Current Role

Director of Content & Thought Leadership, Palo Alto Networks

May 2022 - Present

Notable Highlights

Global Awareness
Launched the Threat Vector Podcast: Engages a diverse, worldwide audience of over 25,000 monthly listeners with intriguing stories, innovative thought leadership, and valuable insights from the leaders and clients of Palo Alto Networks.
User Experience Innovation
Enhanced with the Cortex XSIAM Product Tour: This human-centered, narrative-driven tour significantly outperforms standard content, with visitors spending an average of 634% more time on page. This immersive approach effectively captures attention and boosts user engagement.
Frictionless Thought Leadership
Strategic direction for the 2024 Unit 42 Incident Response Report | Spearheaded the release of an interactive, unrestricted (no gates) report that has achieved a remarkable 2,209% boost in readership, reflecting the high value and accessibility of the content.

Core Responsibilities

Direct and execute global content strategies for Palo Alto Brands Cortex and Unit 42 to extend and expand our presence and audience awareness.
Lead and manage teams of content marketers and contractors.
Manage annual marketing budgets.
Mentor individuals across Palo Alto Networks.
Ensure content is consistent and meets quality standards.
Build and maintain content marketing infrastructure tools to manage workflows, calendars, repositories, and performance tracking.

Recommendations

David is a rare talent. He is an excellent storyteller, a creative thinker, and he has stellar marketing/communications skills. David can take a complex topic and simplify it for both an external audience (marketing target) and internal audience (his team or executive stakeholders). He is a strategic thinker, a life-long learner, and a problem solver. But what impresses me most about David is his passion for his work and his team. He is always encouraging others to look at things differently (challenging the status quo in the most professional way possible), or to take the risk, or to strive for better. He builds people up and then provides them the tools they need to succeed. Both as a marketer and as a business leader,  David stands out.

- Kate Reed, CMO, IBM Security

“Wildly creative, resourceful and innovative" is the phrase that comes to mind when I think about David. I hired David as our Director of Content and Thought Leadership at Palo Alto Networks, and I'm so glad I did. He inspired our team to think bigger, stay up to date on recent trends that improved our marketing, and innovate with micro experiments that paid off. He improved the storytelling abilities of our marketing team by pioneering new training, types of content, and frameworks to help our team improve. He's also an excellent communicator and is appreciated by executives for his ability to lead the development of keynotes at major events. He has the rare skill set of being an idea person that can also operationalize those ideas into action. As a former designer, he also has excellent taste for the visual look and feel of the content his team creates. He is well respected by his team for his leadership style. Palo Alto Networks is lucky to have him.

Chas Larios, VP Marketing at Anvilogic