Shantanu Bhatt, product security leader at Salesforce, has been appointed judge for the 2026 Global Recognition Awards. His multifaceted expertise spans technology risk management, entrepreneurship, and creative performance, positioning him to evaluate innovation, business transformation, and cybersecurity excellence across industries.
-- Shantanu Bhatt, product security leader at Salesforce, has been appointed as a judge for the 2026 Global Recognition Awards, bringing his multifaceted expertise in technology risk management, product innovation, and entrepreneurship to the evaluation panel. The appointment recognizes Bhatt's unique qualifications to assess excellence across cybersecurity, business transformation, and creative problem-solving—competencies increasingly critical as organizations navigate complex digital landscapes. His selection reflects the evolving criteria for industry award judges, who must possess not only technical depth but also practical experience evaluating innovation, performance, and real-world impact.
Photo Courtesy of Shantanu Bhatt
Bhatt brings over a decade of experience guiding global teams through IT controls, security frameworks, and compliance challenges at Salesforce, Google, Walmart, and EY, providing a cross-industry perspective essential for impartial evaluation. His appointment arrives as cybersecurity spending reaches $240 billion in 2026, with 74 percent of organizations identifying technology and cyber risk among their top five priorities, making expert adjudication of industry excellence more vital than ever. The convergence of IT and operational technology environments has created unprecedented challenges that demand judges who understand both technical implementation and strategic business value.
Technical Mastery Combined With Strategic Vision
Bhatt's technical capabilities span Python, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, SAP S/4HANA, Archer, and enterprise data platforms—a toolkit that enables him to evaluate submissions with both granular precision and strategic context. This breadth proves essential for judging award entries that increasingly emphasize data-driven decision-making and AI integration, where evaluators must assess innovation quality, technological advancement, and performance under real-world conditions. Industry judging standards now prioritize evaluators who can bridge technical implementation with strategic value, precisely the capacity Bhatt demonstrates through his track record transforming complex risk landscapes into actionable executive insights.
His professional achievements provide the credibility required of distinguished judges, particularly his tenure leading business integration at Walmart from 2020 to 2023, where he conducted audits covering performance improvement, application risk identification, network security, and data management. He simultaneously drove process efficiencies through automation opportunities while developing executive reports communicating control deficiencies, fraud investigations, and strategic recommendations to stakeholders—experience directly transferable to evaluating award submissions for clarity, measurable outcomes, and tangible business impact. His ability to translate technical risk into strategic opportunity for executive leadership demonstrates the evaluative sophistication required to distinguish between superficial innovation claims and genuine breakthrough achievements that advance industry standards.
Entrepreneurial Insight Informing Evaluation Excellence
What distinguishes Bhatt as a judge is his entrepreneurial portfolio, which provides rare insight into innovation from conception through commercialization and positions him to evaluate submissions for creativity, innovation, customer satisfaction, and professional execution. He has founded and scaled multiple ventures, including a luxury direct-to-consumer beauty brand, an AI-powered resume builder, and iGrow Inc., a gamified e-learning platform that teaches negotiation and leadership through immersive simulations, which he recently repositioned to deliver "confidence on demand." These hands-on experiences building products from zero to market enable him to assess whether innovations serve genuine customer needs or merely satisfy theoretical business cases, a distinction critical for meaningful award evaluation.
His entrepreneurial ventures demonstrate the builder mindset that enables discerning evaluation through rapid iteration from concept to minimum viable product, early user engagement, and data-informed refinement toward product-market fit. "Judges must distinguish between ideas that sound impressive and solutions that deliver measurable value," Bhatt observed, noting that building products teaches evaluators to recognize when innovation serves the customer versus when it serves promotional objectives. This perspective proves particularly valuable as 63 percent of companies experiencing AI-related incidents lacked proper governance policies in 2025, underscoring the need for judges who can assess responsible innovation alongside technological advancement while understanding the practical constraints entrepreneurs and product leaders face when implementing new solutions.
Cross-Disciplinary Leadership Enabling Holistic Assessment
Bhatt's qualifications extend beyond traditional technology boundaries through his work as a performing artist, producing dark, high-energy techno tracks released on Spotify, Apple Music, and Beatport under the moniker "The Auditor," while also DJing sets that demand sophisticated audience engagement and storytelling. This cross-disciplinary fluency enables him to assess entries holistically, considering not just technical merit but also how solutions are positioned, communicated, and brought to market—dimensions increasingly important as award programs evaluate submissions for presentation quality, strategic communication, and creative execution. His artistic practice keeps him fluent in brand creation and narrative development, skills he channels back into evaluating how technology leaders communicate value propositions and differentiate their innovations within competitive markets.
His educational foundation reinforces this multidimensional capability through a Master of Science in business analytics from the University of Illinois Chicago and recent entrepreneurship credentials from the University of Pennsylvania, which bridge quantitative analysis with commercial strategy. Professional recommendations highlight his collaborative approach, with one compliance leader noting his ability to guide organizations toward sustainable corrective actions rather than merely identifying deficiencies. At the same time, colleagues praised his capacity to explain complex risks clearly—qualities essential for constructive award evaluation that advances industry practices. His expertise in building inclusive, high-performing teams of eight auditors and conducting training sessions on program risk management and IT general controls demonstrates the leadership and knowledge-sharing ethos that award judges must embody when providing feedback that elevates the entire field.
Final Words
"Appointing Shantanu Bhatt as a judge reflects our commitment to evaluation panels that mirror the complexity of modern business excellence," stated Alex Sterling from the Global Recognition Awards. "Traditional judging relied on narrow technical expertise within isolated domains, but today's most meaningful innovations occur at intersections—between security and velocity, between compliance and creativity, between analytical rigor and entrepreneurial agility. Bhatt's career trajectory across enterprise technology leadership, product entrepreneurship, and creative performance provides the multidimensional lens required to identify true breakthrough achievements rather than incremental improvements dressed in ambitious language."
"His appointment ensures submissions will be evaluated not simply for technical sophistication but for the holistic value they deliver through solving real problems, driving measurable outcomes, and advancing industry standards," Sterling continued. "We are confident his insights will elevate the caliber and credibility of our recognition program, particularly as organizations face converging challenges in AI governance, cybersecurity, and digital transformation that demand judges who understand technology and business domains equally well. The professionals we recognize must demonstrate excellence across multiple dimensions, and our judges must possess the breadth to assess those dimensions with authority, fairness, and vision that pushes the industry forward rather than merely acknowledging past achievements."
About Global Recognition Awards
Global Recognition Awards is an international organization that recognizes exceptional companies and individuals who have made significant contributions to their industries.
Contact Info:
Name: Alexander Sterling
Email: Send Email
Organization: Global Recognition Awards
Website: https://globalrecognitionawards.org
Release ID: 89184082
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