Who Is Gil Shwed? The Firewall Inventor Who Built Israeli Cyber
Gil Shwed co-founded Check Point in 1993 at 25 with Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer — invented the stateful inspection firewall and built the institutional template for Israeli cybersecurity. 30-year CEO; stepped down December 2024 to Nadav Zafrir.
The Builders | Israeli Cyber
Updated June 14, 2026
Gil Shwed co-founded Check Point in 1993 at age 25 with Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer — invented the stateful inspection firewall, built the institutional template for Israeli cybersecurity, and ran the company as CEO for 30 years before transitioning to Executive Chairman in December 2024.
Shwed is the longest-tenured founder-CEO of any Nasdaq-listed company. He is widely recognized as the inventor of the modern computer firewall. In 2024 he received the Israel Prize for technology — the first cybersecurity figure to do so. He never went to university for a degree but was teaching system administration at Hebrew University at 16.
Snapshot
| Born | 1968, Jerusalem, Israel |
| Education | Started programming at 10. Computer science classes at Hebrew University of Jerusalem from age 15 while still in high school. Never completed a university degree. |
| Military | IDF Intelligence Corps, Unit 8200 |
| Net worth | ~$2.5B (Forbes Israel 2024) |
| Built | Check Point Software Technologies (Nasdaq: CHKP) — co-founder, CEO 1994–2024, Executive Chairman since December 2024 |
| Co-founders | Marius Nacht (Optrotech colleague), Shlomo Kramer (Unit 8200 friend) |
| Successor as CEO | Nadav Zafrir (December 2024) — former Unit 8200 commander, Team8 co-founder |
| Major recognition | Israel Prize for technology (2024, first cybersecurity recipient); IEEE awards; multiple patents including stateful inspection |
| Civic role | Chair, Yeholot Association (founded by the Rashi Foundation) — focuses on reducing Israel's high school dropout rates |
| Base | Tel Aviv |
The Business Story
Gil Shwed was born in Jerusalem in 1968. He started programming at age 10, took weekly computer classes in his hometown, and by 12 had a summer coding job at a translation-software company. At 14 he started an almost full-time job as a system administrator at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. From 16, the university put him in charge of its computer systems for roughly two years until his IDF service. He was taking computer science classes at Hebrew University from age 15 while still in high school. He never completed a university degree.
He served in the IDF Intelligence Corps' Unit 8200, where he met Shlomo Kramer. After the army he joined Israeli startup Optrotech (now Orbotech) as a software developer, working alongside Marius Nacht.
In April 1993, Shwed, Nacht, and Kramer developed the architecture that would become FireWall-1. They founded Check Point Software Technologies in Ramat Gan in July 1993. Shwed was 25. The product invented the network security category — a firewall that tracks the state of network connections in real time, rather than inspecting individual packets in isolation. Stateful inspection became the foundation of enterprise network security for the next three decades.
Check Point listed on Nasdaq in 1996, one of the first Israeli technology companies to list on a major U.S. exchange. Shwed served as CEO from 1994 to 2024 — 30 years, the longest founder-CEO tenure of any Nasdaq-listed company — and built Check Point into one of the world's largest pure-play cybersecurity companies, with revenue of $2.725 billion in 2025, $1.05 billion in net income, and thousands of employees in Israel, the U.S., and Europe.
In December 2024, Shwed transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman of the Board. He was succeeded as CEO by Nadav Zafrir, the former commander of Israel's Unit 8200 and co-founder of Team8. Shwed remains Check Point's largest individual shareholder.
His personality has shaped his public profile as much as his product has. Shwed is reserved, technical, and has stayed away from the celebrity-CEO mode that came to dominate American tech. He has been the institutional reference point — the founder Israeli cyber entrepreneurs benchmark themselves against — without ever building a personal brand.
He chairs the board of the Yeholot Association, founded by the Rashi Foundation, which focuses on reducing Israel's high school dropout rates. The civic posture is consistent with the founder profile: a brilliant young Israeli who left formal education to do the work, now funding the systems that catch the brilliant young Israelis who would otherwise drop out before they get the chance.
Why Shwed Matters in Israel
Israeli cybersecurity, today the second-largest cyber ecosystem in the world by venture funding, traces a substantial portion of its founder lineage to Check Point. Hundreds of Israeli cyber founders, executives, and investors are former Check Point employees. Shwed's institutional choices — list on Nasdaq early, keep product in Israel, hold the company for the long term, run it for thirty years — created the template every subsequent Israeli cyber founder has navigated. Both Nir Zuk — who left Check Point to eventually found Palo Alto Networks — and every subsequent founder cohort trace back to the Shwed template.
