George Kurtz | $1B+

Get in touch with George Kurtz | George Kurtz, cofounder and CEO of CrowdStrike, has become one of the most influential leaders in cybersecurity. After a successful career at McAfee, he launched CrowdStrike in 2011 with the vision of using cloud-native technology to stop breaches in real time. Under his leadership, the company went public in 2019 and grew into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise protecting governments, corporations, and institutions worldwide. Known for his technical expertise and entrepreneurial drive, Kurtz is a central figure in shaping the modern cybersecurity landscape.

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George Kurtz (born October 14, 1970) is an American businessman. He is a co-founder and chief executive officer of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity technology company. George Kurtz Born October 14, 1970 (age 54) New Jersey, U.S.[1] Alma mater Seton Hall University (BS) Occupation(s) President and CEO of CrowdStrike Spouse Anna Kurtz Children 2 He founded Foundstone, a security products and anti-virus software company, and became chief technology officer of McAfee after it acquired Foundstone in 2004.[2][3] Kurtz is co-author of Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions, which has shaped best practices in vulnerability assessment and penetration testing[4][5]. He is noted for various contributions to cybersecurity, including creating the field of vulnerability management; defining terminology, workflows, and services that remain central to cybersecurity; and leading an industry shift toward cloud-based cybersecurity architectures[6][7]. In 2024, Fortune magazine named Kurtz one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Business".[8] In 2024, CrowdStrike released a software update that disrupted millions of Microsoft Windows systems around the world, an event that has been called the largest outage in the history of information technology[9][2]. Kurtz owns and develops real estate projects in Scottsdale, Arizona, and elsewhere in the southwestern United States. Kurtz is a FIA Bronze-rated race car driver who has won the Pro-Am class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Spa.[10][11] Contents Early life and education edit Kurtz grew up in Parsippany–Troy Hills, New Jersey, and attended Parsippany High School.[12][1] Kurtz shared that he started programming video games on his Commodore when he was in fourth grade. He went on to build bulletin board systems in high school.[13] Kurtz received a Bachelor of Science with a major in accounting from the private Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.[14] Career edit Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Young edit After college, Kurtz began his career at Price Waterhouse as a Certified Public Accountant.[15] In 1993, he became a member of the firm's new security division as cybersecurity grew in importance. Kurtz conducted penetration testing, a then-new approach to finding vulnerabilities in corporate network infrastructure.[16][17] He later joined Ernst & Young, where he continued penetration testing and helped develop internet security protocols and practices that remain part of the cybersecurity field.[16] After a few years at Ernst & Young, Kurtz left to start his first company[16]. Foundstone edit In 1999, Kurtz launched Foundstone[16], a cybersecurity product company that also offered cybersecurity services[16], a novel pairing at the time.[16] The company competed against Internet Security Systems, which was later acquired by IBM.[18] Frustrated with time-consuming and incomplete vulnerability assessment technologies of the day, Kurtz pioneered vulnerability management, creating both the category and term.[19][20] His company also pioneered professional training in penetration-testing and vulnerability management.[21] The training was based on Hacking Exposed, a book about cybersecurity for network administrators that he co-wrote in 1999 with Stuart McClure and Joel Scambray. The book has sold more than 600,000 copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.[1] The training helped create a global community of cybersecurity professionals well-versed on the new domain of vulnerability management.[21][22][23] McAfee edit In August 2004, Kurtz sold Foundstone to McAfee, where he became Senior Vice President and General Manager of Risk Management.[22][23] He was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in October 2009, overseeing the company's technology strategy and innovation efforts.[24][25] As CTO, Kurtz was involved in McAfee's response to major cybersecurity incidents, including 2010's Operation Aurora, which attacked on Google and other organizations.