Sean ONeill is a Senior Director Analyst at Gartner’s Technology and Service Provider division, specializing in Identity Governance, Access Management, Aand Digital Identity solutions. His current focus is supporting Technical Product Managers in these spaces on planning and execution on emerging trends and technology with a 1-to-3-year horizon. He is a recognized leader in Identity Governance and Access Management (IGA), leveraging over three decades of experience across commercial, government, and startup sectors driving innovation in digital identity solutions. Sean brings unparalleled expertise to his research on currently emerging technologies for product leaders.
As co-inventor of four U.S. patents on wireless pen-based computer systems for trading floors, Sean has consistently driven innovation throughout his career. His recent focus includes implementing CIAM identity backbone systems for state governments during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling secure online service delivery while advancing digital credentialing initiatives.
Sean’s professional background includes roles at EY, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Persistent Systems, and Deloitte. At Deloitte, he supported strategic growth in cybersecurity for GPS clients transitioning from mainframe services to cloud-based delivery. He was also an interim Director of Identity and Access Managment at a large east coast hospital and university during major upgrades to its digital patient care system.
A thought leader in Citizen Identity Management, Sean is passionate about empowering individuals with self-sovereignty over their personal data. His altruistic crusades are the elimination of passwords everywhere and to extend the ability to login to the approximate one third of humanity who cannot. He continues to shape the future of digital identity through his research at Gartner.
Senior Manager - Deloitte and Touch Specialist Leader, CyberSecurity Advisory. State and Local Government and Healthcare. Mainly focused on migrating state identity services from on-premises bespoke IAM to cloud-based citizen single sign-on platforms, PAM defensive strategies, and fraud detection. These platforms enable millions of citizens to access government agencies and services, managing transactions worth hundreds of billions of dollars. During the pandemic, these systems became significant targets for large-scale identity fraud. Just before the pandemic, one of his assignments for a year was interim Director of Identity and Access Management at a large hospital and teaching facility in Philadelphia. The hospital was part of a larger effort of 14 medical campuses and four teaching facilities upgrading to digital patient records and digital identity access.
While at Deloitte, also contributed to internal strategic identity projects and co-developed and facilitated Deloitte University's Identity Boot Camps.
Deloitte & Touche, LLP Advisory, Specialist Leader - Cyber Risk and Security, 4 years
Oracle Corporation, Master Principal - Identity and Security, 7 years
Sun Microsystems, Master Principal - Identity and Security, 8 years
Craft World-Class Product Strategies
Identity and Access Management
Cyber Risk
Identity and Access Management for Technical Professionals
Cybersecurity Leadership
Bachelor of Science Mechanical Engineering - Duke University Pratt School of Engineering
Completed coursework for undergraduate MBA from Duke University Trinity School of Arts and Science. Trinity does not award degrees to engineering students. Dean's list.
Identity centric security 1-to-3-year horizon focused on Technical Product Management
Government public sector (state focused) identity and access management
Incorporating Identity Verification, biometrics and Age Assurance into overall fraud approach
Decentralized identity and governance particularly eIDAS 2.0 EUDI and US based mDL initiatives
Password elimination, self-sovereignty, digital identity