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Ken Xie, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fortinet Inc., USA
 1) Briefly tell us what it is about your company/project that makes it so special?
Fortinet was founded upon recognition of the global need for safe, secure Internet connections and content amid evolving Internet threats - understanding that conventional network security solutions were inadequate for addressing these threats and incapable of providing adequate network protection without crippling network performance. To solve this problem, Fortinet developed the industry's first and only ASIC-accelerated multi-threat security appliances.
Fortinet’s products enable business users around the world to use the Internet safely and securely while taking advantage of the benefits of widely available high-speed networks. Since first introduced in May 2002, Fortinet’s products have successfully protected thousands of customers from hundreds of millions of attacks.
2) What country best facilitates starting a tech company? What single thing can a government do to encourage Technology Pioneers?
Successful tech companies have been started in many areas of the world, but none to such a great extent as in the United States’ Silicon Valley. Fortinet is the second successful company I have started in Silicon Valley. This is largely because I feel the area offers the best technology talent, venture capital is more prevalent here than other places, and the weather really is quite nice, which makes it an attractive place to live.
I think the main thing a government can do to foster innovation is to utilize, evaluate and implement innovations themselves - that is to say, to lead by example.
3) What makes an innovator?
Innovators are never satisfied with status quo, but also understand the limitations to the things they can change.
4) How does your company directly contribute to improving the state of the world?
The Internet makes people’s lives easier and more efficient by providing a wealth of information at their fingertips and can open new doors for communicating with those near of far. Fortinet enables millions of people to use the Internet safely and securely and without the restriction of wired network boundaries. This has a direct impact on quality-of-life, not only for our business-oriented customers, but their customers.
For example, our products secure critical infrastructures of civic entities around the world, including major police agencies and 911 emergency response networks. Additionally, they help numerous healthcare institutions maintain the privacy of patient records and allow physicians to securely access patient data remotely, as well as enable safe e-commerce by protecting the networks of numerous electronic retailers. So in a sense, we are improving the state of the world by improving the state of the world's networks, thus making the Internet a safer place for our customers.
5) What value do you hope to gain from being a Technology Pioneer?
I am honored to be recognized as part of this select group of pioneers and am merely hoping to lead by example. My hope is that I can inspire an innovator of the future, or that Fortinet can be recognized as a company that made a difference in the network security market.
6) What do you think the role of technology should be in society?
In my opinion, I think there is an opportunity for technology to play a role in many aspects of society, if people should choose to use it as such. As we are already seeing, technology can improve efficiency and safety for society, as well as open doors to a wealth of new information.
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