Business Review for a very important customer. I woke up extra early to get organized, fed the kids their breakfast, gave them 100% charged iPads, and got them settled. Around 90 minutes into the call, with no interruptions, I was super proud of myself for figuring this out. Just then, out of nowhere, the sassy little diva walked in. She gestured her hand to her mouth and rubbed her belly with the other hand, then pretended to faint. As if I wasn’t mortified enough and before I could hit the mute button, she announced, “You know, people, she’s my mommy first! I NEED her to feed me right now.” Thankfully, the customer executive on the call came to my rescue. He burst out laughing and announced “Time for a PB&J break.”  This past year, my husband and I have had the pleasure of spending more time with our children — something that we will treasure forever. At times, when things get hard and stressful, the memories we have together as a family remind me of how lucky I am for the flexibility and support provided by Palo Alto Networks. 

Thank you to all you mamas out there: We see you and how hard you work. We celebrate you, we honor you, and we truly couldn’t do what we do without you. 

By Fadi Fadhil, Cybersecurity Strategist

As a child growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, I developed a passion for computers from watching the American movie WarGames. I thought, “That’s exactly what I want to do!” 

My family was not your average Iraqi family. I was born the same year Saddam Hussein took power, in 1979, and I knew nothing but war. But my parents, in their own way, were kind of rebels, starting when my dad married my mother, an exchange student from Jordan. My siblings and I were raised with their “free-thinking” mentality, which didn’t jive well with Saddam and his regime. The Ba’ath Party controlled everything, including what was on TV. In fact, VHS tapes containing western media content like news, talk shows, or even MTV were banned, like most other things. We grew up having our parents tell us, “What we talk about here at home, you are not to say in school,” because people were truly being executed for everything. There was nobody in Iraq who didn’t have a relative who had been executed. I know someone who had been jailed for talking about a dream he had to visit a neighboring country. People were dispensable, let alone their thoughts and dreams.

I learned English from American movies. Some people would put satellites on their rooftops and cover them with bedsheets so they couldn’t be detected by helicopters. I smuggled VHS tapes under my shirt and carried them home on my bike — I could have been executed for smuggling Hot Shot! Part Deux, in which they make fun of Saddam. 

When you reached a certain age in Iraq, you were supposed to sign a paper swearing allegiance to Saddam’s regime. If you didn’t, they would execute you, so of course, everyone lied and signed it. Sometimes the papers would be sent around at school, or government officials would come door to door in the neighborhood. When it came time for me to sign, I told the school, “I signed that in my neighborhood,” and when they came to our door at home I said, “I signed that at school.” I would not sell myself to the Ba’ath Party, and nobody knew I was getting away with it, not even my family. I got my college degree in computer engineering, then my master’s degree, and I hadn’t been caught. But on the day of my graduation for my master’s, at the ceremony, someone from the Ba’ath Party was doing spot checks. That’s how I got caught.

They put a bag over my head, to make a spectacle out of me, and I was taken to political prison to be executed. There was no trial in court or anything, I just got a number and waited to die. We called it the meat grinder. My family and I gave up hope for my survival.

But this was 2003, the year U.S. forces invaded Iraq. After two weeks in prison, on the morning of April 9, I awoke to silence. The guards were gone. American troops were in Firdos Square in Baghdad, toppling the statue of Saddam. This was my moment — I got a second shot at life. I escaped prison and began running, saw American tanks on the streets for the first time, found someone to give me a ride, and I made it home. Still today I can’t believe I was this fortunate.

A few weeks later, on a busy street in Baghdad, I came across American soldiers and their commander trying to communicate with the local people; they had no interpreter. Here, at this point, I was angry at the world from the injustice of it all, and I saw a way to thumb my nose at the regime. A U.S. soldier was yelling at a local Imam, or cleric, “Where is your power plant? America is trying to help you!” and the Imam was yelling in Arabic, “Don’t raise your voice, this is still my country!” 

Here was my chance. Drawing on the English I knew, I spoke my first English words ever to a foreigner: “Dude, I can help. I can translate.”

