Zscaler appoints two tech industry leaders

Zscaler is reinforcing its investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the appointment of two of the industry’s top innovation and tech implementation leaders to further strengthen the Zero Trust Exchange cloud security platform. While Claudionor Coelho Jr. joins as Chief AI Officer, Mohamed Shabar joins as EVP, Data & AI Platforms. These strategic additions to the Zscaler executive team reinforce the company’s commitment to driving rapid innovation in advanced applied Machine Learning (ML), and AI to help define the future of cloud-based security technologies. 

"We are delighted that Mohamed and Claudionor 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, Chief Technology Officer for Zscaler. "The combination of Claudionor’s and Mohamed’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, Mohamed Shabar possesses a wealth of expertise in driving the next generation of automation, AI, and cloud platform development. Previously at Salesforce, he led the Marketing Cloud Technology organization. As a result of his vision and execution, the organization achieved an astounding 30% CAGR over four years, coupled with an impressive 3X reduction in customer attrition. Under Shabar, the automation platform underwent a 10X scaling in volume and throughput, catapulting the B2C growth engine for Salesforce and enabling the delivery of trillions of hyper-personalized messages for enterprises. Prior to his tenure at Salesforce, Shabar spent 18 years at Microsoft, where his focus was on constructing robust platforms, developer tools, and ecosystems. 

“I’m thrilled to join the visionary team at Zscaler,” said Mohamed Shabar, EVP, Data & AI Platforms, Zscaler. “In the era of zero trust, we’ll empower organizations 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.” 

Claudionor Coelho brings a wealth of expertise to help Zscaler deliver a competitive technology advantage through the development of AI and ML innovations. Prior to joining Zscaler, Coelho served as the Chief AI Officer and SVP of Engineering at Advantest, where he spearheaded the development of a Zero Trust private cloud solution tailored for the semiconductor manufacturing market. Before Advantest, Coelho was the VP/Fellow of AI and the Head of AI Labs at Palo Alto Networks where he led the charge in AI, AIOps and Neuro-symbolic AI, an advanced form of AI that enables reasoning, learning, and cognitive modeling, to help revolutionize time series analysis tools on a massive scale. Coelho’s career also includes vital roles in ML and Deep Learning at Google, where he developed a state-of-the-art Deep Learning technology designed for automatic quantization and model compression which played a pivotal function in the search for subatomic particles at CERN. 

“As Zscaler continues to empower organizations to realize 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 organization at the forefront of zero trust cybersecurity,” said Claudionor Coelho Jr., Chief AI Officer, Zscaler. “In our relentless pursuit of zero trust, at Zscaler, we’ll revolutionize the way we protect data, devices, and networks through state-of-the-art applied Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning and Generative AI techniques.” 

As Zscaler embarks on its next era of growth and leading-edge advancements, Shabar’s and Coelho’s appointments signify the company's unwavering commitment to leading the innovation path of the evolving AI landscape. Their leadership, experience and vision will be instrumental in accelerating Zscaler's ongoing mission to protect organizations in today’s mobile and cloud era.