In an era where digital transformation is ubiquitous, the cybersecurity industry stands as the critical guardian of global commerce and data. However, this sector faces unprecedented challenges: sophisticated cyber threats evolve faster than defenses, a complex talent shortage persists, and businesses struggle with securing distributed workforces and cloud migrations.
Amidst this landscape, Abhoy Kumar Sarkar, Regional Vice President for India & SAARC at Zscaler, is driving a unique approach. Leveraging over 20 years of industry expertise with tech giants like Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Zscaler, Abhoy has pioneered a results-oriented leadership style focused on empowering talent and building trust. His proven track record, evidenced by 2.7x growth at Zscaler in little over 2 years and establishing Zscaler as the trusted partner for “India Inc.,” showcases a unique ability to translate industry challenges into tangible growth, making him a definitive voice in the future of Industry leadership.
His blend of customer centricity, constant desire to learn, strategic foresight, people-first leadership, and ability to turn challenges into opportunities has earned him recognition as one of the Top Transformational Leader in The Technology Industry “
Zscaler: Pioneering a Secure and Transformative Digital Future
Zscaler is the global leader in cloud security, pioneering the Zero Trust Everywhere model to protect users, devices, branches, IOT/OT, Apps and AI Security in an increasingly distributed digital landscape. By simplifying security and driving seamless cloud adoption, Zscaler helps organizations achieve measurable business outcomes.
Here are some Key Highlights:
- Mission: Secure, Simplify, Transform Businesses.
- Founded: 2008 by Jay Chaudhry, foreseeing Cloud, Mobility, IoT/OT & AI/ML adoption.
- Zero Trust Everywhere : Connects any source (users, workloads, IoT/OT, branches, B2B) to any destination (cloud apps, private DC) securely.
- Application Protection: Apps remain hidden → cannot be attacked.
- Data Security & UX: Monitors traffic, protects data across all channels including Gen AI, & ensures smooth user experience.
- Customer Impact: Improved Security posture, Accelerates M&A, Enables faster branch expansion, Simplifies Networks; Improved User Experience; NPS score 2x industry average.
- India Presence: Powers leading enterprises across every sector, expanding SecOps portfolio. Significant Investments in India across Data Center’s; Development and Innovation Center, Back Office & Customer Success Business Units
- Global Scale: Largest security cloud, processing 500B+ transactions daily (35x Google searches).
- Growth Outlook: On track for $5B global revenue, reinforcing its leadership in cloud security. Strong FY 25 Results published recently wherein Zscaler crossed $3B ARR with a 22% YOY Growth while protecting 50M+ users and achieving “Rule of 50” (Revenue growth + Free Cash Flow Margin exceeding 50)
From Insurance to Cybersecurity: A Journey of Strategic Growth
Abhoy Sarkar’s journey into technology and cybersecurity was fueled by a core desire to solve complex problems and safeguard digital livelihoods. His career began at MetLife, where selling an intangible product honed his ability to build trust and persistence in client advisory. Transitioning to Hewlett Packard, he expanded into B2B Sales, Product, and Channel management, with a strategic focus on third party products (Microsoft) to grow revenue share, an experience that opened the door to his next big chapter.
At Microsoft, in over 12 years, Abhoy Kumar Sarkar rose through seven promotions, progressing from an Account Executive managing few Corporate Accounts in South to running IT Services Industry Vertical, and thereby joining the Microsoft India Area Leadership Team. During his tenure of 12+ years at Microsoft, he did a variety of leadership roles that helped him gain varied perspectives to finally lead the largest industry vertical for Microsoft in India. Through his career, Abhoy has developed a deep passion for solving business problems with technology solutions. He has consistently exceeded growth targets, built high-performing teams, and sharpened his strategic leadership.
A meeting with Zscaler’s India leader at a partner conclave reignited his passion for learning and building businesses, something very different from experiences he had gained earlier. Inspired by its cutting-edge cybersecurity vision, he joined as Regional Vice President, where he has since grown the business significantly , leveraging his cumulative experience to position Zscaler as a leader in the cybersecurity landscape.
