Ashar Aziz, founder of cybersecurity firm FireEye, is the world’s newest billionaire as shares in his company continue to skyrocket following a September initial public offering. Shares in the Milpitas, Calif.-based company are up 379% from its $20 IPO price as of 12:50 pm in New York.
Aziz, as FireEye’s largest individual shareholder and vice chairman, owns nearly 11 million shares in the company he founded in 2004. With options, Forbes estimates he is worth a little more than $1 billion.
The 55-year-old Aziz is an entrepreneur who hit it big with his second company, FireEye. His first venture, data virtualization company Terraspring, was acquired in 2002 by Sun Microsystems, where Aziz had previously worked for 12 years as a network security engineer. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master’s in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
After previously serving as FireEye’s CEO, Aziz is now the company’s chief technology officer and chief strategy officer. Former McAfee CEO David DeWalt is the cybersecurity firm’s current CEO and chairman.
As a provider of both software and cloud-based malware protection products, FireEye has been on a tear since its September IPO, which raised about $350 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is the second-best performing company of all the firms to go public in the U.S. last year, trailing to Insys Therapeutics.
Earlier this week, the company announced 2013 revenues were up 94% to about $162 million. The company has not posted an operating profit in the last five years, with losses last year at over $172 million.
Aziz, who has not sold any of his FireEye shares since the IPO, joins a growing number of Silicon Valley billionaire newcomers who have had their fortunes boosted by their companies’ strong performance on the public markets. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri both joined the Forbes billionaire ranks this year due to booming tech stocks.
Check Point Software Technologies Software cofounder and CEO Gil Shwed is a long-time member of the Billionaires list. The Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneur made the list this year with a net worth of $1.8 billion.
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