It was a late-night meeting room lit by the glow of Excel spreadsheets and cluttered with half-empty coffee cups. Brian Carolan, then a rising finance leader, looked around the table and saw not just fellow accountants and analysts but a collection of people relying on him to bridge data and strategy. In that moment, he felt the weight of a CFO’s responsibility keenly. “Finance is never only about numbers,” Carolan tells us. “It’s about connecting the dots for everyone in the room.”
Years earlier, he had traded the security of a Big Four firm for a nascent startup, learning quickly that growth rarely follows a neat script. One day, he might be projecting cash flow; the next, mending fractured vendor relationships. Each challenge Caloran tells us strengthened his conviction that adaptability drives sustainable success. He carried that lesson into a complex M&A deal, where he orchestrated integration across multiple departments. “M&A isn’t just consolidation,” Carolan tells us. “It’s a chance to redefine the culture, if you’re willing to listen.”
As his influence grew, Carolan found that effective CFOs serve as translators—turning raw data into forward-looking stories. After a particularly tense board presentation, he recalls a mentor pulling him aside. “Numbers matter, but so does the narrative behind them,” the mentor said. That advice remained Carolan’s compass. In every leadership role since, he has championed an inclusive approach, ensuring finance is a unifying force that galvanizes operations, sales, and strategy under one clear vision. And that, Carolan tells us, is how real transformation takes root.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: Tell us about SailPoint. What does this company do, and what are its offerings today?
Carolan: We’re in the broader cybersecurity space, specifically in a niche called identity security management. We manage access to applications and data across enterprise companies. We currently serve half of the Fortune 500 and are embedded in 25% of the Fortune Global 2000—we’ve built a who’s who list of logos.
It’s been an incredibly interesting journey for SailPoint. The company was founded in 2005, so we’re approaching 20 years in the business. Over that time, we’ve become experts in what we do and are widely regarded as an industry leader.
What’s evolved over time is the scope of identity security itself. It began with securing human identities—primarily employees. That expanded into securing third-party identities (still human), such as contractors and temporary workers. These identities also require protection.
What’s becoming increasingly complex—and where we believe we’re well-positioned to lead—is in the rise of machine identities: service accounts, bots, and other non-human entities. And now, on the horizon, we’re seeing the emergence of agentic AI—artificial intelligence that will also require a layer of security.
We’re still early in this non-human identity space, but we’ve built a strong foundation and track record in the human identity realm, and we’re excited for what lies ahead.
SailPoint | www.sailpoint.com | Austin, TX