A Note From Chad Gardner, VP Sales, North America

There are three key areas I assess when I’m looking to join an organization. Those three things are the product, the people, and my potential impact. Is the product – whether it’s hardware, software, or services – unique and innovative?

Does it solve a problem for the market that can truly have an impact? When it comes to the people – from C-suite leaders down to the in-the-grind employees –? are they passionate about the company, all aligned with the company’s values, focused on execution, and working with an urgency to not only achieve the company’s goals but to exceed them as well?? And – is it an organization where I can make an impact, and where I will be empowered to react to market dynamics to reach mutually agreed-upon success metrics?

After spending two tenures with Palo Alto Networks, I am excited to announce that I have joined SambaNova Systems as the Vice President of Sales for North America. Before touching on the details of? SambaNova Systems, I do want to take a moment to reflect on my great experience at Palo Alto Networks.?

Over my years at Palo Alto Networks, I held roles responsible for leading the Pacific Northwest Majors, building out and leading the SASE global sales teams and leading sales for West Majors.?Throughout this entire time, Palo Alto Networks consistently had the product, people and provided the opportunity to make an impact. When it comes to the innovation in the product, specifically around the SASE market which I focused on for several years, Palo Alto Networks brought thought leadership and continued to innovate as customers required more to solve the problems they are facing in the cybersecurity market.? The leadership throughout each of my tenures provided all the support required to be successful and the teams I had the opportunity to lead and work alongside outside of the immediate sales organizations such as product management, engineering, customer success, and customer support had a tremendous impact as we worked together to overcome many challenges and obstacles to achieve success. Finally, the empowerment the leadership provided me to adjust as needed even when it might have been against the status quo had a material impact on the results.? For all of this, I want to thank Palo Alto Networks and all of those who I had the opportunity to work with, some who are still with Palo Alto Networks and others who have taken the next steps on their own journey.

So one might ask why change? With all the activity and discussion in the market around AI, my curiosity got the best of me and I started to explore the market and different opportunities. After meeting Rodrigo Liang, CEO and Co-Founder of SambaNova Systems, some of the leadership team and other supporting team members, I found a whole new level of excitement and passion building. It quickly became very clear that SambaNova Systems could also provide the product, people, and opportunity to have a potential impact to drive me, yet it would be in a new space - AI.??

The product innovation surrounding the full-stack offering along with its Composition of Experts (CoE) model clearly addresses problems many are working to solve today and also strategizing to solve in the future. The people are all aligned with the company’s core values and are obsessed with working to bring the product to market in a scalable and successful way to exceed customers' expectations. The opportunity to have an impact is very clear as the organization is working towards building out the North American sales organization with a commitment to adjusting as needed with resources being applied as it makes sense.??

SambaNova Systems is clearly at a different stage than Palo Alto Networks but it does resemble many characteristics of Palo Alto Networks from 15 years ago. I am truly looking forward to the journey we are on to become a leader in the generative AI space.

You can contact Chad at [email protected] or connect with him on LinkedIn.