The 2024 Israel Prize for technology, awarded to Shwed as the first cybersecurity recipient, recognized the structural significance: cybersecurity is not a feature of the Israeli economy — it is a sector built around the institutional company that Shwed ran, and the founder pipeline that company produced.
What Check Point Does Today
Check Point Software Technologies (Nasdaq: CHKP) is one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity companies in the world — firewall, cloud security, mobile security, and threat prevention across enterprise, government, and small business. Revenue of $2.725 billion in 2025, net income of $1.05 billion, total assets of $7.8 billion. Headquartered in Tel Aviv. Thousands of employees globally. Now led by Nadav Zafrir with Shwed as Executive Chairman.
Shwed's Key Holdings
- Founder stake in Check Point Software Technologies (Nasdaq: CHKP) — Executive Chairman
- Personal investments in Israeli technology
- Chair, Yeholot Association — Israeli high school dropout reduction
- Philanthropy through the Shwed family foundation
Shwed's Legacy
Shwed invented a category — the stateful inspection firewall — and built the company on top of it that defined Israeli cyber. He kept the company public, kept the engineering in Israel, and ran it for thirty years. The longest founder-CEO tenure of any Nasdaq-listed company. The first cybersecurity figure to receive the Israel Prize for technology. The institutional reference point for an entire generation of Israeli security founders.
Why Shwed Matters Now
The transition to Nadav Zafrir in late 2024 was Israeli cybersecurity's most significant generational handoff. How Check Point performs over the next five years — in cloud security, AI-enabled threat prevention, and competitive positioning against Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne — will set the template for what Israeli cyber's institutional companies can sustain through their second generation of leadership. Shwed's Executive Chairman role keeps him at the head of the board during the test. The 2026 chapter is the test.
FAQ
Who is Gil Shwed?
Gil Shwed (born 1968, Jerusalem) is an Israeli software engineer and entrepreneur — the co-founder of Check Point Software Technologies, the world's largest pure-play cybersecurity company. He is widely considered the inventor of the modern computer firewall, served as Check Point's CEO from 1994 to 2024, and now serves as Executive Chairman of the Board.
Who founded Check Point?
Gil Shwed co-founded Check Point Software Technologies in July 1993 in Ramat Gan with Marius Nacht (his colleague from Optrotech) and Shlomo Kramer (his friend from IDF Unit 8200). Shwed was 25 at the time.
When did Gil Shwed step down as CEO of Check Point?
In December 2024, after 30 years as CEO — the longest founder-CEO tenure of any Nasdaq-listed company. He transitioned to Executive Chairman of the Board. Nadav Zafrir, former commander of IDF Unit 8200 and co-founder of Team8, succeeded him as CEO.
What did Gil Shwed invent?
The stateful inspection firewall — the architecture behind Check Point's FW-1, which tracks the state of network connections in real time rather than inspecting individual packets in isolation. Stateful inspection became the foundation of enterprise network security for three decades. Shwed holds the original patents.
Did Gil Shwed go to university?
No formal degree. He was taking computer science classes at Hebrew University of Jerusalem from age 15 while still in high school and was running the university's computer systems by 16. He left for IDF service before completing a degree and never returned for one.
What is Gil Shwed's net worth?
Approximately $2.5 billion according to Forbes Israel 2024.
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גיל שויד: ממציא ה-Firewall שבנה את הסייבר הישראלי
הוא ייסד את צ'ק פוינט ב-1993 בגיל 25 יחד עם מריוס נחט ושלמה קרמר — ובנה את התבנית המוסדית שכל חברת סייבר ישראלית גדולה הלכה אחריה. שלושים שנה כמנכ"ל. מאז דצמבר 2024 — יו"ר ביצועי של הדירקטוריון.
שויד הוא המייסד-מנכ"ל בעל הכהונה הארוכה ביותר של חברה ציבורית בנאסד"ק. הוא נחשב לממציא ה-Firewall המודרני. ב-2024 קיבל את פרס ישראל לטכנולוגיה — הראשון מתחום הסייבר.
בדצמבר 2024, שויד עבר מתפקיד המנכ"ל לתפקיד יו"ר הדירקטוריון. הוא הוחלף בנדב צפריר, מפקד יחידת 8200 לשעבר ושותף מייסד של Team8.
The Olam Editorial Team | The Builders / הבונים
