Announcing the 2025 Identity Icons Award winners

Having joined Silverfort in February 2023, it’s been an incredible journey to see the growth and success of our customers. Identity security and the need to protect identities at scale impact everyone. In my time here I’ve seen our customer base grow from 250 logos to over 1,000 global companies.  

From small companies that need to protect their admins and service accounts to meet cyber insurance requirements to Fortune 500 enterprises that want end-to-end identity security across complex hybrid environments, everyone needs the value Silverfort provides.  

One of my favorite parts of the job is traveling the world to meet with customers and partners. I love hearing the stories they tell, highlighting their identity security milestones, and celebrating personal and professional growth. To showcase these amazing accomplishments and recognize the folks implementing leading edge identity security projects, we introduced the Identity Icon Awards. 

In our inaugural year we are excited to recognize the following award winners:

Innovator of the Year – UBS

As one of the world’s largest and most influential financial firms, operating in 50+ countries across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific, safety of their clients’ assets and data is a top priority. As part of their multi-layered security framework, identity security plays an important role, and they implement advanced and innovative controls to ensure the security and trust of their clients and employees.  

When it comes to sharing learnings and inspiring other teams, the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference serve as a powerful platform. This event brought together investors, visionaries, thought leaders, and industry experts across software, hardware, internet, and payments to explore the evolving AI opportunity. Over four days, the conference hosted more than 300 companies and 1,500 attendees.

Business Value Award – Absa Group 

A major financial services conglomerate based in Johannesburg, South Africa, they are responsible for approximately 50,000 workforce users. Absa has a strong focus on identity security across the organization, which is implemented in a thoughtful and unified manner. In doing so, they were able to articulate clear business value, including cost savings, risk reduction, and improved operational efficiency. Absa excels at aligning vendor solutions to key business outcomes such as compliance, digital transformation, and customer trust.

Identity Security Champion – General Motors (GM)

GM is one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturing companies that leverages innovation for electric, autonomous, and software-defined mobility. The company prioritizes security and trust and has led a comprehensive rollout of advanced identity security controls across their large and complex enterprise environment, both on-premises and in the cloud. GM’s efforts have resulted in tangible improvements to their organizational security posture. 

As for advocating for stronger identity security beyond their organization, Andrew Cameron, Technical Fellow, IAM at General Motors is a frequent speaker at Gartner IAM, Identiverse, and RSA, and sets an example for other organizations who seek to strengthen their identity infrastructure and security posture.

Resilience Award – ANZ Bank

As one of the big four banks in Australia, with roughly 42,000 employees, ANZ undertook a comprehensive identity security project. It involved rolling out advanced controls across a highly complex and regulated environment, with a Zero Trust security approach, while maintaining minimal operational disruption. ANZ focused on embedding identity security into everyday operations, driving cultural change across teams while improving security hygiene and breach resilience.  

CISO of the Year – Cecil Pineda, R1 

Cecil is currently the CISO at R1 RCM, a major enterprise in the finance sector. Prior to this role he was the CISO at DFW International Airport and has also worked at GameStop, TXU Energy, Boeing, CVS Health and Ernst & Young. This award reflects his exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and significant contributions to advancing identity security at scale. As a co-founder of CISO XC, he helped create a space where cybersecurity leaders can form meaningful connections. The organization is dedicated to hosting events that bring together security executives and their strategic partners to strengthen the broader information security community. 

Advocate of the Year – Steve Rennick, Ciena

Acting as an advocate for Silverfort and for identity security at industry events, Steve regularly appears on discussion panels or webinars, sharing real-world strategies for securing human and non-human identities everywhere, from legacy Active Directory to modern cloud environments and AI. He actively engages with Silverfort’s product team, offering feedback on product roadmap and upcoming functionality, including participating in our early access programs. Steve’s advisory insights have helped shape Silverfort’s marketing content and feature development.