Very few people can look forward and predict the next big thing. Ashar Aziz was one of them.
Not only did Aziz predict the future of #malware threats to the #cyber industry, but he also took action and founded a billion-dollar company, FireEye, Inc., to address them.
Aziz was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1959. As a teen, he moved to the U.S. as a student. In 1981, he got his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Master of Science in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Just like most first-generation migrants, After graduation, Aziz started working as an engineer at Sun Microsystems, where he specialized in networking, network security, and system design. With his hard work and dedication, eventually, he became the N1 program’s chief technology officer.
His career was going quickly, but Aziz had other things in mind. That’s where Aziz’s story diverts from most of the stories of first-generation migrants.
In 1999, Aziz quit the job and started his first business, Terraspring Inc., which was all about automating and virtualizing data centers. Eventually, Sun Microsystems bought the business in 2002.
During this time, Aziz realised that malwares are a big risk to cybersecurity infrastructures. He understood that malware detection technology will be heavily required in the future.
In 2004, he started FireEye to find answers to these new cybersecurity problems.
Azhar’s journey to start FireEye was not an easy one.
Initially, He was writing code by himself and developing products that could detect malware. He used to work 80 to 100 hours a week.
But just like all entrepreneurs, time was testing him. At one point, he had only $4,000 in savings left in his account.
But his hard work and determination paid off, and FireEye quickly got recognition and funding.
Aziz was the first to create the core set of technologies that make up FireEye’s revolutionary MVX threat detection engine. This engine uses virtual machines to analyze threats in real-time.
From 2004 to 2012, Aziz served as FireEye’s CEO, leading the company’s growth and innovation. He also held the positions of chief strategy officer, chief technology officer, and board vice chairman.
Eventually, FireEye went public in 2013, raising $300 million and making Aziz’s shares in the company worth over $1 billion.
Today, FireEye, Inc. is a $4.1 billion company that is developing some of the revolutionary products of our time.
Through his determination and visionary thinking, Aziz predicted the future of cybersecurity and made it a reality.