Category: Influencers
Name: George Kurtz
Title: Co-founder & CEO
Company: CrowdStrike
Why nominated: A visionary and an influencer, George Kurtz has helped bring about a profound shift in cybersecurity defense.
Profile: Former accountant George Kurtz literally wrote the book on cybersecurity. “Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions,” which Kurtz penned as a CPA, sparked his passion for internet security and led him to bootstrap cybersecurity firm Foundstone.
He understood early on that attacks were no longer driven by lone actors with minimal infrastructure and a handful of malware tools, but by networks of criminals which had become able to amass quite significant - and distributed - computing power and set out to bring about a seismic shift in defense, turning to the cloud to do so. Kurtz's drive and vision have seen CrowdStrike technology deployed in 157 countries and an entire industry has shifting its view of endpoint security.
What colleagues say: “George Kurtz is the consummate entrepreneur. He is relentless about putting the customer first, and without a doubt, has built a business rooted in innovation and excellence. Under his leadership, CrowdStrike has brought to market security technology that in six short years has established a new standard for effectiveness, efficacy, flexibility, and speed. No one is more committed to driving the cybersecurity industry forward to solve cyber crime than George. His lifelong accomplishments have truly moved the needle in cybersecurity, arming organizations with better technology, approaches, capabilities and ultimately outcomes in the cyber battle.”
- Sameer Gandhi, partner, Accel Partners
