Gil Shwed. Gil Shwed (Hebrew: גיל שויד; born 1968) is an Israeli software engineer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, one of Israel's largest technology companies and the world's largest pure-play cybersecurity company. Shwed was CEO from 1994 until 2024, the longest tenured CEO on Nasdaq.

Early life
Shwed was born in Jerusalem. He started programming at the age of 13, and two years later began studying computer sciences at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, while he was still in high-school.

During his military service he was part of the Intelligence Corps' Unit 8200. Afterwards, Shwed joined the Israeli startup company Optrotech (currently Orbotech), where he worked as a Software Developer.

Career 
In 1993, Shwed founded Check Point with Shlomo Kramer, Shwed's friend from the military unit, and Marius Nacht with whom he worked at Optrotech.

That year, Shwed invented and patented stateful inspection, which was the basis for the first version of the company's renowned FireWall-1, released in 1994. Stateful Inspection is still widely used in network firewalls today.

1994 Shwed became the chief executive officer and director of Check Point. He previously was president of Check Point and chairman of the board. As of 2018, Shwed is the leading shareholder in Checkpoint, owning 19.1% of the company, with an estimated worth of US$3.4 billion. The second largest shareholder in Check Point is US investment company Massachusetts Financial Services with a 7.7% stake worth $1.3 billion at present.

Shwed and Check Point emphasize the "fifth generation" of cybersecurity, addressing the underlying issues behind such vulnerabilities as the WannaCry and NotPetya security breaches in 2017. He has stated that enterprise businesses are "two generations behind" in their security thinking, and describes the industry as being at an "inflection point."

On 5 March 2021, Forbes listed his net worth at US$2.9 billion.

As of January 27, 2024, Forbes listed Gil Shwed net worth at US$4.38 billion, ranking him 682 on the Billionaires list and he was ranked 9th among the top wealthiest people in Israel.

In 2024, Shwed stepped down as CEO and became Executive Chairman of the Board.

Boards 
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Tel Aviv University and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Youth University of Tel Aviv University. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Yeholot Association founded by the Rashi Foundation whose charter is, among other things, to reduce dropout rates in high schools.

Acknowledgments
He received an honorary doctorate from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in June 2005.

In 2002, Shwed received the Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award at a ceremony in Dublin, Ireland, for his innovative contribution to business and technology.

Globes honored Shwed as their "Person of the Year" in 2014.

In 2018, Shwed was the recipient of the first-ever Israel Prize in technology.

References

External links
 Gil Shwed's biography at Check Point Home Page
 Shwed’s profile on Forbes
 Shwed’s profile on Bloomberg Businessweek
 Masters of The Universe 14 Years Later

1968 births
Living people
Businesspeople in software
Israeli billionaires
Israeli computer programmers
Israeli chief executives
21st-century Israeli inventors
Businesspeople from Jerusalem
Technology company founders
Tel Aviv University people
Israeli company founders
Unit 8200 alumni