Radiant Profile: Meet CMO Deb McGinn

It’s the first of March and International Women’s Day is almost here. But after a seismic year of success and successions, one day is not enough to properly celebrate the badass women of Team Radiant. So we’re going to take this entire month to shine a light on some of the key players who put the radiant in our logic. And I can’t think of a better way to start this party than by highlighting our very own CMO, who’s laser-focused on how to tell the Radiant story so prospects and customers can see our value and tap into it to drive security and success.

Starting in the Consumer Space

Deb McGinn got her big break at Johnson & Johnson, rounding out her b-school education with a stint as brand manager for band-aids and other household products that are probably on your bathroom shelf right now. She moved to Callaway Golf after that (and her time there was well spent, because I’ve never seen a person so thoroughly dominate a TopGolf Swing Suite like Deb did during our Sales Kick-Off last summer—she’s a shark, y’all!). But Deb wanted more: “When the great recession of 2007-2009 greatly impacted the golf market, I was able to step back and strategically think about my next career move. I wanted to keep my marketing skills relevant with the changing world—and technology was the answer.”

With her consumer background, Deb researched like-minded tech firms in the Bay Area, narrowing in on Norton, the “antivirus” company owned by Symantec. “Luckily for me, they were trying to pivot from traditional tech marketing of ‘speeds and feeds’ to a more consumer-focused approach, and they were looking for CPG (consumer packaged goods) marketing expertise to help drive this transformation. I found a great role in Product Marketing for Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security, so my career in high tech and cybersecurity began.”

When Deb started, Norton Antivirus was still distributed on CDs through brick-and-mortar retail stores, but Norton was already a $2 Billion a year global business—and 80% of the revenue came through eCommerce channels. She got a crash course in digital marketing and helped launch the Mobile Security category and business for Norton, moving into global mobile-first markets like Japan, as well as new channels such as mobile app stores, and even landing in the #1 spot in the Apple App Store a week post-launch.

The Work/Life Balancing Act

When Arxan Technologies found her in 2017, she was eager for a career change: “I felt really stuck in my role and really wanted to take on a much larger role within marketing beyond my product marketing expertise.” But at five months pregnant with her first child, she faced a familiar conundrum for working women. Changing jobs at that point in her pregnancy meant an extensive executive interview process, then starting a new role at seven months pregnant. That would give her just two months—if all went according to schedule!—to ramp up and prove herself before going out on the maternity leave she had negotiated into her contract. And all this while balancing a massive new role leading global marketing for a 110-person company and figuring out how to be a first-time parent and mother. (No pressure…)

But Deb is a driven person, so she went for it and found success: “Arxan turned out to be such a fantastic experience and environment because I was able to come in and lay the foundation for marketing, go out on leave and be with my daughter and husband as we figured out this new family life, and then I came back to work and had an incredible few years building a modern, cutting-edge marketing organization that supported our business growth objectives and was truly measurable in terms of our impact.” Arxan is also where she discovered that she loved working with smaller teams. “I loved being able to work strategically on the business goals and long-term vision, but get my hands dirty with the team on key projects and not lose my edge when it comes to messaging and creative execution.”

When Arxan was acquired and merged with four other companies to create a 700+ person organization, Deb “lost the connection with the business and the team, where I really love to operate as a CMO. When Joe Sander, my former CEO from Arxan, became the CEO of Radiant and I learned more about the business, the market opportunity, and the company culture, I knew this would be a great place to work—and a great fit for me to help unleash the potential of this organization.”

Small Team, Massive Opportunity

After more than twenty years in business, Radiant Logic was well established, having undergone massive growth over the past few years within a fast-moving market, where identity was becoming an increasingly crucial driver of key organizational initiatives. For Deb and the rest of the incoming management team, the great need for an authoritative source of identity data to drive authentication and access was crystal clear.

“Radiant was an easy decision for me to make. Throughout my career I have worked for large multinational conglomerates and organizations where I feel like I am a ‘cog in a wheel,’ instead of a serious contributor to the business.” So Radiant’s small size and huge potential was an appealing combination for a woman who describes herself as “very competitive by nature,” saying “while I don’t seek out the limelight, I want to be able to make a difference, and see the impact of my contributions to an organization.” Because the Radiant website hadn’t been updated in a decade, that became an immediate opportunity to have a real impact on the company.

