Ken Xie

Ken Xie (Chinese: 谢青; pinyin: Xiè Qīng) is an American billionaire businessman who founded Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), NetScreen, and Fortinet.

Ken Xie
Speaking at the 2021 World Economic Forum
Born	1963 (age 59–60) Beijing, China
Citizenship	American
Education	Tsinghua University Stanford University
Known for	Co-founder of Fortinet and NetScreen
Title	CEO and chairman, Fortinet
Children	Jaime Xie
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	謝青
Simplified Chinese	谢青
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiè Qīng

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 for $4 billion in 2004. He built the first ASIC-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996.^[1]

Early life

Xie was born and raised in China.^[2] He graduated from Tsinghua University with a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering,^[2][3] and from Stanford University with an M.S. in electrical engineering.

Career

In 1993, Xie founded a network security company, Systems Integration Solutions (SIS).^[4] Xie built the first ASIC-based firewall/VPN appliance in 1996, in his garage in Palo Alto, California.^[1] That same year he founded NetScreen Technologies, an online security firm, with Yan Ke and Feng Deng.^[4][5] 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.^[6] Since then, Ken Xie has served as Fortinet's CEO, while Michael Xie is president and chief technology officer.^[6][7] Xie has stated that he founded Fortinet because he believed that security must be embedded in the end-to-end computing and networking infrastructure.^[8] The Xie brothers launched the initial FortiGate products in May 2002.^[9] Xie has led Fortinet to acquire security monitoring firm AccelOps, endpoint security firm enSilo, SOAR platform provider CyberSponse,^[10][11][12] and the IoT-focused security firm Bradford Networks.^[13]

In January 2019, Xie was a discussion leader for the Centre for Cybersecurity’s cyber workforce session at Davos’ World Economic Forum (WEF) summit.^[14] In February 2020, Ken Xie spoke at the RSA conference in San Francisco about the importance of SD-WAN, edge computing, and automation.^[15] Xie is a founding member and a member of the board of directors of the Cyber Threat Alliance.^[16][17]

Personal life

Xie is married and lives in Los Altos Hills, California.^[18] He is the father of Jaime Xie, a fashion influencer and star on the Netflix reality TV series Bling Empire.^[19] In September 2020, Xie joined the Forbes 400 list.^[20]

Xie was made a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2013.^[21]

Private foundation

Xie runs a private foundation, along with his brother. Since 2009, Xie has had more than $30 million in income tax deductions by contributing shares of Fortinet to this private foundation.^[22] In 2017, the private foundation spent $3 million on a home in Cupertino, California which Xie and his then-girlfriend lived in.^[22] In January 2020, the house was transferred from the foundation to a LLC

References

1. Taulli, Tom (February 6, 2012). "The Man Who Made Two Multibillion-Dollar Companies". Forbes. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
2. Villano, Matt (October 15, 2004). "Ken Xie". CRN. from the original on January 5, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
3. "Faculty Member and Alumni Elected to NAS, AAAS and NAE" (PDF). Tsinghua Newsletter. No. 23. Tsinghua University. May 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
4. Stupples, Benjamin (February 7, 2019). "Silicon Cyber-Security Fortunes". Bloomberg.
5. Garcia, Arturo (August 20, 2017). "CEO Spotlight: Fortinet's Ken Xie". Born2Invest. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
6. "Silicon Valley Brothers Build Billion Dollar Cyber-Security Fortunes". Bloomberg.com. February 7, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
7. "Reinvent Yourself And Make Billions? Fortinet CEO Shows You How". Investor's Business Daily. October 17, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
8. Woods, Dan. "Cybersecurity's Future: Powered by Hardware". Forbes. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
9. Gundry, Lisa K.; Kickul, Jill R. (August 14, 2006). Entrepreneurship Strategy: Changing Patterns in New Venture Creation, Growth, and Reinvention. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781483316857.
10. "Fortinet Acquires Security Monitoring Firm AccelOps | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. June 7, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
11. "Fortinet Acquires Endpoint Security Firm enSilo | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. October 28, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
12. "Fortinet Acquires SOAR Platform Provider CyberSponse | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. December 13, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
13. "Fortinet Acquires Bradford Networks to Extend Security to the Edge | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. June 5, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
14. "Fortinet to lead cyber security discussion at WEF annual summit". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
15. "Fortinet CEO: SD-WAN, Edge, Automation Key to Next-Gen Security - SDxCentral". SDxCentral. February 28, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
16. Taylor, Harriet (January 15, 2015). "Security firms forge alliance to fight growing cyber threat". CNBC. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
17. "Cyber Threat Alliance grows to six founding members; introduces Mike Daniel as president". SC Media. February 13, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
18. "Forbes profile: Ken Xie". Forbes. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
19. Davis, Dominic-Madori. "Inside the world of 'Bling Empire's' Jaime Xie, the tech heiress forging her own path as a fashion influencer". Business Insider. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
20. Tognini, Giacomo. "Newcomers: These 18 Billionaires Join The Forbes 400 List In 2020". Forbes. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
21. "Mr. Ken Q. Xie". National Academy of Engineering Member Listings. NAE.edu.
22. Ernsthausen, Jeff (July 26, 2023). "How the Ultrawealthy Use Private Foundations to Bank Millions in Tax Deductions While Giving the Public Little in Return". ProPublica.