Zscaler to fortify cloud security with two new AI positions

Former Salesforce and Advantest AI veterans join to strengthen the vendor’s AI investment

Cloud security vendor Zscaler has enlisted two tech veterans in a bid to strengthen its investments in AI and its zero-trust exchange cloud security platform.

Claudionor Coelho Jr. joins as chief AI officer and Mohamed Shabar joins as EVP, data & AI platforms.

Zscaler said the addition of these two role to the executive team are aimed at reinforcing the company's commitment to driving rapid innovation in advanced applied machine learning and AI.

"We are delighted that Shabar and Coelho are joining the Zscaler family to drive the vision and implementation of advanced AI technologies for the world's largest cloud security platform," said Syam Nair, CTO for Zscaler.

"The combination of Coelho's and Shabar's expertise and accomplishments in creating cutting-edge AI/ML and hyper-scale automation platforms technologies will help propel Zscaler's innovation engine and enable our customers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives."

With over 25 years of IT experience, Shabar was previously at Salesforce were he led the marketing cloud technology organisation.

During his time, the organisation achieved a 30 per cent CAGR over four years, coupled with a reduction in customer attrition.

"I'm thrilled to join the visionary team at Zscaler," said Shabar.

"In the era of zero trust, we'll empower organisations to thrive against an evolving threat landscape with AI, data and automation, and build a future where resilience is rooted in the power of Zscaler's largest security cloud."

Coelho served as the chief ai officer and SVP of engineering at Advantest, before joining Zscaler, where he spearheaded the development of a zero-trust private cloud solution tailored for the semiconductor manufacturing market.

"As Zscaler continues to empower organisations to realise the full potential of the cloud and mobility by securely connecting users to applications from any device, anywhere, I'm humbled to join this exceptional organisation at the forefront of zero trust cybersecurity," said Coelho.

"In our relentless pursuit of zero-trust, at Zscaler, we'll revolutionise the way we protect data, devices, and networks through state-of-the-art applied ML, deep learning and generative AI techniques."