The soldier was shocked. “You speak English? Did you just call me dude?”

I quickly explained that I knew some English from movies and TV, and when he saw I could help, he immediately let the other Americans know, and they took me with them. 

I was fortunate to develop a good relationship with them. Although most translators working with the Americans covered their faces, to protect their identities, I saw that as having no integrity, so I never covered mine. But others like me were being executed one by one by the insurgency and the foreign Jihadists who came to Iraq seeking a “holy war against the crusaders.” One day I came home from the army base, and my dad showed me a threatening note that had been left at our house. “Don’t worry about the family,” he told me. “Just go. Do what you need to do.” 

That was the last time I saw my family for 10 years. I moved to the U.S. Army base, so they wouldn’t pay the price for my “calling,” and they moved to a safe house. Soon after that, our family home was bombed. 

In 2005, a production company came to the base to make a documentary about the invasion of Iraq, and when they learned my story and realized they needed a translator to help subtitle their film, they offered me the opportunity to come to New York. So with a special visa, only $700 in my pocket, and instructions from the military guys to “eat at Subway,” I came to New York. (Unfortunately, they never told me it was a sandwich shop, so for three days I starved because I kept going to the subway station looking for food!)

I eventually figured things out, and when my work in New York was through, I went to Fort Hood in Texas for reunification with the military unit I had worked with last. I also got to connect again with an Army colonel with whom I had worked as a personal interpreter back in Baghdad. He was originally from Minnesota, so after my six months of working with the unit were finished and he was preparing to retire, he said to me, “I’m about to start a new life as a civilian. You’re about to start a new life, too. Have you seen snow before?” 

I told him I hadn’t, and he said, “Well, there’s a football team there called the Vikings, and they’ll keep letting you down. We survived a roadside bomb. Let’s go survive Minneapolis.” So in 2006, I was given political asylum and followed the retired colonel to Minnesota, and was lucky enough to get my first job at Saint Paul school district working with computers: unboxing and imaging them for schools. In 2013, I officially became an American citizen. It was one of the happiest days of my life, similar to the day I got out of prison.

Before long, someone realized I had a master’s degree in computer systems networking and telecommunications, and I was given a promotion, and then another. I worked my way up to IT Services Manager for Saint Paul Public Schools, then to Director of IT Services Management at Minneapolis Public Schools, then to its Chief Information Officer (CIO). And in 2019, I became the CIO for the City of Minneapolis, where, in 2020, when Covid hit and the death of George Floyd sparked riots, I first worked with Palo Alto Networks to secure the city’s information infrastructure. I was so impressed with the company’s cybersecurity work and its impact that when a position came up at the end of the year, I applied and was eventually hired. 

I’ve never had a bad day since I came to America. Every morning, when I wake up, hear people speaking English, and see the snow falling outside, I realize I’m an American, and I’m safe. I feel gratitude every day for this. Although my mother passed away from cancer and I never got to see her again, I’m happy to say that my father, brother, and sisters all managed to escape Iraq, settling in Sweden and England. We are all safe. 

I don’t think people truly understand how fortunate we are to be Americans, or what many of us who have immigrated here have experienced. To explain what Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month means to me, I’ll share a story. The other day, I was in an Uber, and the driver was from Mexico. We got to talking about many things, particularly the corruption in the governments of our home countries. We had a conversation about how this doesn’t happen in America, and we started wondering what makes Americans different from people elsewhere in the world. 

Then we started thinking about this country’s history, all it has gone through to become what it is today, and eventually we came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as Americans. What makes this country special is that it is made up of people from everywhere — Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Africa… This month is important because it’s one way in which we can celebrate the contributions of every immigrant in helping to make America what it is today.

By Hien La, IT Asset Management Specialist

This May, which is Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month, marks an important anniversary for me. It was this month in 1975 when my home country of South Vietnam ceased to exist, and Vietnam became a unified country under Communist control. And it was in May of 1982 when I fled the communist regime, becoming a refugee. 

