Executive Spotlight: Chief Market and Strategy Officer Karl Van den Bergh

What’s it really like to lead a marketing team in the cybersecurity industry today?

Karl Van den Bergh, Illumio Chief Market and Strategy Officer, has more than 25 years of experience leading go-to-market teams across global tech companies. He brings a clear perspective on cybersecurity marketing shaped by deep industry insight and hands-on leadership.

Karl recently sat down for an interview with Paxton Grey, CEO at 97^th Floor and host of The Campaign podcast, to share how he builds trust across the C-suite, measures marketing success, and keeps his team focused. Here are the highlights from the conversation.

Help leadership keep up with marketing complexity

Karl spoke candidly about the complexity and opportunity of being part of marketing leadership.

“In my estimation, it’s probably one of the highest, if not the highest, complexity-to-appreciation ratios in the C-suite,” he said.

Karl explained that great CMOs today must wear a lot of hats: technologist, data analyst, psychologist, strategist, operator. Especially in B2B tech, where marketing is one of the largest buyers of technology, the job demands fluency in everything from AI trends to sales enablement — often with little recognition.

“Marketing has changed dramatically over the last few years,” Karl said. “It’s very hard for the board and the C-suite to keep up.”

Karl’s mission isn’t just driving pipeline. It’s also elevating the strategic value of marketing. He wants to help others inside the business understand it, too.

He sees this driving success for his own team and better buy-in across the organization.

Think long term during uncertain economic times

Karl noted that it’s tempting for marketing teams to go into survival mode in tough markets. But Karl argues that marketing leaders who play the long game in uncertain times are the ones who come out stronger.

“In a downturn, people tend to retreat to short-term tactics,” he explained. “But the bigger opportunity is to build your brand. If you invest in smart messaging while others pull back, you grow your mindshare. You come out of the downturn as a more recognized, more trusted company.”

Karl emphasized the importance of resisting the pressure to chase immediate ROI at the expense of long-term growth. His advice was to get creative. Focus on your message, and build trust through visibility and value.

That mindset is core to how Karl leads at Illumio — especially as cybersecurity decision-makers look for clarity and confidence in a noisy market.

If you invest in smart messaging while others pull back, you grow your mindshare. You come out of the downturn as a more recognized, more trusted company.

Return on objective (ROO): how to make marketing measurable  

In a field driven by hard numbers, Karl knows not every marketing investment maps cleanly to a dollar sign.

“ROI is important, especially when it comes to demand spend and bookings,” he said. “But not everything can be tied directly to revenue.”

Instead, Karl champions the idea of return on objective (ROO). This measures progress toward strategic outcomes that might not yield immediate financial returns but still signal momentum.

Take the recent launch of Illumio Insights, our recently launched cloud detection and response (CDR) solution. “It’s a new category,” Karl explained. “So instead of focusing on bookings, we’re looking at free trial signups. That’s our objective. That’s how we measure success right now.”

By reframing the conversation around objectives, Karl helps his team and the rest of the executive suite understand the impact of marketing beyond just MQLs and dollars.

Building partnerships is key to marketing leadership success

For Karl, great marketing starts with great partnerships, especially with sales and product teams.

“Your most important relationship outside your CEO is the CRO,” he noted. “That trust is critical, and it needs to cascade down to your teams.”

Karl believes marketers should view their budgets as investments on behalf of sales. “We’re spending those dollars in service of getting sellers to buyers,” he said. “It’s our job to deploy that spend strategically and show the impact.”

Your most important relationship outside your CEO is the CRO.

He’s also a big believer in local intelligence. By empowering marketers, sellers, and business development representatives (BDRs) at the regional level to operate like a “franchise,” Karl ensures accountability, agility, and alignment — even across a global go-to-market organization.

Simplicity: the top tool for driving marketing and business outcomes

Karl said one of his most powerful tools is simplicity.

“I’m a big believer in keeping things simple,” he said. “We live in a world of too much information. If you want people to retain anything, you’ve got to make it easy to understand.”

That’s where Karl uses his one-page marketing plan. It’s a framework that aligns business priorities, marketing strategies, key initiatives, and key performance indicators (KPIs) on a single sheet.

“There’s no laundry list of tactics,” he explained. “Just the big rocks that move the needle and the KPIs that matter.”

Karl noted that simplicity isn’t just for the marketing team’s benefit. It’s for the board, too. The plan becomes a shared language, a single view of how marketing supports company goals, and a tool to rally the entire organization around common outcomes.

We live in a world of too much information. If you want people to retain anything, you’ve got to make it easy to understand.

What’s next for marketing, especially in cybersecurity?

In a world being reshaped by AI, changing buyer behavior, and constant disruption, Karl sees opportunity for marketers, especially in cybersecurity, to lead the way forward.

“It’s not easy,” he acknowledged. “But there’s a lot of opportunity. The world needs better marketers, and marketing is becoming more strategic than ever.”

As Illumio Chief Market and Strategy Officer, Karl is helping define what that future looks like with clarity, creativity, and the kind of trust that turns marketing into a growth engine.

Learn more about Karl’s strategy as a cybersecurity marketing leader in his recent podcast, The Campaign: How to Build Predictable Marketing the C-Suite Will Bet On.