QR Code
QR Code
Also Known As Xie
CEO of Fortinet
Ken Xie is a CEO of Fortinet, Inc.(FTNT) In 1993, Xie founded a network security company, Systems Integration Solutions (SIS). Xie built the first ASIC-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996, in his garage in Palo Alto, California. That same year he founded NetScreen Technologies, an online security firm, with Yan Ke and Feng Deng. NetScreen Technologies was later acquired by Juniper Networks Inc. for $4 billion.
In 2000, Xie left NetScreen to create Fortinet with his brother Michael Xie, an electrical engineer. Since then, Ken Xie has served as Fortinet's CEO, while Michael Xie is president and chief technology officer.
Xie has stated that he founded Fortinet because he believed that security must be embedded in the end-to-end computing and networking infrastructure. The Xie brothers launched the initial FortiGate products in May 2002.
Xie has led Fortinet to acquire security monitoring firm AccelOps, endpoint security firm enSilo, and SOAR platform provider CyberSponse, among other companies.
Xie was made a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2013.
In June 2018, Xie led Fortinet's acquisition of Bradford Networks, a lot-focused security firm.
In January 2019, Xie was a discussion leader for the Centre for Cybersecurity’s cyber workforce session at Davos’ World Economic Forum (WEF) summit. In February 2020, Ken Xie spoke at the RSA conference in San Francisco about the importance of SD-WAN, edge computing, and automation.
Xie is a founding member and a member of the board of board of directors of the Cyber Threat Alliance. In September 2020, Xie joined the Forbes 400 list.
Xie is married and lives in Los Altos Hills, California. He is the father of Jaime Xie, a fashion influencer and star on the Netflix reality TV series Bling Empire.
Xie was born and raised in China. He graduated from Tsinghua University with a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering, and from Stanford University with an M.S. in electrical engineering.
