Bernard Harguindeguy is now Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Richard Bird has been appointed Chief Customer Information Officer (CCIO). These senior leaders bring much knowledge expertise to the organisation, with strong backgrounds in the API security and identity and access management (IAM) industries.

Bernard Harguindeguy joined Ping in June 2018 through the acquisition of Elastic Beam, where he was the CEO and founder. Elastic Beam revolutionised the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to protect API infrastructures from cyber attacks, and deliver deep insight into API access and usage.

Since then, he has been serving as senior vice president of intelligence, driving market awareness to the economic benefits that APIs and digital transformation initiatives can bring to global businesses. Taking on the new role of CTO will allow him to continue this work, while also evolving the company’s technology strategy. Bernard will help drive overall product direction and innovation by offering world-class technologies to our customers. He has extensive experience in virtual data centers and security from his roles as CEO of Atlantis Computing, Greenborder and Worldtalk, and in identity management at Critical Path, where he was the EVP and GM of that business unit.

As Chief Customer Information Officer, Richard Bird is a welcome addition to the Ping family. As part of his new responsibilities, he will act as an advisor to the Ping Identity community and the global marketplace. His unique perspective will explore the most challenging identity and cyber security issues faced in today’s world.

He brings more than 20 years of corporate business, technology and security operations experience to the table. This includes serving as an executive director in the office of the CISO advisory practice at Optiv, the global head of identity and access management for JP Morgan Chase, and the chief information security officer for Mettler-Toledo. An author and frequent speaker on a broad range of cyber security topics, Richard is "widely recognised as an identity evangelist."

“The addition of Bernard Harguindeguy and Richard Bird underscores our unwavering focus on customer enablement and success. With their strong leadership and professional experiences, I believe we’re better positioned to deliver world-class intelligent identity security solutions. I’m excited to have their energy on our executive team,” shared Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity.