Cato Networks Appoints Former Palo Alto & Netskope Executive Chad Gardner as Chief Revenue Officer

Gardner brings more than two decades of global sales leadership across cybersecurity, cloud, networking, and enterprise technology

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cato Networks, the converged network and security cloud for the AI era, today announced the appointment of Chad Gardner as chief revenue officer (CRO). Gardner will lead Cato's global revenue organization and scale the company's go-to-market execution as enterprises modernize and converge their networking and security infrastructure, while securely adopting AI.

Gardner joins Cato from Blackfoot Communications, where he served as chief revenue officer, overseeing the company's wholesale, premier, and enterprise business units. He brings extensive experience building and leading high-performing sales organizations across enterprise infrastructure and cybersecurity. Previously, Gardner was vice president of sales for North America at SambaNova Systems and held several leadership roles at Palo Alto Networks, including vice president of global SASE sales and vice president of sales for West Majors. His experience also includes VP leadership positions at Netskope, as well as executive sales roles at Denali Advanced Integration, NetApp, and Cisco Systems.

"Chad has the experience, customer focus, and leadership ability to help Cato capitalize on the significant opportunity ahead," said Shlomo Kramer, co-founder and CEO of Cato Networks. "His experience leading global SASE sales gives him a clear understanding of why enterprises are moving to converged networking and security.  He brings the sales leadership and customer focus we need to expand our business while staying focused on the customer experience that differentiates Cato."

"I am excited to join Cato because it is uniquely positioned to define the future of networking and AI security. The company combines a compelling vision with its architecture to deliver meaningful outcomes for customers," said Gardner. "Cato's ability to simplify security while helping organizations adopt AI securely was a particularly important reason for me to join. I'm excited to partner with this team to scale the business, strengthen customer and partner relationships, and help organizations operate with the speed and confidence required in the AI era."

For more on Cato's leadership team, visit: https://www.catonetworks.com/company/ 

About Cato Networks

Cato Networks delivers the converged network and security cloud for the AI era. Cato unifies networking, security, and access to provide complete visibility across the enterprise, shared context across users, applications, data, and AI interactions, and unified control to act on that intelligence. Cato combines AI-powered security with autonomous protection to defend against evolving threats, secure AI adoption, and help organizations stay ahead of an increasingly AI-driven threat landscape. Trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide, Cato simplifies operations, strengthens resilience, and accelerates secure innovation.

Want to learn why thousands of organizations secure their future with Cato? Visit us at www.catonetworks.com 

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