Leadership

Andre Durand

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Founded in 2002, Ping has become a leading provider of enterprise identity security, serving more than half of the Fortune 100 and protecting more than 3 billion identities worldwide. In 2016, Ping was acquired by Vista Equity Partners and in 2019, became the first Vista company to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol PING. In 2022, Thoma Bravo acquired PING and took the company private for $2.8B. Prior to Ping Identity, Durand founded Jabber to commercialize the Jabber open source instant messaging platform which was acquired by Cisco in 2008. 

Durand serves on the board of Jamf (NASDAQ: JAMF) and in his spare time focuses on causes related to children in the foster care system, building great culture and creating opportunities for entrepreneurs. Durand holds a BA in Biology and Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife Kim and two daughters.

Raj Dani

Chief Financial Officer

Prior to joining Ping, Raj served as CFO of Florida-based systems integration firm AVI-SPL. During his AVI-SPL tenure, he worked to grow and manage the company through its successful sale, earning him recognition as 2016 CFO of the Year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal in the Large Private Company category.

Raj has also held senior financial positions within technology services companies like Flextronics, Jabil Circuit and TeleTech. He began his career with PwC, serving in the audit and transaction advisory practices for over nine years, and his global experience spans both public and private companies, including long-term assignments in Switzerland and Italy. Raj received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Emory University and a master's degree in accounting from the University of Florida. He is an actively licensed CPA.

Aaron LaPoint

Chief Administrative Officer

Aaron joined Ping after most recently working in the telecommunications industry at DISH Network. There, he led a national human resources team that supported almost 20,000 employees. Aaron's broad HR experience spans talent acquisition, leadership development, employee advocacy, total rewards and HR strategy. He's held HR positions with EchoStar Communications and multiple healthcare companies in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and his roles focused on building centers of excellence for various HR functions. Aaron grew up in the Minneapolis area and received a Bachelor's of Business Administration with an emphasis on Human Resources from the University of Minnesota.

Shalini Sharma

Chief Legal Officer

Shalini is a seasoned legal professional with more than 23 years of international corporate legal experience and 15 years of global financial technology expertise. Prior to joining Ping, she served as SVP and General Counsel at Vantage Data Centers where she oversaw legal and corporate governance and compliance matters during a period of expansive international growth. Sharma joined Vantage from Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), a leading fintech solutions company, where she was Assistant General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, serving the global financial services industry. Previously, she was in private practice as a corporate transactional attorney at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP in New York. Sharma holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. She is also a recipient of a Fulbright Award. Outside of work, Shalini is an avid reader, cook, wanna-be yogi and can also be found planning her next travel adventure with her kids.

Kevin Sellers

Chief Marketing Officer

Kevin joins Ping with more than 20 years of global marketing leadership experience in the technology sector. His passion for strategic marketing combines storytelling and partnerships across brand leadership, demand generation, digital marketing and transformation and corporate communications. Prior to Ping, Kevin served as chief marketing officer at Avnet, where he oversaw the company’s business-to-business strategies and orchestrated significant digital transformation efforts across the entire marketing organization. He also held multiple leadership positions at Intel, where he led the historic re-branding that took Intel beyond its core personal computer market. Kevin has been recognized in the industry as one of B2B Magazine’s Top Digital Marketers, and he’s won multiple Cannes Lions, as well as ADDY and Effie awards for creative excellence. He holds a BA in Finance and an MBA from Brigham Young University. Outside of work, Kevin enjoys live music, running outdoors and traveling the world with his wife and four grown children checking things off his bucket list—next stop: scuba diving in the Red Sea.

Pete Angstadt

Chief Revenue Officer

Pete has 20 years of experience in software and security, and joined Ping Identity via ForgeRock. Prior to ForgeRock, Pete ran the high-growth cloud security and manageability business across North America at Oracle. Pete was responsible for Sales, Partner/Alliance relations with leading systems integrators such as Accenture, Deloitte and PWC, and Customer Success for the cloud security, identity and access management and data security portfolios. He also served as chairman of Oracle’s Chief Security Advisory Board. Pete came to Oracle via the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, where he ran security and integration software sales teams.

Peter Barker

Chief Product Officer

Peter Barker is Chief Product Officer, driving the global product vision, and joined Ping Identity via ForgeRock. Prior to ForgeRock, Peter served as senior vice president and general manager of the Identity Management and Security business at Oracle. Based in Austin, Texas, Peter previously held executive-level positions at Good Technology, Motorola, FedEx and other companies.

Tim Willey

Senior Vice President, Business Operations

Tim is responsible for Business Operations, and came to Ping Identity via ForgeRock. He brings a wealth of understanding for how to design, run, and improve business operational functions and processes by using data to make better decisions. His previous experience includes leading end-to-end design and transition from an on-premise business model to cloud/subscription at Symantec.

Craig Solberg

Senior Vice President, Customer Care

Craig joins Ping with over 20 years of experience in managing direct sales, software sales, and customer service management organizations with SaaS at the forefront. His extensive leadership experience includes enterprise sales, sales strategy development and execution, customer success and SaaS renewals, commercial operational management, strategic consulting, and direct sales with Crownpeak, Lithium Technologies, North Plains Systems, and SAP Ariba. Craig holds a BBA in Business Information Systems from the University of West Georgia. Out of the office, Craig spends his time on the coast with his family (Kristi, Parker, Campbell, and Anderson), fishing, and volunteering.

Rakesh Thaker

Chief Development Officer

Rakesh brings over 25 years of engineering leadership experience having successfully led technology organizations at various private and public companies in hypergrowth, sustaining growth, and turnaround phases. Most recently, Rakesh was Vice President of Enterprise networking at Cisco leading a portfolio that delivered $3B+ in annual sales. Prior to that, Rakesh held leadership roles at Gigamon, Blue Coat, and Dell where he transformed and scaled diverse teams across the world building enterprise-class SaaS, security, and networking products. Rakesh has a proven track record of driving innovation while building a culture of operational excellence, agility, and sharp customer focus. In his free time, Rakesh loves to photograph nature, go on long walks, and read. He also enjoys meeting new people and trying new cuisines.