Vanguard Magazine

36 DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 www.vanguardcanada.com GAME CHANGER See the full interview online Q How did you start out in this industry and how has it brought you to where you are today? I started out in the early '90s working with defense contractors supporting the U.S. Navy. From there, I helped design data storage systems for various "Star Wars" programs. This experience of devel- oping advanced, next-generation systems and later selling them taught me how to think in terms of "concept to revenue." Q What is your role at your organization today? I am the SVP & CMO at NETSCOUT, where I've worked for more than 11 years. In this role, I oversee all marketing func- tions while also heading up strategic part- nerships and business development. Q What was your most challenging moment? The first time I had a very large team of over 600 employees was a somewhat daunting experience. In an environment like that, where you don't have the op- portunity to meet regularly with everyone you oversee, how do you maximize your team's potential? How do you know what motivates them? How do you help them grow in their careers and to achieve success? These were the ques- tions that most challenged me, since helping employees get to the next level in their careers is something that I truly enjoy and feel a responsibility for as well. In the end, I realized that you have to trust the people you've placed in lead- ership roles, expect them to make good decisions based on shared values, and hope that the strategy you've set inspires and helps everyone win. Q What was your A-HA moment or epiphany that you think will resonate most with our reader? My A-HA moment is that building great teams can be fun and personally reward- ing. It's not work, it's community. Q What is the one thing that has you most fired up today? The endless innovation that is happen- ing all around the world is both inspiring and astounding. Technology has enabled revolutions in industry that were hard to imagine even 30 or 40 years ago. What's more is that the pace of innovation only seems to be speeding up. Over the last decade, smartphones and other connect- ed devices have exploded in use, bringing together the physical and digital worlds. There have been massive advancements in the Defense Industry, as well. Of course, this creates tremendous oppor- tunities for business and society but also new challenges. At NETSCOUT, we see it as our collective mission to continue to innovate so that our solutions secure and assure the performance of digital ecosys- tems for both defense and commercial infrastructures, across any application, cloud, or data center – and being a part of this work is quite rewarding. Q What is the best advice you received? Persistence is the key to success. If at first you don't succeed, keep trying until you do. Sometimes all you need is one "yes," no matter how many "no's" it takes to get there. Q What is a habit that contributes to your success? Take the time to relax and meditate. In fact, my best ideas come to me when I am thinking of nothing. Q What is your parting piece of advice? Surround yourself with positive people, and don't be afraid to take a risk. Some- one has to be the trailblazer. Let it be you. Q What people or organizations do you believe best embody the innovation mindset? (does not have to relate to the defence & security industry, can be related to your every day life) At the risk of sounding too self-promo- tional, I'm quite inspired by the teams at NETSCOUT. Often, our customers come to us with a unique and highly-specific challenge. Sometimes we have a ready- made solution available off the shelf that can fix their problems. But in many cases, we work with the business to develop a customized solution that's highly specific to their unique needs and specifications. To me, that's the definition of innovation. Q How is your organization changing the game within your industry sector? Doing business in a digital economy de- mands agility, and corporate digital in- frastructures have changed profoundly in response. But as businesses race to the cloud and expand activities across a glob- ally distributed digital ecosystem, they must also reinvent cybersecurity platforms to defend this expanded threat surface. Amid this environment, NETSCOUT has transformed something that others have failed to do at scale – network packet data – by applying patented technology and analytics to peer past the countless layers of services, applications, and hybrid cloud servers that comprise complex digital ar- chitectures. In this way, we can see and protect against cyber threats distributed across environments in real time, with unparalleled early warning, attack surface mapping, retrospective visibility, and con- tact tracing capabilities. TOM RAIMONDI, JR. SVP & CMO NETSCOUT

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