Christopher W. Klaus (born 1973 in

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) is an American technology entrepreneur. He was founder and CTO of Internet Security Systems (ISS), a company which he started in the early 1990s, and then sold to IBM in 2006 for $1.3B. As of 2016, he is the CEO of

Kaneva Kaneva, LLC is a privately owned American video game company based in Atlanta, Georgia and founded in 2004 by Christopher Klaus and Greg Frame. Kaneva was a 3D Virtual World that supported 2D web browsing, social networking and shared media. In ...

, a game company which he founded in 2004, and also the main financier for multiple business accelerators in the Atlanta area; including being a part of the Atlanta Technology Angels.

History

Klaus formed ISS in the early 1990s as a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, eventually dropping out to focus on the growing company. In 2004 he stepped down from his role of Chief Technology Officer of ISS to pursue other interests, although he remained a significant shareholder and retained his role as the company's Chief Security Advisor. In 2006 ISS was sold to IBM for $1.3B. Around 2007 Klaus became one of Georgia Tech's most visible contributors, giving a $15M naming gift to build the College of Computing's new home, the Klaus Advanced Computing Building. In July 2014, Klaus co-founded NeuroLaunch, a business accelerator focused towards neurotech companies in Atlanta. In October 2015, he financed and co-founded another accelerator, CyberLaunch, which focuses on

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

and

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

startups. Klaus's ex-wife, Crissy, is also a prominent figure through fifteen years of work in local marketing and real estate, as well as extensive work with non-profit organizations. She recently founded Fio360, Atlanta's first eco-early care center.

References

Living people 1973 births Georgia Tech alumni Chief technology officers of computer security companies American chief technology officers American technology chief executives People from Sarasota, Florida {{US-compu-bio-stub