Oktane, our annual conference is a chance to gather and spotlight the groundbreaking work our customers are doing in identity. This was my fourth Oktane and customer awards celebration, and one thing is clear, year after year, I continue to be inspired by the ingenuity and innovation from our customers. I am grateful to our hosts, Ed Daly and Erin Baudo Felter, and our many executives who helped us drive nominations, as well as our customers and the Okta Customer Awards program, where we recognize the companies and individuals who are redefining what's possible with Okta.
Join me in congratulating all of our nominees for their achievements this year. We continue to be blown away by the passion, innovation, and commitment you bring to your work. From enterprises transforming their security posture to technical leaders architecting innovative solutions, each nominee has demonstrated exceptional vision and execution in their identity initiatives. And this isn’t just from the customers, these submissions were made across our entire company, including customer success leaders, account teams, product leads and even marketers. The caliber of submissions we received continues to raise the bar.
This year's winners represent the very best of what can happen when organizations prioritize secure, seamless identity experiences – here are 10 innovators and trailblazers who are leading the way across identity, security, and AI.
1. Identity Champion: This award recognizes customers who go above and beyond to share how Okta supports their organizations.
Winner: Vialto, Owen Koch, Head of IAM Architecture
Owen Koch is a passionate and influential advocate for the role Identity and Access Management (IAM) plays in protecting employees, customers, and partners at Vialto. Under his leadership, the Vialto team has embraced the entire Okta Platform to safeguard sensitive data and mitigate threats.
2. Impact Maker: The winner of this award is a mission-driven organization that addresses some of society’s greatest issues and advocates for causes, often with significant resource constraints and restricted funding.
Winner: The Trevor Project, Allie Kintner, Information Security Program Manager
The Trevor Project — a nonprofit organization that provides life-saving crisis support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) young people — uses Okta to centralize and secure IAM, enhancing security and reducing costs. In her role as Information Security Program Manager, Allie Kintner leads the development of secure automations for millions of individual actions across hundreds of workflows throughout the organization, helping save The Trevor Project over $300,000 annually.
3. Technical Tactician: This award honors a visionary who is transforming application development by adopting the most innovative methodologies.
Winner: ServiceNow, Sandeep Kumar Noolu, Senior Software Engineer
Sandeep Kumar Noolu consistently drives improvements in both the employee and customer experience at ServiceNow. He played a pivotal role in two major initiatives in 2025: successfully upgrading to Okta Identity Engine (OIE) for a substantial number of external customers and leading the rollout and adoption of FastPass for ServiceNow’s employees. The OIE upgrade enabled more secure and seamless user experiences, while FastPass has significantly increased security and boosted efficiency for internal teams.
4. Values Champion: This award honors a customer who demonstrates outstanding commitment to driving forward community or sustainability initiatives.
Winner: Darling Ingredients, David Daniels, Director, Global Infrastructure Operations
David Daniels provides strategic leadership of IT infrastructure and IAM at Darling Ingredients. With Okta, Darling Ingredients has the secure, scalable, and efficient operations they need to deliver on their purpose: transforming millions of tons of material from the animal agriculture and food industries into valuable ingredients that nourish people, feed animals and crops, and fuel the world with renewable energy.
5. Security Visionary: This award honors an individual who is leveraging Identity as the foundation for their modern approach to security.
Winner: Thoughtworks, Nitin Raina, CISO
Nitin Raina prioritizes and evaluates conflicts across security, technology, and risk initiatives at Thoughtworks. He’s at the forefront of addressing emerging threats like AI-driven social engineering and deepfakes, emphasizing the importance of robust security measures as the first line of defense. Okta is a core part of his strategy to combat security threats.
6. Identity Innovator: This award recognizes an individual who is committed to driving change within their own organizations by leveraging new emerging technologies.
Winner: Netflix, Nishith Shah, Senior Security Engineer
Nishith Shah has spearheaded the expanding use of Okta as a foundational piece of Netflix’s maturing identity strategy. These projects include modernizing their device trust framework, integrating continuous in-session risk detections, and implementing an identity governance practice for high risk SaaS and SOX applications. Shah consistently unifies stakeholders across the business and partners with Okta Product to guide the development of stronger identity solutions.
7. Deployment Expert: This award recognizes customers who rapidly deployed our platform to thousands of employees, customers, or partners in weeks or even days, a testament to their dedication.
Winner: LinkedIn, Karan Gondara, Manager, Information Security - Identity
Karan Gondara led one of LinkedIn’s most impactful enterprise security transformations: delivering phishing-resistant, passwordless authentication to the company’s global workforce in a remarkably short timeframe. By combining strategic clarity, cross-functional alignment, and technical excellence, Gondara redefined what identity modernization can look like at scale. His efforts elevated LinkedIn’s security posture and set a new industry benchmark for usability-driven protection.
8. Business Value Driver: The winner of this award monitors the business value achieved with Okta and uses these findings to drive adoption and justify their technology investments.
Winner: Roblox, Bart Tissue, Principal Enterprise App Engineer
Bart Tissue led Roblox’s vision to create, maintain, and scale their automation program. By establishing more than 1 million Okta Workflows that execute daily, Bart’s efforts have helped save hundreds of hours each week. Combined with Okta Identity Governance, these Workflows continue to provide customized lifecycle management and advanced security automation, freeing up respective teams to focus on their core duties.
9. Customer Experience Connoisseur: This award goes to someone who is transforming the way their customers interact with their business to deliver an unparalleled customer experience.
Winner: Lululemon, Chris Hii, Senior Product Manager
For Lululemon, customer experience is paramount, and the company is pioneering the use of our Okta OCI product for passkeys to enable their guests to enjoy both a secure and exceptional experience. Chris Hii leads product management for the Lululemon guest app and website, prioritizing a seamless user experience, especially during registration and login.
10. AI Visionary: This award recognizes an individual who is pioneering the adoption and strategic application of artificial intelligence within their organization.
Winner: Zillow, Varun Raghavan, Director of Product
AI is a core part of Zillow’s pro-consumer approach to making the process of renting, buying, selling, and financing a home more equitable and transparent. Varun Raghavan focuses on driving AI impact at Zillow by following the company’s key principles: fairness, safety, and accountability. This helps ensure that Zillow’s AI models minimize bias, protect data privacy, and empower customers with useful information.
These winners represent the future of identity — one where security and user experience work hand in hand, innovation drives business outcomes, and thoughtful implementation creates lasting value. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's awards, and congratulations once again to our winners. Your work inspires us and the entire Okta community. We can't wait to see what you accomplish next.
