​A live podcast recording with Jason Chan, former VP of Information Security at Netflix, on whether security's most-admired model survives the age of AI agents. Reception, recording, and candid Q&A with 50 security leaders in downtown Palo Alto.

​The Paved Road Is Dead. Long Live the Paved Road.

​The safe path should be the easy path. That idea — security that paves a road engineers want to take instead of building gates they route around — is Jason Chan's signature contribution from his years running security at Netflix. It became the most-admired model in the industry. It's also, in Jason's own telling, one of the most misunderstood.

​Now the ground under it is moving. Engineers are shipping AI agents faster than any platform team can pave. Agents get credentials, call APIs, take actions, and spin up other agents — a workforce nobody hired and few teams can see. Every security leader in the Bay Area is asking the same question:

​Does the paved road survive when the drivers aren't human?

​Join us for a live recording of the Candid CISO Podcast — practitioners talking, not vendors pitching — as John Donovan sits down with Jason for an unscripted conversation about what still works, what was always culture-dependent, and what has to be rebuilt.

​What we'll get into

• ​What "paved road" was actually meant to be, and the ways it gets misread into something worse than the gates it replaced

• ​Guardrails vs. gates when the thing you're guarding moves at machine speed

• ​Identity as the new perimeter — including the non-human identities your agents already carry

• ​Who paves the road for an agentic workforce, and whether platform teams are set up to own it

• ​What Jason would build first if he were starting a security program in 2026

​The evening

• ​6:00 PM — Reception: light fare, beer, wine, light appetizers, and good company

• ​6:30 PM — Live recording: John Donovan in conversation with Jason Chan

• ​7:15 PM — Candid Q&A: the audience joins the conversation

• ​7:30 PM — Open bar and networking until 8:00

​About our guest

​Jason Chan led information security at Netflix, where he helped define the engineering-first, guardrails-not-gates approach to cloud security that fast-moving companies have been trying to replicate ever since. He is one of the most recognizable practitioner voices in the Bay Area, and he says what he thinks — which is why he's here.

​Who this is for

​CISOs, deputy CISOs, heads of security engineering and platform, identity leaders, and the founders and investors who back them. This is a small room by design — 40 seats — so the conversation stays candid.

​Presented with HYPR

​This event is made possible by our Season 2 sponsor, HYPR. As organizations race to deploy AI at scale, HYPR is focused on the identity and control layer that lets you scale an agentic workforce without losing visibility of who — and what — is acting on your behalf. HYPR leaders will be in the room as participants in the conversation.

​Venue and logistics

​Anderson Collection at Stanford (Denning Room)
A contemporary art museum on the Stanford campus, with the Denning Room as our event space. Most Stanford parking is free after 4:00 PM (Roth Way Garage is closest). From Palo Alto Caltrain, take the free Marguerite shuttle or walk.

​A note on recording

​This event is recorded for the Candid CISO Podcast. By attending you're okay appearing in audio and video from the evening. Q&A comments may be included in the published episode.

​Hosted by John Donovan and Steve Tout · Candid CISO, a Tout Media production

​Candid CISO Live brings senior security leaders together for the conversations that usually happen after the conference session ends: opinionated, practical, and grounded in what actually works.

​Presented with HYPR, the Identity Assurance Company.