Ken Xie
Ken Xie | |
|---|---|
| Born | China |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, CEO |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Known for | Founder of Systems Integration Solutions, NetScreen, and Fortinet |
Ken Xie () is a Chinese-American billionaire and entrepreneur, recognized as the founder of Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), NetScreen, and Fortinet.
He currently holds the position of CEO at Fortinet, a prominent cybersecurity company based in Silicon Valley. Prior to this, Xie was the CEO of NetScreen, which was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4 billion. He is credited with developing the first ASIC-based firewall and VPN appliance in 1996.
Early life
Xie was born and raised in China and completed his undergraduate and master's studies in electrical engineering at Tsinghua University. He further pursued an additional master's degree at Stanford University.
Career
In 1993, Xie established Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), a company specializing in network security. By 1996, from his garage in Palo Alto, he engineered the first firewall/VPN device utilizing ASIC technology. That same year, he co-founded NetScreen Technologies alongside Yan Ke and Feng Deng. NetScreen’s acquisition by Juniper Networks for $4 billion represented a major event within the cybersecurity sector.
Fortinet
Ken Xie departed from NetScreen in 2000 to launch Fortinet with his brother Michael Xie, who is an electrical engineer. While Ken has taken on the role of CEO, Michael serves as president and CTO. The vision behind Fortinet was to integrate security throughout comprehensive computing and networking systems. The initial FortiGate product line was introduced in May 2002. Under Ken’s guidance, Fortinet expanded through acquisitions including AccelOps (security monitoring), enSilo (endpoint protection), CyberSponse (SOAR platform), and Bradford Networks (IoT security).
In January 2019, Xie participated in a panel on cybersecurity workforce development at the World Economic Forum held in Davos. The following year, February 2020, he delivered a keynote at the RSA conference focusing on SD-WAN, edge computing, and automation as critical elements for future security solutions. Additionally, Ken Xie is a founding board member of the Cyber Threat Alliance.
Personal life
Xie lives in Los Altos Hills, California with his spouse. He is the father of Jaime Xie, known as a fashion influencer and featured on Netflix’s reality show Bling Empire. In September 2020, he was listed among the Forbes 400 wealthiest individuals.
In 2013, Xie was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
Private foundation
Together with his brother, Xie oversees a private foundation. Since 2009, he has reported over $30 million in income tax deductions by donating shares of Fortinet stock to this entity. In 2017, the foundation acquired a residence valued at $3 million in Cupertino, California, where Xie and his then-partner lived; ownership of this property was later transferred to an LLC in January 2020.