Ken Xie: A Masterclass in Cybersecurity Excellence
For three decades, Ken Xie has been committed to bolstering global cyber defences.
As the Founder, Chairman and CEO of leading cybersecurity company Fortinet, he is consistently celebrated for being a successful industry expert and entrepreneur. He has been at the helm of the organisation since it was founded in 2000 and has successfully built a vast portfolio of solutions across network, infrastructure, edge and the cloud.
The organisation serves roughly 70% of Fortune 100 companies and governments around the world. Ken has ensured that Fortinet maintains a clear and structured approach to security and networking, which in turn has helped businesses better protect their networks across the entire attack surface.
As of 2024, his net worth is roughly US$5.2bn.
A garage in Palo Alto: The birth of a cyber mogul
Born and raised in the People’s Republic of China to academic parents, Ken graduated from Tsinghua University with both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He then chose to go to the United States for further education at Stanford University, which led him to build a life there.
He explained in a 2017 interview with Forbes that his parents always hoped that, given his interest in networks, that he would return to China to be a professor. However, this was not to be the case.
“Stanford is connected to companies in the Bay Area like Google, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems,” Ken told Forbes. “I learned about entrepreneurship, which was not something I had been exposed to in China in college. I found it exciting.”
In 1993, Ken founded a network security company called Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), a software firewall company. Through this, he built the first ASIC-based firewall and VPN alliance in his garage in Palo Alto, California, in 1996.
The same year he founded NetScreen Technologies. As an online security firm, the company developed the first dedicated hardware systems for high-performance firewalls and VPNs. Its success, alongside co-founders Yan Ke and Feng Deng, led the company to be acquired later by Juniper Networks for US$4bn.
Ken also told Forbes: “Being an entrepreneur fits me because I like learning something new every day. I also enjoy the areas of network security and internet security, which is why all three of my companies have been in this space.
“Each time we try to do better.”
Fortinet: Leading by design with embedded cybersecurity
Fortinet is the third cybersecurity company founded by Ken and its work has been instrumental in shaping the cybersecurity industry. First founded alongside his brother and current Chief Technology Officer, Michael Xie, Ken has served as the company’s CEO since 2000.
The company went public via Nasdaq in 2009 and was valued roughly at around US$800m at this time. As of 2024, Fortinet boasts a valuation of approximately US$50bn and continues to be a cybersecurity leader.
At the helm, Ken states that he founded Fortinet because of his belief that security must be embedded in end-to-end computing and networking infrastructure. Now, as the cyber threat landscape continues to become more sophisticated, Ken is an advocate of combining cloud and hardware solutions to address current and future cybersecurity challenges.
His leadership has led the company to acquire several organisations over the years, including Next DLP and most recently Laceworks. The company has also migrated further towards cloud services - having launched FortiGate 200G in May 2024 to deliver cutting-edge performance and AI security services.
“The FortiGate 200G series was purpose-built to deliver high-performing networking and security capabilities required within the modern campus,” Ken commented at the time via X. “It delivers incredible throughput, enhances operational efficiency and empowers organisations to increase their security posture amid the evolving threat landscape.”
Highlighting his commitment to the industry, Ken sits across several executive boards, including the Cyber Threat Alliance and the Center for Cybersecurity as part of the World Economic Forum.
“Security is pretty interesting. It's very dynamic, every year there's a new strategy, you need a solution to come out quickly to address a new threat,” Ken noted at Morgan Stanley’s 2024 Tech and Media Conference.
“The point solution will always be there to quickly catch the new threat to protect the customer.”
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