“A primary thesis behind the business transformation was that if we got the positioning and messaging right and created a world-class website to make it easier to understand what Radiant does and the value we provide, we should be off to the races. Challenge accepted!”

At Radiant, Culture Matters

As Deb discovered doing her due diligence on Radiant Logic and its team, “the common theme is that the people are really smart and they have been with the company forever (at least in modern tech time). Having been here for 9+ months now, I can honestly say that the most incredible thing about Radiant is that there is very little ego within the organization—and I really think that makes all the difference. Employees have so much respect for each other. They appreciate that their colleagues are smart and talented, and probably have a slightly different skill set so they don’t have to worry about direct “competition” for roles.”

This isn’t just about having a collegial culture: “Everyone also has respect for the product and the technology. I have never once heard anybody talking negatively about what we sell or provide to our customers. And people are PROUD of how we support our customers because they care deeply about those relationships, and they are acutely aware not to “oversell” our services or solutions because they would rather under-promise and over-deliver than disappoint a customer. As part of the new executive team, this is something that we are trying really hard not to break—and when we do bring in outside talent to help support our growth objectives, we are highly conscious of the Radiant culture and only want to build upon the great employee foundation that we inherited.”

Setting Up Radiant for Ongoing Success

When Deb first joined Radiant, her immediate goal was to understand the market and the technology, while positioning our solution so everyone could immediately understand its value. This was no small feat, because “while evolving the messaging and positioning, we also had to build and implement a modern marketing infrastructure to underpin our lead generation and engagement strategy. And finally, we had to evolve the brand and website to reflect how cutting-edge Radiant’s platform really is. We were able to achieve all of this in six months, which is a really incredible accomplishment.”

According to Deb, “it has been so rewarding to watch each person step up and take on new responsibilities and new challenges, oftentimes way outside their comfort zone, in order to help us with the transformation we have undergone.” Now that the foundation is built, her team is focused on getting the word out about Radiant, driving thought leadership and awareness, generating high quality leads for the sales team, and showcasing how we help customers solve significant business challenges.

That sense of mission extends all the way into the leadership team and beyond. As Deb explains, “from my colleagues in the c-suite to our board members and our extended leadership team, looking around the room (or zoom windows), we go from strength to strength in every role. There are no egos in the room, nobody trying to talk just to hear their voice, or to shout just to be the loudest person in the room. There is a sense of real collaboration, and that we are in this together, as a team, to take an organization with great talent and technology and let the world see how much of an impact we can make.”

Expect More Innovations

As she says, “With such great technology, talent, and drive—the opportunities are really endless. I am excited to be able to play a role in our company vision and where we want to play to win in the market. I am excited at the creative expression of our brand and bringing Radiant to life with new programs, technology, and my awesome team. I am excited to work with our BDR, Sales, and Partner teams to tell the Radiant story and demonstrate to prospects and customers how we can truly help organizations overcome identity sprawl and turn identity into a business driver.”

As far as what’s next, she says to expect major innovations. While she can’t discuss too much publicly, she did share that “we have tapped into some core insights around our technology and market needs which I think will be truly game-changing for organizations. Know this: the future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades.”

Get to Know the Women of Radiant All Month Long

According to Deb, “I’ve worked with a lot of amazing women in my career…but coming to Radiant, I’ve been so impressed with how many women are in highly technical roles—from Product to Solutions Architects, Systems Integrators, Sales, Implementation, Support and Services, Customer Success, and of course, Marketing. The women of Radiant have helped shape the company and the culture, and they deserve to be celebrated every day—not just during Women’s Month.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself! Next up, we’ll be profiling Lisa Grady, who’s been with Radiant Logic for 22 years. Yes, TWENTY TWO. To say she’s a shining star in the Radiant constellation does not adequately capture the depth, breadth, and heart she brings to our team, our company, and our customers.