The Merit of Grit: Challenges that Shaped Empowerment
A pivotal challenge that fundamentally shaped Abhoy Kumar Sarkar’s leadership did not occur in a boardroom, but much earlier, during his academic journey. Facing certain disappointments at this juncture in life , he learned a profound and lasting lesson: Success can be achieved through a positive mindset, strong work ethics and there is no substitute for grit and relentless effort. These early experiences solidified his core belief that success is forged through diligence, continuous learning, and an unwavering drive for results, a principle that became the bedrock of his rapid career advancement.
This lesson shapes Abhoy’s leadership ethos: he champions talent based on capability and character, fostering a meritocratic culture. By prioritizing empowerment over hierarchy, he accelerates careers and builds leaders at every level, reflected in the many professionals he has mentored who now hold industry leadership roles.
The Mentors Who Shaped His Leadership Philosophy
Abhoy Kumar Sarkar often reflects that his remarkable rise wasn’t a solo journey, but a path shaped by the wisdom and unwavering guidance of key mentors and family members who fundamentally shaped the leader he is today. While he is thankful to all his Leaders and Mentors for their coaching throughout his career, below mentioned people have played a significant part in his growth journey.
- Guru Venkatesan (CEO & Co-Founder, SimpliContract): As an early manager and mentor, Guru was instrumental in preparing Abhoy for his leadership journey. He instilled foundational skills ,competencies and demonstrated the power of building an exceptional, high-performing team.
- Amit Kumar (Director and Head of Digital Natives Business at Google Cloud ): Amit provided Abhoy his first major leadership break, entrusting him to lead a large business unit as the youngest leader in the organization at that time(July 2015). His leadership style, with unwavering trust and support without micromanagement, taught Abhoy the value of empowering others to deliver excellence.
- Sashikumar Sreedharan (MD, Google Cloud India): Under Sashi’s guidance, Abhoy advanced into senior leadership roles. By granting significant autonomy and entrusting him with major responsibilities, Sashi exemplified and taught him the principles of servant leadership, focusing on enabling the team’s success.
- Family as a Foundation: His wife, Sheena Sarkar, an HR leader, serves as a constant sounding board and coach on people management. His parents provided the foundational values of compassion and forgiveness, which remain core to his personal and professional ethos.
The Operational Framework of Leadership
Abhoy Sarkar’s leadership philosophy is a powerful blend of principles shaped by his experiences at Microsoft and Zscaler. From Microsoft, he embraces the mantra: Create Clarity, Generate Energy, Deliver Success. These three principles serve as a concise and memorable framework to guide leaders in communicating goals, inspiring their teams and achieving organizational objectives. Abhoy Kumar Sarkar sees these elements not as abstract ideals but as practical tools that guide daily leadership decisions, ensuring alignment, motivation, and accountability across teams.
At Zscaler, he has integrated this approach with a sharp operational focus on Talent and Outcomes: hiring the right people, retaining/ growing them, and ultimately driving revenue. He strongly believes that sustainable growth stems from getting the first two right, talent acquisition and retention/ growing talent, to ensure revenue naturally follows. For Abhoy, leading through uncertainty begins with the ability to Create Clarity. In times of change, clarity provides direction, stability, and confidence, enabling teams to navigate ambiguity while staying aligned on critical objectives. This principle, he emphasizes, is the cornerstone of effective and resilient leadership.
Pinnacle Achievements: Driving Transformative Growth
Looking back on his career, Abhoy Kumar Sarkar highlights a few moments that truly matter not just as milestones, but as opportunities where he was able to make a meaningful impact, help his teams succeed, and build trust with clients and colleagues alike.
Here are some key highlights:
1. Securing Landmark Deals at Microsoft:
He takes great pride in partnering with the ecosystem to land the largest deal ever for both the Non-Azure and Azure businesses with a leading global system integrator (GSI), a testament to his strategic partnership and execution skills.
2. Earning Top Honors for Holistic Excellence:
Winning Microsoft’s Circle of Excellence Platinum award stands out as a milestone. This recognition validated his philosophy of holistic performance, celebrating excellence across every facet of the business, not just sales targets.
3. Accelerating Zscaler India as the Market Leader:
Abhoy’s most notable achievement is growing his business 2.7x in 2.5 years. Amid challenging market conditions, he transformed business processes and positioned Zscaler as the partner of choice for CXOs seeking to build agile, secure, and scalable digital ecosystems. His approach has directly influenced mission-critical security modernization programs for several Global 2000 companies in India, fostering trust at the C-suite level. Due to this, the company gained strong footholds across IT Services , Financial Services, Telecom, and Pharma sectors. Improving the quality of Talent, Growth Mindset, Customer Centricity and Execution Excellence enabled him to deliver the above mentioned outcomes
Recognized for his visionary leadership in the cybersecurity domain, Abhoy was recently featured in The Economic Times Edge, further cementing his position as a key voice shaping the future of secure digital transformation in India.
