One Identity CEO Targets AI-Led Identity Governance Growth

One Identity tapped Smartsheet’s product leader as its next CEO and tasked him with doubling down on identity governance to capitalize on the rise of non-human identities.

See Also: Identity and Access Management (IAM) Market Guide 2025

New CEO Praerit Garg said managing both human and non-human identities has become increasingly complex with the proliferation of artificial intelligence agents. He said One Identity’s capabilities in areas such as privileged access management and credential vaulting will set the Orange County, California-based company apart in the competitive landscape. Garg replaced Mark Logan, who joined One Identity from LogRhythm in 2022.

“I have been associated with identity and cybersecurity well before even those terms existed,” Garg told Information Security Media Group. “I was part of the team that built Active Directory and encrypting files systems and PKI infrastructure. So, it’s been one of those through threads in my career.”

Garg comes to One Identity from work management platform Smartsheet, where he spent more than six years in the product organization, culminating in a role overseeing product and innovation. Prior to that, Garg spent more than four years leading identity, directory and access services for Amazon Web Services. One Identity was founded in 2016 and currently employs 623 people (see: One Identity Snags Ex-LogRhythm CEO Mark Logan as New Leader).

What Makes Securing Non-Human Identities So Challenging

While this is Garg’s first CEO role, he said he has always operated cross-functionally, working closely with sales, customer success and go-to-market teams. Garg said his technical depth, strategic thinking and collaborative mindset make him well-equipped to lead One Identity into its next phase of growth.

“I bring a lot of background to it,” Garg said. “I know the products, I know the space. So, I felt like I could actually come in and contribute.”

Non-human entities outnumber humans in enterprise IT systems, and this shift introduces new identity governance challenges around how the agents are authenticated, what permissions they hold and how their access is revoked when it is no longer necessary, Garg said. One Identity will double down on tools that address lifecycle management and privileged access for both human and machine identities.

“What access do they have? What’s the life cycle of that access? Where should they be allowed to do certain things and not do certain things?” Garg said. “So, we think this market is expanding rapidly, and we have an opportunity to own a piece of that and help our segment of customers manage that more easily and better.”

Non-human identities lack the natural advantages of human users – they don’t remember passwords, can’t perform biometric verification and require externalized systems to securely manage credentials, Garg said. This makes credential storage, rotation and revocation essential components of identity security. It also explains why PAM and credential vaulting are vital differentiators in the firm’s portfolio.

“Where do these things store their credentials? How are these things protected? And what is the life cycle of those credentials? How do you manage it? It’s just that much harder,” Garg said.

What Makes One Identity’s Approach to Governance Different

Unlike many rivals who offer fragmented solutions, One Identity provides a full suite covering identity governance, access management, privileged access management and directory services, helping clients consolidate vendors, simplify integration and apply consistent policies across their identity landscape. It also means One Identity can address both user access and system-level permissions, Garg said.

“It’s the most comprehensive product portfolio in terms of being able to serve any enterprise customer’s need around identity,” Garg said. “That was exciting – having a comprehensive portfolio that I can come in and help the organization build upon that unique position in the market and maximize the opportunity.”

Governance is a high-friction, high-complexity domain in which customers in large environments face cognitive overload from hundreds of thousands of human users and growing numbers of software agents. AI can enable natural language policy definitions, dynamic risk scoring, or real-time analytics on user and agent behaviors, making complex identity environments more manageable, Garg said.

“Capabilities like GenAI give us this opportunity where we can start to create user experiences that are much, much more simple to use, much more intuitive, where I can describe my intent and policy, and then the software system actually goes and makes it real,” Garg said.

From a performance standpoint, Garg’s primary business metrics are straightforward: customer growth, revenue growth and profitability. Internally, he will monitor KPIs related to customer support SLAs, customer success deployment metrics, sales performance and quota attainment, and product quality and delivery timelines. Success in identity requires coordinated execution in multiple departments.

“Are we growing the number of customers that we are serving?” Garg said. “Are we therefore growing the revenue of the business? And are we growing that at the rate the industry and the market is growing or better? So, that is fundamentally the scorecard for any for-profit business.”