Proven industry veteran joins Opal at a critical time as access governance and identity security become paramount with the explosion of AI agents and services
Opal Security, the modern access governance and identity security company trusted by the world’s leading innovators, announced the appointment of Howard Ting as Chief Executive Officer. Ting joins Opal Security following his highly successful tenure as CEO of Cyberhaven and brings more than two decades of experience scaling iconic cybersecurity and enterprise software companies.
Ting’s appointment comes as Opal Security’s customers rapidly adopt AI agents and AI-driven workflows, reshaping how they must govern access. This shift reflects an industry-wide pattern where managing access across both humans and machines is growing increasingly complex while identity-driven threats escalate. Opal Security’s unified approach to access governance and identity security has emerged as the essential platform for modern organizations facing this new reality. Ting’s leadership will accelerate Opal Security’s mission to help companies secure access intelligently, reduce risk, and empower teams with streamlined, least-privilege security.
“Identity has always been and will continue to be the dominant failure mode of every cybersecurity program, and Opal has built one of the most forward-leaning platforms in the industry,” said Ting. “The team’s focus on usability, automation, and deep security context uniquely positions Opal to solve the biggest challenge every enterprise faces as they rapidly adopt AI. I feel privileged to join Opal at such an important moment for both the company and the broader security community.”
Prior to Cyberhaven, Ting served in executive roles at Redis, Nutanix, and Palo Alto Networks, where he helped drive dramatic growth as these companies transformed their categories. His experience building global teams, scaling go-to-market operations, and leading product-driven organizations will help expand Opal Security’s reach and elevate the company’s execution.
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Founded in 2020, Opal Security provides enterprises with a unified control plane for access governance and identity security, centralizing visibility, automating access workflows, and enforcing intelligent, least-privilege controls for all identity types across complex environments. Opal Security is trusted by the world’s leading innovators, including Cloudflare, Databricks, Figma, Notion, Runway, and Scale AI, to modernize how they protect their systems and data. The company has raised $32 million in total funding from Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Box Group, and SVCI and is advised by industry luminaries such as Abnormal AI Founder & CEO Evan Reiser, Coinbase CSO Philip Martin, and Datadog CISO Emilio Escobar.
“Howard has a remarkable track record of scaling cybersecurity and enterprise infrastructure companies into category leaders and in multiple cases independent public companies,” said Saam Motamedi, General Partner at Greylock Partners. “Howard is a natural leader and his depth of experience across identity, security, and cloud makes him the perfect addition to the amazing technology and team we’ve built at Opal.”
“It’s clear that Opal is in a very dynamic and ascendant category. AI-driven companies are scaling faster than ever, intensifying the need for rigorous, unified access governance across humans, services, and AI agents,” said Dharmesh Thakker, General Partner at Battery Ventures. “Howard is the ideal leader to guide Opal Security through this next phase. He has repeatedly built marquee companies with the structure, operational discipline, and long-term vision needed to guide Opal Security through its next stage.”
With Ting’s leadership, Opal Security will continue expanding its platform capabilities, strengthening customer partnerships, and scaling operations to meet growing global demand. In addition to his role as CEO, Ting will be joining Opal Security’s board of directors. He also serves on the board of Cyberhaven.
Source: Businesswire