[26] He also led research into cyber threats such as Night Dragon and Shady RAT.[27][28] In 2010, an update to McAfee's antivirus definitions sent Windows XP Service Pack 3 into a restart loop, as it removed the Svchost.exe, which Windows uses to share services as a single process.[29] McAFee said the faulty update was later removed from its servers, adding, "We are not aware of significant impact on consumer customers and believe we have effectively limited such occurrence".[30][31][32][33] Kurtz resigned from his executive roles at McAfee in October 2011.[28] CrowdStrike edit Founding and early years edit In November 2011, Kurtz joined private equity firm Warburg Pincus as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" where he began developing the concept for a new cybersecurity venture.[34][35] In February 2012, he, Gregg Marston, and Dmitri Alperovitch co-founded CrowdStrike in Irvine, California, with $25 million in initial funding from Warburg Pincus.[36][37][13][38] Kurtz served as CEO. The following year, the company launched its flagship product, Falcon, which offered a new approach to cybersecurity: a cloud-native, intelligence-driven model intended to shift away from traditional on-premise solutions and reduce the performance impact on client systems.[39][40][41][42] CrowdStrike was later included on the MIT Tech Review's 50 Disruptive Companies list.[43] Growth and impact edit Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in Sunnyvale, California, and operations worldwide, CrowdStrike grew quickly.[44] In 2019, the company held its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange, reaching a valuation of about $6.6 billion.[45][46] CrowdStrike has been recognized for its innovation in the cybersecurity industry, particularly in endpoint security.[47] In March 2020, Andrew Nowinski, an analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co., said CrowdStrike offered a leading solution in the field.[16] A July 2020 report by IDC called CrowdStrike the fastest-growing vendor in the market.[48] The company's subscription-based approach to cybersecurity has been compared to Salesforce's model in customer relationship management (CRM) and ServiceNow's role in IT service management (ITSM). In 2024, CrowdStrike was added to the S&P 500 index, becoming the fastest cybersecurity company to join the index within five years of its IPO.[17] In 2024, Cybercrime Magazine named Kurtz its "Cybersecurity Person of the Year."[49] 2024 outage edit In July 2024, CrowdStrike released a software update that disrupted service for some 8.5 million systems running Microsoft Windows, affecting governments, banks, airlines, and more around the world.[50] The disruption, which affected economies in many countries, has been called the largest outage in the history of information technology[9][2][51][52]. CEO Kurtz issued a public apology within hours of the outage, acknowledging the severity of the disruption and expressing the company's deep regret for the impact on customers and the wider public.[53] Microsoft and CrowdStrike collaborated to develop and deploy a patch to restore system stability.[54][55][56][57][58] The company released several statements as it worked to fix the problem and prevent similar ones in the future.[58] The company also promised to execute a comprehensive internal review of its software development and testing processes.[59] Independent industry analysis praised CrowdStrike's transparent and rapid response as an example of best practices in incident management and communication within the cybersecurity sector.[60] Media noted that this was the second time Kurtz had been at the center of a global IT outage, after the 2010 incident at McAfee.[61][62] Real estate holdings edit Since 2019, Kurtz has been developing real estate in the Southwestern United States, aiming to improve residential, commercial, retail, and recreational spaces to promote community wellness and drive regional economic growth.[63] The Parque edit Kurtz purchased the site of Cracker Jax, an amusement park and driving range in Scottsdale, Arizona, and submitted plans in 2023 to turn the area into “The Parque."[64] Kurtz received approval to develop a 2-million-square-foot mixed-use campus that will include residential units, an office building, restaurants, retail space, a hotel and a 2-acre green space.[65] The Promenade edit Kurtz owns The Promenade, a shopping center in Scottsdale, where he has made environmental and visual improvements. The center includes over 600,000 square feet of retail space and is known for its iconic Frank Lloyd Wright spire.