Tom Okman ( Lithuanian: Tomas Okmanas; born November 5, 1987) is a Lithuanian businessman and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of business accelerator Tesonet and cybersecurity solutions company Nord Security, which is best known for its

VPN service A virtual private network (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geoblocking and users who want to protect their communications against data profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks. A wide ...

NordVPN NordVPN is a VPN service provided by company Nordsec Ltd with applications for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and Android TV. Manual setup is available for wireless routers, NAS devices, and other platforms. NordVPN is develo ...

. In 2017, Tom Okman made the annual New Europe 100 list of the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

. In 2020, Okman was named the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of the year by the leading Lithuanian business newspaper Verslo Zinios.

Early life

Tom Okman was born and raised in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree in history at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow an ...

and later earned a master's degree in e-business management at

Mykolas Romeris University Mykolas Romeris University ( lt, Mykolo Romerio universitetas) is an international university located with campuses in Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania. MRU cooperates closely with over 350 universities, public and private institutions, takes par ...

Career

Okman founded Tesonet together with Eimantas Sabaliauskas in 2008. After trying 34 various projects and ideas, from computer games to

web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing we ...

solutions, they finally focused on

network security Network security consists of the policies, processes and practices adopted to prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Network security involves th ...

, business hosting, and big data solutions. Both individually and through the Tesonet accelerator, Okman invested in more than 50 different projects and ventures. He is actively involved in mentoring new ventures in the Lithuanian startup ecosystem and has taken part in launching a new association aimed at the growth of active Lithuanian startups. In 2012, Okman co-founded the VPN service company

. He contributed to the development of the solution, significantly reducing the time required for TCP packets to travel between the client, the VPN server, and their ultimate destination. Tom Okman is listed as one of the inventors of this method in the US patent office database. In 2017, Okman co-founded Nord Security, an umbrella company for several cybersecurity solutions both for clients and businesses, like

, NordVPN Teams, NordPass, and NordLocker. However, a near-future vision for Nord Security, according to Okman, is to have one app that users could forget about after its activation: it would cover all the important areas of consumer security in the background. Since 2020, Tom Okman has been a member of the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

Technology Council. He is also a member of the board of trustees at the

Institute of International Relations and Political Science, together with the eighth President of the Republic of Lithuania

Dalia Grybauskaitė Dalia Grybauskaitė (; born 1 March 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth President of Lithuania from 2009 until 2019. She is the first woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Lithuania to be ...

and other prominent Lithuanian figures.

Advocacy

Tom Okman is a member of the board of directors of the Internet infrastructure coalition (i2Coalition). This initiative ensures that those who build the infrastructure of the internet have a voice in public policy. In 2019, i2Coalition and six leading

VPN A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...

service providers launched an initiative called VPN Trust Initiative (VTI). A year later, VTI released a set of VTI Principles to offer a comprehensive set of best practices for VPN providers. Speaking on behalf of NordVPN, a member of VTI, Okman stated that the release of VTI Principles and Standards sets the bar for the whole industry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okman, Tom 1987 births Living people Businesspeople in information technology Technology company founders Internet company founders Businesspeople in software 21st-century Lithuanian businesspeople Lithuanian business executives People from Vilnius Vilnius University alumni Mykolas Romeris University alumni