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, many people in democratic South Vietnam made plans to escape the grip of communism, which had made our living conditions unbearable, with starvation, loss of livelihood, and even re-education in camps where torture, starvation, and hard labor were common. To escape, I would become one of the thousands of Boat People who escaped by sea to freedom. 

Boat People

I was 16 years old when my sister and brother and I, along with several cousins, left Vũng Tàu in South Vietnam in a tiny, rickety, open fishing boat, with 44 other refugees. Our parents stayed behind because if you left your house for longer than a day, the government would confiscate it and the family, if they were not successful, would have nowhere to go. Leaving would give my siblings and me a chance at a better life. 

We had to escape at night, illegally, hiding in people’s homes until we reached the beach. Every person on the boat was supposed to bring a 20-liter can of either water or oil, for just over 20 cans each. But as we approached the beach, rumors reached us that the police were chasing us, so we all ran to the boat. 

In our rush, many of the escapees dropped their cans. As we began to sail for our destination, Malaysia, we realized that we only had 22 cans total, and 20 of them were oil. We only had two cans of water for 45 people on what was a 10-day journey by sea, and much of it had already been drunk. We began to ration our water by the spoonful; each person would get a teaspoon of water a day, just to keep our mouths wet. At first, we felt strong, but soon the seasickness came over us, and that made the lack of water worse. Our bodies began to deteriorate after several days at sea. At one point, I felt so thirsty that I tried to drink some of my cousin’s urine — it tasted terrible!

Pirates were the biggest concern for those sailing in the Gulf of Thailand, as they had been known to slaughter innocent people, so we took the long way to avoid them, meaning that our journey took 10 days instead of the three we’d expected. And we frequently saw ships that we hoped would save us, so we waved at 65 of them (yes, I counted personally), but only one saw us — it turned out to be from the U.S.S.R., one of communist Vietnam’s allies, so we had to turn away from the ship. But I also saw one of the most beautiful sights of my life during the two-week voyage. The sun was setting and a school of dolphins began racing our boat, jumping out of the water, almost close enough to touch. 

Our journey took place right before monsoon season, and we suffered a massive storm that tossed us around so much we had to wrap the boat in a fishing net to keep us from falling out. But we were so happy because it was raining; we used ponchos to collect water, so we had enough to drink until we reached land. 

Smoother Sailing

An army ship on the island directed us to the refugee camp in Malaysia, where we would find out where we’d end up next; only a few countries were accepting Vietnamese refugees. Because one of my brothers worked for the U.S. government before the war, we were allowed to go to the United States. In two and a half months, I transferred to a transitional camp for several months to learn some basic English and American culture, and then we were sent to Tucson, Arizona, where there was a family who was willing to take us in. After two months there, we received refugee aid money from the U.S. government, and my brother left Texas with his family and picked us up, and all of us relocated to Silicon Valley, California, where I have lived ever since. 

Because we didn’t have much money, we had to move every couple of years, but I was lucky to be able to attend a local city college, where I studied electrical engineering during the day. At night, I would work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. as a semiconductor tester. I also really loved music and wanted to learn how to make music. Of course, I really wanted a Macintosh computer for this, but I couldn’t afford that, so instead, I bought a cheap computer with one megabyte of memory and 40 megabytes of hard drive. But it broke all the time, so I had to learn how to fix it because I couldn’t afford to pay anyone else to do it. 

Because I had taught myself to fix my computer, I applied for a job at a company called Digital Equipment Corporation, or DEC. I told the hiring manager, “Just give me a one-week trial. If I don’t cut it, and if I can’t serve your computers appropriately, you don’t even have to pay me.” So he did. One of the site managers, Joe Dixon, was so happy with my work that years later after he’d left the company, he gave me an opportunity at his new company. After that, every couple of years, I was given opportunities to continue moving forward. I was officially granted U.S. citizenship in 1987, and I eventually grew in my career to become an Asset Management Specialist at Palo Alto Networks, where I have been very happy!

