The next billion users on the internet will not be human. They will be AI agents, operating at scale on behalf of the people and organizations that deploy them. For most companies, that is still a distant thought experiment. For Menlo Security, it is the problem already being solved.
Building the organization to do that work is Kate Terrell's job.
As Menlo's Chief Human Resources Officer, Kate drives the people strategy behind everything the company does: best leadership and talent, engaged teams who are enabled to perform at their very best. She treats it the way Menlo treats security, as a core function, not an afterthought.
Kate came to Menlo because the work resonated. She takes the mission personally. A world of increasingly sophisticated threats needs exactly what Menlo is built to provide: the ability to connect, communicate, and collaborate securely without compromise. That conviction has only deepened since.
She is clear about where security is headed. As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of humans, the nature of the threats, and the nature of the users at risk, changes fundamentally. Menlo's approach to browser security positions it directly at that frontier, and Kate sees that as both a strategic opportunity and a responsibility the company takes seriously.
Her own relationship with AI reflects that same approach. She has always leaned into new tools before they become conventional, going back to the days when carrying a digital organizer in your pocket felt like a radical idea. She brings that same instinct to how Menlo approaches AI internally: start before it feels obvious, and be rigorous about learning from what doesn't work in order to scale what does.
Ask Kate about her own impact at Menlo and she will redirect the conversation toward her team almost immediately. She does not take credit. She talks about what they have built together, the individual strengths each person brings, and her own role as clearing whatever stands in their way.
"At a certain point, it stops being about you," she says. "It becomes about making the people around you as successful as they can possibly be."
That philosophy runs through how Menlo operates, not just internally but in how the company shows up for its customers. A team that is genuinely invested in each other tends to be genuinely invested in the people they serve. The mission and the culture are not separate things here. They reinforce each other.
For Kate, that orientation does not stop at the org chart. She has spent a career watching the landscape for women in business evolve, and she is more encouraged by what she sees now than at the start.
She is deliberate about it herself. People took chances on her throughout her career, men and women who pushed her toward opportunities she might not have sought on her own. She considers it a leadership responsibility to do the same. That means looking past the obvious hire and taking seriously the candidate whose path was unconventional. It means giving people real room to grow once they are in.
There is still more work ahead. She says that without any hedging. But she is committed to being part of what moves it forward.
As Women's History Month comes to a close, it is a fitting moment to recognize the people shaping what comes next. Kate Terrell is doing exactly that.
Menlo Security
