Naming someone a “chief evangelist” for a tech company leaves some people scratching their heads.
The idea may be traceable to Guy Kawasaki, who was the chief evangelist for Apple Inc., where in the 1980s he helped to popularize and market the Macintosh computer. He is currently the chief evangelist of Canva, an online, graphics design company in Australia.
Other companies have followed suit with similarly titled positions.
BlackBerry Cylance’s chief evangelist is Brian Robison, who described his job at the cybersecurity firm this way: “It’s kind of hard to explain, but my job is basically education, education not really on what we do as the big story but what problems do we face. What are the social, economic, geopolitical issues around cybersecurity?”
Canadian firm BlackBerry purchased Irvine-based Cylance a year ago.
SecureAuth of Irvine also created the position of chief evangelist last month, naming security veteran Bil Harmer to the post.
The company describes his job this way: “He’s a brand ambassador and champion for our customers. The mission is to elevate the conversation among those in our industry from one centered around products, features, functions to the development of a new set of standards in identity security—a new way of thinking.”
And for those who’ve forgotten Sunday school lessons, the description “evangelist” started out meaning a writer of any of the four Gospels of the New Testament.
— Kevin Costelloe