In the last couple of years, I have been frustrated, angry, and sad to see what’s happening at America’s borders, where immigrants have been refused entry, despite the horrific conditions in their homelands, and separated from their families, robbed of their dignity and basic human decency. I think about my difficult journey by boat, surviving dehydration and storms, and I think about the opportunities I’ve received that they are being deprived of. That’s why I’m so happy to see us celebrating Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month, because even when immigrants succeed as I have, we can’t forget the people we leave behind. I’m honored to be able to tell my story and look back to see that I have achieved success and am happy. We need to work to make this a country that celebrates its diversity so that others have the same opportunities that I had.

By Luiza Klaus, Corporate Systems Engineer II

With my bachelor’s degree in marketing and a couple years’ worth of professional experience in marketing and consumer relations, a position in sales seemed like a great fit. But for me, that all changed after one phone call. 

When I joined Palo Alto Networks in 2018, it was as a Business Development Representative (BDR). As part of this job, I needed to cold-call customers to talk about how our solutions could address their needs and bring value to their businesses. It’s a competitive role, which is a situation I thrive in, and I really enjoyed that job. In fact, I got so caught up in getting ahead and doing so well that within just a few months I was ready for the next challenge. 

I started thinking about career advancement, and the next logical step from BDR was a Corporate Sales Representative (CSR) position. Typically, if I encountered a potential corporate customer, I would then turn the business over to a CSR. So I decided that if I wanted to move ahead career-wise, it would be a good idea to start listening in on those calls. And one day I did.

On this particular call, the CSR worked with a Systems Engineer (SE) to talk to the customer. The CSR addressed the business aspects of the conversation, whereas the SE dealt in more technical terms. That SE would demonstrate the products and talk specifics about the technology involved in our products and how they could address the customer’s needs. During that call, the SE was explaining the details of a product I’d never heard about before. I grew excited about the product and the interactions they were having — the customer fully relied on the SE to explain its nuances. Unexpectedly, I felt more drawn to what the SE was doing. 

I decided I wanted to figure out a way to transition into an SE position. How could I make this happen? I remembered a prior experience with my previous employer, when I’d expressed interest in moving into a different role within the company. I was instantly met with negativity from my manager – I hadn’t been there long enough, I was needed in his department and not elsewhere, I had to earn my stripes before I moved to another department, etc. But I also believed that things happen for a reason, and I knew I had to at least try. Plus, if I was going to invest the time and effort into becoming an engineer, I should start as soon as possible. 

Fortunately, my manager at the time had always been helpful and approachable, and the culture has been one that is supportive of internal mobility. So I went for it! I explained to him that I was really interested in a Systems Engineer position, but that I’d earned a degree in marketing and had no real technical background. I asked for his thoughts on what it would take for me to make that transition. 

He responded just as I’d hoped. He was not only positive and supportive, but he encouraged me to talk to the SE manager about it. 

I reached out to the SE manager to ask what steps I should take to become an SE. He was happy to help by putting together a list of steps. That list, which he emailed me several weeks later, became my unofficial SE training program. I was becoming a guinea pig by trying something that had never been done before at Palo Alto Networks!

I completed all the steps in about seven months because I was so interested in what I was doing. I loved every bit of the process. When I wasn’t working in my BDR role or when I had any downtime at all, I was studying my SE materials or accomplishing a new phase of training. Every week, I met with the SE manager to update him on my progress and address any questions I had about the content. 

When I was finished, an SE role became available. I threw my hat in the ring, interviewed, and was thrilled to be offered the job in February 2019! Additionally, because of the success of the training program my former manager had developed for me, I was given the opportunity to share my feedback and work with him to create a standardized two-year Systems Engineering Academy, which recently became an official part of LEAP, the company’s early-in-career training program. 

Now that I’m in my current SE role, I know I absolutely made the right decision to pursue this career. This doesn’t even feel like work to me — I’m having so much fun with my customers and my team. This is everything I could have ever wanted, and although I am always looking forward to new challenges and ways to advance my skills, I know that I want to remain in the Systems Engineering realm no matter what. There’s truly nowhere else I could see myself than right here with Palo Alto Networks. 

