As I reflect on the first quarter of the year, I find myself both grateful and honored to share that Yubico’s Board of Directors has permanently appointed me to the position of President and CEO at Yubico. Having been part of the company’s journey since 2013, most recently as Acting CEO and COO, I have witnessed firsthand that our success is deeply rooted in a singular commitment: protecting our customers. This responsibility remains my priority as we continue our mission to make the digital world safer for all. 

This past quarter, we navigated a complex operating environment shaped by global uncertainty and extended purchasing cycles. While these headwinds are real, we continue to see that the fundamental demand for phishing-resistant authentication remains solid. What is most encouraging is the continued traction of our subscription business, YubiKey as a Service. Enterprises are increasingly seeking flexible, service-based models to accelerate the adoption of YubiKey as we simplify large-scale deployments and onboarding. 

Becoming a foundation for AI cybersecurity 

While we navigate the immediate demands of the market, our vision is long-term. We operate in a time where the urgency to act has never been greater, as AI fundamentally reshapes the threat landscape. 

I am incredibly proud of our recent partnership with OpenAI. As Yubico transforms for the next phase of growth with an AI-enabled world, partnerships like OpenAI do not happen overnight. The team and I worked on this collaboration for more than a year, and our relationship with key stakeholders goes back more than a decade. 

Through their Advanced Account Security program, we’ve brought the strongest hardware-backed passkeys to ChatGPT and Codex users. The fact that OpenAI relies on YubiKey as a Service and deployed YubiKeys globally to its employees is a strong validation that our products are necessary for innovating on the AI frontier. This announcement goes beyond the partnership and a strong proof point when we state in our YubiNation Partners program that 18 of the top AI companies use our technology.

As AI becomes foundational to how people and businesses work, securing identities is critical. Establishing secure access and authorizing high-consequence actions with verified human intent is essential to building trust in AI adoption at scale.

Looking ahead 

I remain committed to  building even deeper customer relationships and delivering products that help our customers solve real world problems. This starts by highlighting the exciting things our customers are doing, and sharing their stories of prioritizing cyber resilience in an increasingly sophisticated landscape. Naturally, this leads to more focus on innovation and delivering the best products to our customers.

Finally, I am very thankful for the Yubico team as we grow and be a stronger, more resilient company.