(Bloomberg) — Okta Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Kendall Collins has left the company after less than a year in the role, one of the latest in a wave of high-level departures at the identity management software provider.
Chief Digital Officer John Zissimos, a former Google vice president, will replace Collins, who joined Okta last March as CMO, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Okta makes software that helps businesses verify the identities of employees and customers and connect them to corporate computer systems and websites. Shares more than doubled in 2020 as investors viewed the company as essential during the pandemic with the boom in remote work and online shopping. However, the stock fell 12% last year and has declined another 16% this year to $189.26 at 3:15 p.m. in New York.
Collins’ departure comes in the midst of other executive exits in the past year that span job functions from communications and marketing, to sales and product management.
Among those who left Okta are Chief Financial Officer Bill Losch; Hector Aguilar, president of technology; Ryan Carlson, who preceded Collins as CMO and was an executive vice president; Levent Besik, senior vice president of product management; Charles Race, president of worldwide field operations; Patrick McCue, senior vice president of worldwide partners; Lennard Fisher, senior vice president of demand generation; and vice president of corporate marketing Alyssa Smrekar, according to their respective LinkedIn profiles.
Some of those positions have been filled. For example, Okta promoted Brett Tighe to CFO in January. Others, like the post of senior vice president of North America sales, remain vacant.
“Okta has seen tremendous growth over the past year, including the acquisition of Auth0. As the company evolves and matures, we have brought in many new leaders to help carry forward Okta’s vision,” the company said in a statement.
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