Ken Xie

Ken Xie (Chinese: 谢青; pinyin: Xiè Qīng) is a Chinese-born American businessman who founded Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), NetScreen Technologies, and Fortinet. He serves as CEO of Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm based in Silicon Valley. Xie was previously the CEO of NetScreen, which was acquired by Juniper Networks for $4 billion in 2004. He built the first ASIC-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996.[1]

Ken Xie
Born1963
Beijing, China
Alma materTsinghua University
EmployerFortinet
Known forFounder of Fortinet and NetScreen
TitleCEO, Fortinet
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese謝青
Simplified Chinese谢青

Early life and education

Xie was born and raised in China.[2] He enjoyed electrical engineering and repairing televisions and radios as a hobby.[3] He graduated from Tsinghua University with a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering,[2][4] and from Stanford University with an M.S. in electrical engineering.[5]

Career

In 1993, Xie founded a network security company, Systems Integration Solutions (SIS).[5] As a tinkerer in his garage in Palo Alto, California, Xie built the first ASIC-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996.[1] That same year he founded NetScreen Technologies, an online security firm, with Yan Ke and Feng Deng.[5][6] The company was later acquired by Juniper Networks Inc. for $4 billion. In 2000, Xie left NetScreen to work on building Fortinet alongside his brother Michael Xie, an electrical engineer.[5]

Fortinet

In 2000, Xie and his brother Michael Xie[7] created Fortinet in order to, according to Xie, sell additional security tools modeling both content and applications.[8] Xie has stated that he founded Fortinet because of the need for a much larger footprint for security and the fact that security must be embedded in the end-to-end computing and networking infrastructure.[9] The Xie brothers launched the initial FortiGate products in May 2002.[10] Xie has focused Fortinet on developing a Unified Threat Management approach to information security.[11] Xie serves as Fortinet’s CEO, while his brother is president and chief technology officer.[5] In 2016, Xie led the launch of the Network Security Academy, which trained students in the field of cybersecurity.[12] In June 2018, Xie led the acquisition of Bradford Networks, a lot-focused security firm.[13] Xie represents Fortinet as a founding member and member of the board of directors of the Cyber Threat Alliance.[14][15] In January 2019, Xie was a discussion leader for the Centre for Cybersecurity’s cyber workforce session at Davos’ World Economic Forum (WEF) summit.[16]

Awards

For his "contributions to cybersecurity, including network security systems and services," Xie was made a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2013.[17]

gollark: And *does* `/dev/citrons` print infinite lemons?
gollark: You need to do that on boot, though.
gollark: /dev/the
gollark: How exciting.
gollark: I briefly read it as "LGBTIQ free zone" and was worried.

References
  1. Taulli, Tom (6 February 2012). "The Man Who Made Two Multibillion-Dollar Companies". Forbes. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  2. Villano, Matt (15 October 2004). "Ken Xie". CRN. Archived from the original on 5 January 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  3. "Fortinet CEO on fending off cyber attacks in the new generation, and why he likes Fortnite". The Mercury News. 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  4. "Faculty Member and Alumni Elected to NAS, AAAS and NAE" (PDF). Tsinghua Newsletter (23). Tsinghua University. May 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  5. Stupples, Benjamin (February 7, 2019). "Silicon Valley Brothers Build Billion Dollar Cyber-Security Fortunes". Bloomberg.
  6. Garcia, Arturo (2017-08-20). "CEO Spotlight: Fortinet's Ken Xie". Born2Invest. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
  7. Hill, Karen (2012). International Directory of Company Histories: Fortinet. 128. St James Press. pp. 223–227.
  8. Kuranda, Sarah (28 June 2017). "Q&A: Fortinet CEO Xie On Why The Company Will Beat Cisco, Palo Alto Networks And Check Point As The Network Security Market Evolves". CRN. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  9. Woods, Dan. "Cybersecurity's Future: Powered by Hardware". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  10. Gundry, Lisa K.; Kickul, Jill R. (2006-08-14). Entrepreneurship Strategy: Changing Patterns in New Venture Creation, Growth, and Reinvention. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781483316857.
  11. McMillan, Robert (November 18, 2009). "Security Vendor Fortinet Sparkles in IPO". IDG News. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
  12. "Fortinet Founder And CEO On How To Protect Next Generation IT Infrastructures". Cybercrime Magazine. 2018-08-30. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  13. "Fortinet Acquires Bradford Networks to Extend Security to the Edge | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  14. Taylor, Harriet (15 January 2015). "Security firms forge alliance to fight growing cyber threat". CNBC. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  15. Barth, Bradley (13 February 2017). "Cyber Threat Alliance grows to six founding members; introduces Mike Daniel as president". SC Media. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  16. "Fortinet to lead cyber security discussion at WEF annual summit". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  17. "Mr. Ken Q. Xie". National Academy of Engineering Member Listings. NAE.edu.
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