You Can’t Fake Authenticity: Illumio’s Karl Van den Bergh on the Real Role of the Chief Market Officer

What if your job wasn’t to market your company but the market itself?

That’s how Karl Van den Bergh, Chief Market Officer at Illumio, describes his role. After over nine months in the seat, he’s leading the charge to make cybersecurity marketing more human, honest, and far less buzzword-driven.

In the latest Cyber CMO Confidential, Karl joins Gianna and Charles to unpack what happens when you drop the “ing” from marketing, why he believes authenticity has become a competitive advantage, and how Illumio is reframing cybersecurity around breach containment, not just Zero Trust Segmentation.

From Marketing to Market

When Karl joined Illumio, he didn’t just inherit a brand; he walked into a company already in motion. For years, Illumio was known for pioneering microsegmentation and Zero Trust Segmentation. But Karl saw a bigger story waiting to be told.

“Our technology defined us,” he said. “It was time to be defined by the value we deliver.”

So Illumio repositioned itself as the breach containment company, shifting the narrative from product capability to business outcome. The change landed with customers and energized the team internally. For Karl, it’s what makes the work fun again: translating technical depth into clarity that resonates.

AI-Washing and the Eye-Roll Test

Every hype cycle has its buzzword. First, it was big data, followed by Zero Trust. Now it’s AI.

Karl calls it AI washing, the reflex to label everything as artificial intelligence, whether it is or not. 

“It’s normal when something new and hyped comes around,” he said. “But when buyers start rolling their eyes, you know you’ve gone too far.”

“We don’t need more AI slides,” Karl added. “We need more AI that actually works.”

At Illumio, AI is kept in its lane. They don't use it if it doesn’t create real, defensible value. Internally, that means applying AI to improve productivity and efficiency, not fluff up messaging. Externally, it’s about showing customers where AI genuinely helps instead of hiding behind the term.

No gimmicks. No shortcuts. Just clarity.

You Can’t Fake Authenticity

Karl doesn’t mince words: “You can’t fake authenticity. If you try, people will see through it.”

He’s not wrong. Trust is at an all-time low in a world drowning in misinformation and marketing noise. Yet, that gap creates space for brands that choose honesty over hyperbole.

“If you’re spending more to heat the house and it’s still getting colder, something’s broken.” — Karl Van den Bergh

One of his favorite slides proves the point: $350 billion in annual cybersecurity spend rising alongside $12 trillion in global cybercrime losses. The industry keeps investing, but the problem keeps growing. That honesty inspired one of Illumio’s boldest brand moves—a campaign featuring a classroom of elementary school kids challenging a CISO. The kids call out industry logic in the simplest possible way: “You can’t stop breaches; you’ve got to contain them.”

It’s funny, a little uncomfortable, and entirely true.

Real Connection Still Wins

Even as AI floods every conversation, Karl keeps returning to something simpler: people.

Illumio invests heavily in in-person connection through Lumiverse Labs, a hands-on technical community, and the Illumio World Tour, a C-level event series for real-world conversations. “You can’t replace what happens when people sit together,” he said. “Relationships still sell.”

Karl will bring that same message to CyberMarketingCon 2025 this December in Austin, joining the CMO track to talk about leading AI adoption inside marketing teams—and how to do it without losing your voice.

📍 See Karl and other cybersecurity marketing leaders live at CyberMarketingCon 2025, December 7–10 in Austin, TX.

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🎧 Listen to the full episode of Cyber CMO Confidential to hear Karl’s take on AI hype, authenticity, and why the future of marketing might start by dropping the “ing.”