Gil Shwed

Gil Shwed co-founded Check Point Software Technologies in 1993 at age 25 with Shlomo Kramer and Marius Nacht, and served as its CEO for over 30 years before transitioning to Executive Chairman in 2024 (Nadav Zafrir became CEO). Shwed is credited with inventing the stateful inspection firewall — FireWall-1, released in 1994 — which became the foundational technology of modern network security and established the entire commercial firewall market. Under Shwed's three-decade leadership, Check Point grew from a Tel Aviv startup into one of the world's largest cybersecurity companies with over $2.5 billion in annual revenue and a customer base spanning virtually every Fortune 500 company and government worldwide. The company's core business is network security appliances and software (firewalls, VPNs, threat prevention), supplemented by cloud security, endpoint protection, and mobile security solutions. Shwed's legacy includes both remarkable strengths and acknowledged limitations. Check Point is famously profitable (consistently generating 35%+ operating margins — among the highest in cybersecurity) and generates enormous free cash flow. However, critics have argued that Shwed's conservative approach to innovation and reluctance to pursue aggressive growth strategies allowed faster-moving competitors like Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and CrowdStrike to capture market share in next-generation security. As Executive Chairman, Shwed's influence on product strategy, AI-powered security innovation, and competitive positioning against platform consolidation rivals remains the central narrative for the stock.