What this experience has shown me is that it’s important to take that first step and ask for what you want. The worst that can happen is that someone tells you no — but at Palo Alto Networks, that’s unlikely to happen. I’ve seen other colleagues of mine make moves to other positions within the company in similar ways. As long as you are honest and have good intentions for your team and the company, the best approach is a direct one. I would also recommend really talking to people about what you’re interested in and asking lots of questions. Do your research to be sure this is really what you want, and to demonstrate that you’re willing to put in the work. If you do that, chances are great that you’ll end up where you’re meant to be.

By Prem Iyer, Vice President, Ecosystems – GSI

Malcolm X said, “Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” 

For many people, seeing George Floyd murdered by a police officer in the spring of 2020 was that inflection point — the moment when people were finally angry enough to bring about change. 

Born in Queens, New York, and raised just outside Washington, DC, I attended a magnet school in a low-income community where the majority of my peers were Black, Vietnamese, and Latinx. They were my community, and though I certainly can’t say I know what it’s like to live the Black experience, I saw it every day reflected in my closest friends. I saw how the treatment they received was different and usually worse, than that given to whites, me, or others. I saw enough of it to know early on that no one should be treated that way. So after the deaths in early 2020 of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, I was like many who felt so angry that I simply had to do something, to add my voice to the conversation. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”

In June 2020, I wrote an article on LinkedIn where I described the evidence of systemic racism in America and some ideas about how to recognize it and combat it. My colleagues at Palo Alto Networks saw that I am vocal and passionate about this issue, someone willing to talk about it and do something about it. So when the executive sponsor of Ujima, the company’s Black Employee Network Group (ENG), was asked to move into another ENG position, I was approached about taking on the role with Ujima, and I jumped at the chance. 

Being an executive sponsor would provide me with a platform to actually put my words into action. Writing an article in which I shared data, statistics and ideas for addressing racism is a small first step, but they’re just words without action. If, as a company, we were going to talk about being committed to diversity and inclusion, we have to walk the talk, and from this vantage point, I could help us to do that. 

I sat down with the outgoing executive sponsor, who had written his own thought piece, about the need for national police reform, as a former member of law enforcement and the U.S. military. Together, we worked to create a list of recommendations, drawn from the data and ideas we’d shared in writing, for what the company could start doing to make internal systemic changes. They included a stronger commitment to actively recruiting employees from the Black community, working harder to retain existing Black employees through mentorship and sponsorship, and implementing more rigorous unconscious bias and anti-discrimination training. Our thinking was, if only one person benefits from these efforts, it’s worth it, though we knew we could affect many more. 

As an executive sponsor for an ENG, I have a platform in which I can be part of the change I’m seeking. Palo Alto Networks is a leader in the cybersecurity industry, and there’s no reason we can’t be a leader in diversity efforts as well. But I also know and have seen that the Black community may feel they have to think small — they’re so used to encountering a ceiling on what’s possible. But there’s never been a better time, since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, to capitalize on people’s awareness and willingness to knock down that ceiling. 

In my role, I can help the ENG to think bigger, to take the existing paradigms, and suggest that we throw them out. I can help channel the energy and funnel it in a productive way toward actual progress within the organization. I can identify talented people in the Black community who are looking to grow within the company and introduce them to people who can help make that happen. I can share the input and stories I’m hearing with the executive team. I can offer guidance, and I can be a roadblock remover to keep us from hearing “no.” If we need money for an event, a connection to a particular speaker, a platform we want access to, or a message that needs to be conveyed across the organization, I can utilize my position in the company to help make those things happen — or to identify the folks who can.

I’m so proud to say that Palo Alto Networks isn’t just talking about diversity and inclusion but is actually doing a lot, too — both in facilitating important discussions of race and in demonstrating its commitment to equity. For example, Palo Alto Networks regularly has compensation reviewed by a third party and makes sure it isn’t paying employees differently based on gender or race.

Obviously, there’s much more to do, and I’m happy to play a small part in making that happen in my role as Ujima’s executive sponsor. But you don’t have to be in my position to make change happen. It can be hard to know where to start, but as Dr. King reminds us, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Speak up, add your voice to the conversation — that’s where change begins.