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Fortinet, Inc.

Cybersecurity and Network SecurityFounded 2000
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Founders

Who Founded Fortinet?

Ken Xie, Michael Xie · Founded 2000 · HQ today: Sunnyvale, California

Who founded Fortinet?

Fortinet was founded by Ken Xie, Michael Xie in 2000. It is now led by Ken Xie.

Founders
Ken Xie, Michael Xie
Founded
2000
Headquarters
Sunnyvale, California
Number of founders
2
Current CEO
Ken Xie (since 2000)
Where was Fortinet founded?
Fortinet was founded in Sunnyvale, California in 2000.
When was Fortinet founded?
Fortinet was founded in 2000.
Who started Fortinet?
Fortinet was founded by Ken Xie and Michael Xie.
How old is Fortinet?
Fortinet is 26 years old as of 2026.

Founding Story

Ken Xie had already co-founded NetScreen Technologies, an early hardware-accelerated firewall company that Juniper Networks acquired in 2004 for about $4 billion. In 2000 he and his brother Michael Xie started Fortinet around a related idea: instead of buying separate boxes for firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and VPN, customers should get all of them in one appliance, accelerated by custom chips so the extra inspection would not slow the network. That "unified threat management" approach led to the first FortiGate products in 2002.

Ken Xie

Co-founder 2000

Background

Electrical engineer and serial security entrepreneur who co-founded NetScreen Technologies, an early hardware-accelerated firewall vendor acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004, before starting Fortinet.

Role at Fortinet, Inc.

Ken Xie co-founded Fortinet in 2000 with his brother Michael and has led it as Chairman and CEO since. Before Fortinet he co-founded NetScreen Technologies, a hardware-accelerated firewall company that Juniper Networks acquired in 2004 for about $4 billion. At Fortinet he pushed the idea of unified threat management: one appliance, accelerated by custom chips, handling firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and VPN. He took the company public in 2009 and still owns about 9% of its shares, according to Bloomberg citing an April 2026 filing.

Ken Xie was born in 1963 in Beijing. Education: Tsinghua University; Stanford University.

Michael Xie

Co-founder 2000

Background

Electrical engineer who leads Fortinet's technology as President and CTO, including FortiOS and the company's custom security processors.

Role at Fortinet, Inc.

Michael Xie co-founded Fortinet with his brother Ken Xie in 2000 and serves as President and Chief Technology Officer. He oversees engineering, including the FortiOS operating system and the FortiASIC processors that accelerate FortiGate firewalls. He is one of Fortinet's largest individual shareholders. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).

Fortinet, Inc.: CEO & Leadership History

Full timeline →

Christiane Ohlgart

Chief Financial Officer

2023 – Present

Serving as interim CFO, she steered the company through a severe, highly volatile period of plunging hardware sales, aggressively pushing the company's transition toward higher-margin software and services revenue.

Ken Xie

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

2000 – Present

Xie is widely recognized as one of the most successful and enduring pioneers of the modern cybersecurity industry. His steady commitment to hardware innovation provided Fortinet with a nearly insurmountable performance-to-cost advantage that allowed the company to consistently undercut larger, more established rivals. Under his continuous leadership spanning more than two decades, Fortinet has grown from a specialized firewall vendor into a globally dominant, multi-billion-dollar cybersecurity leader.

Michael Xie

Co-Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer

2000 – Present

Co-founded Fortinet with his brother Ken Xie in 2000 and has served as President and CTO, directing engineering and the custom silicon that differentiates FortiGate.

Keep researching Fortinet

Who Founded Fortinet? FAQ

Who founded Fortinet and when was the company incorporated?

Fortinet was founded in November 2000 in Sunnyvale, California, by brothers Ken Xie and Michael Xie.

What previous successful cybersecurity company did Ken Xie found prior to Fortinet?

In 1997, Ken Xie founded NetScreen Technologies, which built hardware-accelerated firewall and VPN systems and was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for approximately $4.0 billion.

What original problem inspired Ken and Michael Xie to create Fortinet in 2000?

In the early 2000s, enterprises were forced to stack multiple disconnected security boxes (separate firewall, antivirus, intrusion detection, and VPN boxes) that caused severe network latency bottlenecks. The Xie brothers founded Fortinet to consolidate all security functions into a single, high-speed ASIC-accelerated appliance (Unified Threat Management / UTM).

How did the founders take Fortinet public during the 2009 financial crisis?

On November 18, 2009, during the depths of the global economic downturn, Fortinet executed a triumphant initial public offering on the NASDAQ under ticker 'FTNT'.

Who founded Fortinet?

It was founded by Ken Xie and his brother Michael Xie. While Ken handled the massive corporate strategy and sales, Michael was the absolute engineering genius, serving as CTO and leading the highly secretive hardware team that designed the legendary FortiASIC processors.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.