Committing to Continuous Learning
For Abhoy Kumar Sarkar, staying ahead in the rapidly evolving tech and security landscape is a deliberate practice rooted in constant learning. He maintains his edge through a disciplined, two-pronged approach: dedicated reading and, most importantly, actively engaging in conversations with experts in the field. He believes true insight comes from synthesizing knowledge of the evolving tech landscape with a deep understanding of customer business challenges. This ability to “stitch both” together is what allows him to provide compelling value and strategic guidance that his team and customers trust.
Trusted Advisor to Industry Leaders
Abhoy’s leadership extends far beyond internal operations. Known for building strong relationships with CXOs across industries, he is a sought-after trusted advisor for digital and security transformation initiatives. By deeply understanding client challenges and aligning them with Zscaler’s Zero Trust architecture, he has helped leading enterprises redefine their cybersecurity posture.
He also represents Zscaler at key industry events, roundtables, and closed-door CXO forums, where he shares perspectives on the evolving threat landscape, regulatory readiness, and cloud-first strategies.
Fostering a Culture of Growth and Trust
Abhoy Kumar Sarkar builds his leadership culture on a clear and actionable framework: Model, Coach, and Care. He believes in first modeling the right behaviors himself to set the standard, then coaching his team to empower them to discover solutions independently, and fundamentally caring for their career growth and mental well-being. To ensure his team embodies these values, he actively promotes psychological safety, champions collaboration over internal competition, and makes the holistic development of his people a primary metric for the team’s and his success.
The Power of Reverse Mentorship
Abhoy Kumar Sarkar deeply values reverse mentoring, actively seeking feedback not just from superiors but also from his team, peers, and clients. He believes self-awareness and openness to critique are the first steps toward growth, which must then be followed by an intentional improvement plan with measurable outcomes.
By leveraging reverse mentorship he has turned feedback into a powerful tool for refining strategies and strengthening his leadership decisions.
A Blueprint for the Next Generation of Tech Leaders
Looking ahead, Abhoy Kumar Sarkar advises emerging tech leaders to view leadership as a blend of both science and art, requiring consistent practice rather than a search for a secret formula. His foundational advice is to operationalize the powerful framework of Create Clarity, Generate Energy, and Deliver Success, complemented by the people-centric Model, Coach, and Care approach.
He emphasizes that these principles provide a scalable blueprint for navigating the industry’s complexities. Ultimately, he underscores that technology businesses are built on human relationships, asserting that “People work for People,” and that the deliberate building of trust is the most critical investment a leader can make in building a resilient and successful career.
An Open Letter to the Next Generation of Leaders
To the Emerging Professionals and First-Time Leaders,
In my years of leading teams across the global technology landscape, I’ve seen one common thread: people have big aspirations to make an impact, lead, and innovate. Yet only a small fraction turn ambition into action with a clear plan.
My first advice: aspiration without a plan is just a wish. Leadership requires self-awareness and a measurable, outcomes-based roadmap. Treat your career like the most important project. Set goals, define timelines, and track progress. That discipline transforms dreams into reality.
The second lesson is about radical accountability. Be open to feedback from every direction, but always own your decisions. Early in my leadership journey, I once hired a candidate against my judgment, influenced by senior colleagues. A year later, I started observing performance gaps that eventually led to transition. . It taught me that while counsel matters, accountability rests with you. From then on, I vowed to take full ownership, celebrating wins and learning from setbacks alike.
Remember, leadership is not a title; it is a trust earned through consistency, clarity, and care. Build a plan, hold yourself accountable, and never stop learning.
Your journey is just beginning. Make it count.
Sincerely,
Abhoy Kumar Sarkar
Regional Vice President, India & SAARC | Zscaler
Key Takeaways:
- Turn aspirations into an actionable plan.
- Own your decisions and their outcomes.
- Lead with clarity, energy, and results.
- Model, coach, and care for your team.
- Value grit and potential over pedigree.
- Commit to lifelong learning.
