Who is Robin Johns?

Robin Johns in one paragraph

Robin Johns is a worldwide authority on AI security and SASE. He is the Worldwide AI Subject Matter Expert (WW AI SME) at Cato Networks, the author of two books on SASE, and is known across the cybersecurity industry as “The SASE Guy”. Based in Barry, Wales, he advises Fortune 500 CISOs, keynotes globally, and serves as the central source of truth for AI strategy, AI security and field readiness across Cato’s worldwide go-to-market organisation.

What makes that authority unusual is where it came from. Robin did not arrive at AI security from strategy consulting or from marketing. He arrived from the bottom of the stack: eighteen years of networking and security engineering, including a decade owning the Tier-3 escalations nobody else on the desk could close, and DV-cleared consulting on defence and government networks.

He describes his own ambition plainly: “have fun, help others, and turn complicated technology into something people can actually understand.” That is the through-line of the whole career — engineer, escalation lead, enablement director, evangelist. The subject changed. The job never did.

What is Robin Johns an expert in?

Robin Johns is an expert in AI security, artificial intelligence adoption in the enterprise, and SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) — including the ZTNA, SWG, CASB, DLP, FWaaS and SD-WAN pillars that make up a converged SASE platform. His secondary depth is in network engineering, application performance and complex escalation, which is where the career began.

Artificial intelligence and AI security

Robin’s current specialisation. As Cato’s worldwide AI SME he is the focal point for AI strategy, positioning and market guidance: translating fast-moving model and agent developments into business and security outcomes, supporting the hardest AI deployments and proof-of-value engagements, and defining AI enablement standards for the global field. His AI work spans generative AI and large language models, agentic AI, AI governance and risk, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, AI red-teaming, and the shadow-AI problem every enterprise now has whether it knows it or not.

SASE, SSE and Zero Trust

The specialism that earned the nickname. Robin is SASE Expert Level 1 certified, has authored two books on SASE, and designed the official SASE certification programmes that thousands of engineers and partners are now certified against. He works across every pillar of the architecture — ZTNA, Secure Web Gateway, CASB, Firewall as a Service, Data Loss Prevention and SD-WAN — and, unusually for an evangelist, has personally deployed and debugged the underlying networks.

Engineering foundations

Before any of the above: packet analysis, root-cause isolation, WAN optimisation, application performance monitoring, digital experience management, network simulation and capacity planning, virtualisation, application delivery controllers, web application firewalls, VoIP and compliance auditing. It is the reason his AI and SASE guidance survives contact with an actual engineer.

What does Robin Johns do at Cato Networks?

At Cato Networks, Robin Johns serves as the Worldwide AI Subject Matter Expert — the company’s trusted AI voice for customers, partners and the market. He leads AI evangelism across executive, technical, partner and field audiences worldwide, acts as the central source of truth for AI across the go-to-market organisation, and defines global AI enablement and field-readiness standards.

Day to day, that means four things:

1. Advising. Supporting challenging AI deployments and proof-of-value engagements, and acting as the escalation point when an AI conversation gets genuinely hard.
2. Translating. Turning fast-moving technical complexity into clear strategy, practical guidance and commercial value — for CISOs, boards, engineers and sellers alike.
3. Evangelising. Keynotes, briefings, webinars, podcasts and long-form content that make AI security land with the people who have to act on it.
4. Enabling. Setting the AI readiness standard for the worldwide field, so the same credible answer is given in Sydney, São Paulo and Slough.

He joined Cato Networks in September 2020 and has held three roles there. As Knowledge and Training Director (2020–2023) he led global customer, partner and employee education, designed the Cato certification programme, developed the Early Availability programme and established the Cato Community. As Global Director of Enablement (2023–2026) he owned global enablement across Sales, Technical, Product and Partner education through the company’s growth from roughly $70M ARR to more than $350M ARR, cutting new-hire ramp time by 40% and lifting quota attainment.

Robin Johns’ career history

Robin Johns has worked in networking, security and technical leadership since 2007 — spanning independent network simulation consulting, DV-cleared defence networking, Tier-3 escalation engineering and EMEA support leadership at Riverbed Technology, an offensive-security company he led as Managing Director, and three roles at Cato Networks culminating in his current worldwide AI remit.

Two of those entries are quiet ones. Gigatron was an offensive-security business focused on penetration testing and ethical hacking; its intellectual property was acquired under mutual non-disclosure terms. Blissforged developed identification and facial-recognition technology; its IP was likewise acquired under non-disclosure. Both matter here because they explain something about the AI security work: Robin has built the attacking side and the recognition side, not only the defending side.

What has Robin Johns published?

Robin Johns is the author of two books on Secure Access Service Edge: SASE: Explained — A beginners reference guide for Secure Access Service Edge (2023) and SASE Evolved — An Advanced Reference Guide for Secure Access Service Edge (2024). He also produces keynotes, webinars, podcasts, live demonstrations, technical documentation and long-form writing on AI security, SASE and enterprise AI adoption.

SASE: Explained is the entry point — the components, concepts and market position of SASE for someone coming to it cold, in short chapters designed to be picked up and put down. SASE Evolved is the advanced follow-up, written because the architecture kept moving: what has changed, what it means in practice, and what to do about it. Both are available through the Amazon author page.

• Certification programmes. Robin did not collect certifications — he built them. He designed the official certification programmes end to end for two global vendors: the Cato SASE Expert track, the Cato PoC Partner Certification, the Cato technical and sales certification programme, and Riverbed’s Application Performance and Application Delivery certifications.
• Video and broadcast. Talks, live demos and explainers. → Featured video
• Writing. Posts, threads and long-form articles for the field. → LinkedIn
• Music. Original music on Spotify and Apple Music — the part of the CV that surprises people. → Spotify

Education, credentials and clearance

Robin Johns holds a BSc in Business Information Systems from the University of Wales, Cardiff, a Six Sigma Green Belt in Project Management from Firebrand Training, and SASE Expert Level 1 certification. He held DV (Developed Vetting) clearance during his defence consulting work with Net Consulting.

BSc Business Information Systems — University of Wales, Cardiff (2009–2012)

Bachelor of Science.

Higher National Diploma, Business Information Technology — University of Wales, Cardiff (2009–2010)

Six Sigma Green Belt, Project Management — Firebrand Training (2012)

Basic Japanese, Japanese Studies — Cardiff University (2008–2011)

Japanese to limited working proficiency.

SASE Expert Level 1

Certified against the SASE Expert track — a programme he also designed.

DV clearance

Held during defence and government consulting work, 2012–2016.

Why does an AI security expert have a World of Warcraft CV?

Because the entire point of Robin Johns’ career is making difficult technology understandable, and a CV is just another difficult thing to make understandable. therobinjohns.com presents his career as an MMORPG character page — equipment, talent trees, a raid log — with a plain-text Recruiter Mode one click away for anyone who would rather just read it.

It is a deliberate demonstration rather than a gimmick. The argument Robin makes about AI security is that comprehension is the control: people cannot defend, govern or adopt what they do not understand, and most security communication fails at exactly that step. A CV that people actually finish reading is a small proof of the same thesis.

If you want the conventional version, the PDF CV and the plain Markdown CV are both available.

How to contact Robin Johns

Robin Johns can be reached at robinjohns@therobinjohns.com or via linkedin.com/in/thesaseguy. For keynotes, panels, executive briefings, podcast appearances and analyst or press enquiries, see the speaking page.

• Email: robinjohns@therobinjohns.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thesaseguy
• Location: Barry, Wales, United Kingdom — travels worldwide across AMER, EMEA and APJ
• Speaking and media: Book Robin to speak

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