Inside Illumio: Bob Fitzpatrick

Inside Illumio highlights the exceptional individuals behind our world-class products. Each post will peek behind the scenes to spotlight a member of our team. Come get to know us a little better and learn more about what makes our culture so unique.

This month, meet Bob Fitzpatrick, Value Advisory Director at Illumio. Read about the ways he sees our mission making a real impact in the world, why our value of “Onwards Together” resonates with him, and his famous, crowd-favorite barbecue recipe.

Tell us about yourself. What do you do at Illumio?

I’m the Value Advisory Director at Illumio. I work with our sales, sales engineers, and customer success teams. And, of course, I work with our customers, too in both pre-sales and post-sales roles.  

I help customers understand the value of the Illumio platform beyond the technical details. Oftentimes, conversations about software can get very focused on how it works. It’s easy to overlook the benefits a solution can deliver beyond the technical problems it solves.

To help highlight Illumio’s value, I do financial modeling to show return on investment (ROI) and create business proposals for our sales team to use when working with customers.

The result is that it helps seal the deal, increase our win rate, and compress our sales cycles even further.

What made you interested in working at Illumio?

At my previous company, I worked with several of Illumio’s go-to-market leaders. I saw them build the sales organization and literally double the revenue in about two and a half years. Amazing! I was so impressed with their leadership and enjoyed working with them.

It piqued my interest when they all joined Illumio. I knew if Illumio could attract such a stellar go-to-market team, something exciting had to be happening there. That made me want to learn more — and the more I researched, I saw how unique Illumio’s mission is and how big the opportunity is in cybersecurity.

The other aspect I found attractive about Illumio is that it's making a real impact in the world. I think all of us hear and read about security breaches. How many times in the last year have we gotten those notices from companies that there’s been a data breach?  

I was really excited about the opportunity to join an organization that’s trying to provide solutions to those problems.  

What does a day in the life of Bob look like? What are you working on that excites you?

I’m based in Connecticut which allows me to “follow the sun,” so to speak, during my workday.

In the mornings, I work a lot with the European team and the eastern half of the Americas. As we go into my afternoon, I work with the West Coast team. Then some days, when needed, my evenings are spent with the Asia team.  

What excites me? I think it’s pretty simple — finding solutions to whatever problems our go-to-market team is facing.  

If you told me I’d join a company and just do the same thing every day, I’d be so bored. At Illumio, I'm always working on something new. I get messages every day with a new problem to tackle: there’s an RFP coming up, a renewal, a new prospect, an annual partner meeting.  

It's not just one thing — there are many different things that I'm asked to take part in, and that makes my job exciting.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned at Illumio so far?

I’ve learned so much about cybersecurity! It’s such a fascinating industry. Although sometimes I wish I didn’t know as much as I do. Ignorance — maybe it’s a nice thing to have at times, right?  

But now, I feel so much smarter explaining to people what cybersecurity is, the different threat actors out there, how different companies approach it. It’s a pretty interesting conversation. I like that the work we do at Illumio truly helps people.

What are you passionate about outside of your career?

I jog to stay fit, and I also love to ski and snowboard with my family.

Believe it or not — and here’s the embarrassing part — I grew up in Hawaii, and I can't surf! But now that I’m living in Connecticut, I can ski and snowboard. I guess you can say I’m surfing on snow.

I can also cook up a storm — whether I’m in the kitchen or outside barbecuing. It’s something I picked up during COVID.  

One of my favorite recipes: I buy racks of baby back ribs, put them in an aluminum pan, and buy the cheapest beer I can find (normally Schaefer). I pour the beer over the ribs, seal it tight, put it in the grill on low heat for about three or four hours until it’s literally falling off the bone. Then I char it on high heat quickly, and put a little sauce on it.  

Let me tell you — the flavor, the beer, the BBQ sauce, the char — people love it! I’ve shared that recipe with so many folks, and everyone has had great success with it.

Which Illumio core value resonates most with you and why?

Onwards Together. I’m an Army veteran, and Army is all about team. In the military, we live and breathe together as a team, rely on each other to get things done, and provide support when it’s needed.  

It’s just like that story about the straw. One straw is weak, but you bundle them together, and it’s very strong.

At Illumio, we work as a team. Everybody pulls their own weight. It’s a great feeling knowing that there’s a team working alongside each other towards a shared goal.

What do you want people to know about working at Illumio?

At Illumio, you have line of sight. You can see that what you do helps move the needle and impacts the organization.

I've worked at huge companies where I was one of 300,000 employees. I don’t think anybody ever felt a change from what you did.  

But at Illumio, each person’s role is essential and makes a difference. You can definitely see that what you’re doing is making an impact. That gives you great satisfaction at work.  

If somebody likes a fast-moving organization that’s doing something good, that’s got a great product and great people — I think I can wholeheartedly recommend that they look at Illumio and hopefully join us. They won’t regret it.

Interested in joining the team? Check out our career openings.