[66] Scottsdale Quarter edit Kurtz’s FalconEye Ventures acquired Scottsdale Quarter in 2025, a 755,000-square-foot mixed-use property in Scottsdale. Plans include a $100 million upgrade to improve its luxury retail, office, and residential offerings.[67] Racing career edit In 2016, Kurtz made his racing debut in the Pirelli World Challenge, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for TRG-AMR. He remained in the series for the following two years, winning the GTS Am class in 2017 at the wheel of a McLaren 570S GT4.[68][69] In 2019, the championship was renamed the GT World Challenge America, which Kurtz contested with pro driver Colin Braun in the GT3 category.[70] The duo finished fifth in the Pro-Am standings. The duo reunited in 2020,[71][72] when Kurtz made eight podiums, including his first overall win in GT3 machinery at Virginia International Raceway and another victory, to finish as the runner-up of Pro-Am.[73][74] In 2021, Kurtz again raced in the GTWC America series but also in prototype cars, competing in a Ligier JS P320 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship's LMP3 category.[75][76] In that series, he competed solely in the endurance events, winning at Sebring and scoring a class podium at Watkins Glen.[77] Three missed weekends in the former series dropped Kurtz and Braun to sixth in the drivers' standings, with two class wins. In 2022, Kurtz remained in both championships, scoring two podiums in IMSA, including third place in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. In GTWC America, he won ten of 16 races, earning the title in the SRO3 class.[78][79] In 2023, Kurtz stepped up to the LMP2 category to compete full-time in the IMSA SCC, driving for his own Crowdstrike team supported by Algarve Pro Racing alongside Ben Hanley, with silver-ranked Nolan Siegel supporting the pair at the endurance rounds.[80] Kurtz and Hanley won at the season-ending Petit Le Mans and another race, but finished second in the standings, edged out by Paul-Loup Chatin and Ben Keating.[81] In the Michelin Endurance Trophy, which took into account placings solely within the four endurance races, the Kurtz-Hanley combo came out on top.[82] Kurtz also made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he, Colin Braun, and James Allen won in the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass.[83][84] Finally, he returned to the GTWC America to defend his title, and although Kurtz only finished third in the SRO3 category he claimed Pro-Am honours, having partnered with Braun throughout the year.[85] During the 2023–24 winter, Kurtz and Braun raced in the Asian Le Mans Series, where they and young pro Malthe Jakobsen won two races on their way to the championship.[86] Following the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, Kurtz withdrew from racing for the season;[87][88] he returned to motorsport for the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona.[89] Record edit Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results edit (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) YearTeamClassMakeEngine1234567Pos.Points 2021CORE AutosportLMP3Ligier JS P320Nissan VK56DE 5.6L V8DAY 5†SEB 1MDOWGL 2WGLELKPET 711th968 2022CORE AutosportLMP3Ligier JS P320Nissan VK56DE 5.6 L V8DAY 3†SEB 5MDOWGL 2MOS ELK PET 517th921 2023CrowdStrike Racing by APRLMP2Oreca 07Gibson GK428 V8DAY 2†SEB 5MON 3WGL 1ELK 7IMS 3PET 12nd1958 2024CrowdStrike Racing by APRLMP2Oreca 07Gibson GK428 V8DAY 2SEB 9WGL 13MOS 7ELKIMSATL Source:[90] † Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP2 Championship. † Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP3 Championship. Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results edit YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class Pos. 2021 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett Colin Braun Matt McMurryLigier JS P320LMP373731st5th 2022 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett Colin Braun Niclas JönssonLigier JS P320LMP372116th3rd 2023 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Esteban Gutiérrez Ben Hanley Matt McMurryOreca 07LMP27618th2nd 2024 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Colin Braun Malthe Jakobsen Toby SoweryOreca 07LMP276710th2nd Source:[90] 24 Hours of Le Mans results edit YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class Pos. 2023 Algarve Pro Racing James Allen Colin BraunOreca 07-GibsonLMP232220th10th LMP2 Pro-Am1st 2024 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Colin Braun Nicky CatsburgOreca 07-GibsonLMP2149DNFDNF LMP2 Pro-Am 2025 Algarve Pro Racing Nicky Catsburg Alex QuinnOreca 07-GibsonLMP236230th13th LMP2 Pro-Am8th Source:[90]

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