Ken Xie () is an American billionaire businessman who founded Systems Integration Solutions (SIS),

NetScreen NetScreen Technologies was an American technology company that was acquired by Juniper Networks for US$4 billion stock for stock in 2004. NetScreen Technologies developed ASIC-based Internet security systems and appliances that delivered high per ...

, and

Fortinet Fortinet is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and sells cybersecurity solutions, such as physical firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion prevention systems, and endpoint secur ...

. He is CEO of Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm based in Silicon Valley. Xie was previously the CEO of NetScreen, which was acquired by

Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security products, ...

for $4 billion in 2004. He built the first

ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...

-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996.

Early life

Xie was born and raised in China. He graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

with a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering, and from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

with an M.S. in electrical engineering.

Career

In 1993, Xie founded a network security company, Systems Integration Solutions (SIS). Xie built the first

-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996, in his garage in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. 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.

Fortinet

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 The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

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 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is publ ...

list.

Personal life

Xie is married and lives in

Los Altos Hills Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,4 ...

, California. He is the father of

Jaime Xie Jaime Xie is an American businesswoman, model, socialite, and reality TV personality. She has starred on the Netflix TV series ''Bling Empire'' as an original main cast member since 2021. Early life Jaime Xie is the eldest child of Ken Xie, ...

, a fashion influencer and star on the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

reality TV series ''

Bling Empire ''Bling Empire'' is an American reality television series released on Netflix on January 15, 2021. The series focuses on the lives of wealthy, materialistic East and Southeast Asian Americans, socialites based in the Los Angeles area, described ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xie, Ken 1963 births Living people Chinese emigrants to the United States American technology chief executives American computer businesspeople Businesspeople in software Tsinghua University alumni Members of Committee of 100 Stanford University alumni Businesspeople from Beijing American technology company founders Chinese company founders Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering American billionaires People from Los Altos Hills, California