Okta Ventures Unveils "The Identity 25" to Honor Pioneers Shaping the Future of Digital Identity

March 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM EDT

Okta Ventures, the venture investment arm of Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA), the leading independent identity partner, proudly introduces "The Identity 25," an initiative that shines a spotlight on the trailblazers in the burgeoning field of digital identity. This 2nd annual report is a testament to the collective efforts of innovators who are tirelessly working towards building simpler, more secure, and scalable identity-centric technologies.

In a world where every digital experience, from website logins to e-commerce transactions to voting, is rooted in identity management, "The Identity 25" aims to recognize and elevate emerging leaders who are enhancing identity, security, and privacy for businesses, consumers, and global citizens.

This year's Identity 25 list is a diverse compilation of academics, activists, public servants, entrepreneurs, standard-setters, and technology pioneers. Working across various disciplines and capacities, these individuals contribute to making the world a safer place to live, work, and transact.

The Identity 25 Honorees:

Janelle Allen, Engineering Product Manager, WebEx Identity at Cisco
Lincoln Ando, Founder, idwall
Andrew Black, Managing Director, ConnectID, Australian Payments Plus
Dan Boneh, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Brian Campbell, Distinguished Engineer, Ping Identity
Julie Dawson, Chief Regulatory & Policy Officer, Yoti
Paolo de Rosa, Policy Officer, European Commission
Rodger Desai, CEO, Prove Identity
Victor Dominello, Co-Founder, ServiceGen
Kim Hamilton Duffy, Executive Director, Decentralized Identity Foundation
Diego Fernández, Co-creator, QuarkID & Co-founder, The Future Co.
Daniel Fett, Identity Solution Architect, SPRIN-D, German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation
Heather Flanagan, Principal, Spherical Cow Consulting
Naohiro Fujie, General Manager, ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation & Chair, OpenID Foundation, Japan
Ryan Galluzzo, Identity Program Lead, Applied Cybersecurity Division, NIST
Sasikumar Ganesan, Head of Engineering, MOSIP; Former Chief Security Architect, Aadhaar
Gail Hodges, Executive Director, OpenID Foundation
Hanna Kim, Director, Login.gov
Gideon Lombard, Chief Operating Officer, DIDx
Nat Sakimura, Chairman, OpenID Foundation; CEO, NAT Consulting
Eric Scouten, Identity Standards Architect, Adobe
Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, FIDO Alliance
Teresa Wu, Vice President, Smart Credentials, IDEMIA North America
Yang Xie, CEO, Authing
Yodahe Zemichael, Executive Director, National ID Ethiopia

"The Identity 25 is an initiative designed to recognize the leading lights in the growing Identity space. With this report, Okta Ventures seeks to elevate the emerging leaders who are working together to improve Identity, security, and privacy for businesses and their clients, for consumers, and for global citizens," said Austin Arensberg, Senior Director Okta Ventures.

The honorees on this year's Identity 25 list are actively involved in creating laws to thwart identity criminals, advocating for individual rights and privacy, combating fraud and abuse, developing new technologies, teaching strong identity principles to the next generation of leaders, and setting standards for a safe, interoperable digital world. This is honorable in an increasingly complex world with new challenges like AI-enabled fraudsters and a plethora of new devices leading to a larger attack surface that makes the struggle to implement Identity solutions increasingly difficult.

As we navigate the complexities of an ever-expanding digital world, these brilliant innovators are only beginning to develop the systems of tomorrow, and they will undoubtedly continue to create and inspire solutions that challenge our current predictions. With "The Identity 25," Okta honors the magnitude of their achievements and the depth of their commitment as they advance identity standards, technology, and processes to better the lives of our shared global digital community.

To explore "The Identity 25" report and learn more about the incredible individuals shaping the future of digital identity, visit here.

About Okta

Okta, Inc. is The World’s Identity Company™. We secure Identity, so everyone is free to safely use any technology. Our customer and workforce solutions empower businesses and developers to use the power of Identity to drive security, efficiencies, and success — all while protecting their users, employees, and partners. Learn why the world’s leading brands trust Okta for authentication, authorization, and more at okta.com.