George Kurtz

George Kurtz is an American cybersecurity entrepreneur, executive and racing driver who co-founded CrowdStrike, one of the most important cybersecurity companies in the world. Born in 1970, Kurtz built a long career in security, founding the firm Foundstone and serving as chief technology officer of McAfee before co-founding CrowdStrike in 2011. He built the company into a multibillion dollar leader in protecting organizations from cyberattacks, making him a billionaire, even as he pursued a parallel passion as an accomplished racing driver and a co-owner of a Formula One team.

This profile covers who George Kurtz is, his early life and education, his cybersecurity career, the founding and rise of CrowdStrike, his motorsport ventures, his net worth and his current role.

Early Life and Education

George Kurtz was born in 1970 in the United States. He developed an early interest in technology and computers, and he pursued an education that led him into the world of accounting and information systems, building skills that would prove valuable as the field of cybersecurity emerged. His early career combined technical expertise with an entrepreneurial drive.

From the beginning, Kurtz was drawn to the challenge of computer security, a field that was growing in importance as businesses and governments became increasingly dependent on networked computers and, with that dependence, increasingly vulnerable to attack. This focus would define his entire professional life.

Building a Cybersecurity Career

George Kurtz established himself as a serious figure in cybersecurity well before CrowdStrike. He co-authored a widely read book on hacking and security, helping to educate a generation of security professionals. He founded Foundstone, a security company, which he built up and then sold to McAfee, one of the major antivirus and security software companies.

At McAfee, Kurtz served as chief technology officer, giving him a senior leadership role at a large security company and a front row view of the industry's strengths and weaknesses. His experience there, particularly his frustration with the limitations of traditional security software in stopping sophisticated attacks, shaped his vision for a fundamentally different approach, one that would lead him to found CrowdStrike.

Founding and Building CrowdStrike

In 2011, George Kurtz co-founded CrowdStrike with the aim of reinventing cybersecurity for the cloud era. The company pioneered a model of delivering security through the cloud, using a lightweight software agent on devices combined with cloud based analytics and threat intelligence to detect and stop attacks. This approach proved well suited to the modern, distributed computing environment, and it differentiated CrowdStrike from older, on premises security products.

CrowdStrike grew rapidly, building a reputation for stopping sophisticated attacks and for its threat intelligence work, including high profile involvement in investigating major cyber incidents. The company went public in a highly successful offering and continued to expand, becoming one of the most valuable and important cybersecurity companies in the world, with a market value in the tens of billions of dollars. Kurtz, as co-founder and chief executive, led this growth and became a prominent voice in the industry.

Navigating a Major Outage

CrowdStrike's prominence also brought intense scrutiny. The company faced a significant crisis when a flawed software update caused a massive global technology outage, disrupting businesses, airlines and services around the world and drawing enormous attention. As chief executive, Kurtz led the company's response and the effort to restore trust and address the fallout, a major test of his leadership and of the company's resilience. The episode underscored both the critical role CrowdStrike plays in global technology infrastructure and the high stakes of that responsibility.

Motorsport and Racing

Beyond cybersecurity, George Kurtz is well known for his passion for motorsport. He is an accomplished racing driver who has competed in endurance racing events, pursuing the sport at a serious level alongside his business career. This passion culminated in his becoming a co-owner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, one of the most successful teams in the sport.

This combination of leading a major technology company and being deeply involved in elite motorsport makes Kurtz a distinctive figure, blending the worlds of cybersecurity and racing. His involvement in Formula One connected his personal passion with his business success and added to his public profile.

George Kurtz Net Worth

George Kurtz net worth was estimated in the range of about $8 billion to $11 billion, with figures varying by source and moving with CrowdStrike's stock price. The overwhelming source of his wealth is his stake in CrowdStrike, the company he co-founded and took public, which grew enormously in value as the importance of cybersecurity increased.

Because so much of his wealth is held in CrowdStrike shares, its value fluctuates significantly with the company's stock, which has been highly valued given the critical and growing demand for cybersecurity. His fortune reflects the enormous value created by building a leading company in one of technology's most essential fields.

Personal Life

George Kurtz balances his roles as a technology chief executive and a serious racing driver, a combination that defines much of his public persona. He generally keeps the details of his private life relatively guarded, with his public identity built around CrowdStrike and his motorsport pursuits. His passion for racing and his ownership stake in a Formula One team are central to how he is known beyond the cybersecurity industry.

Achievements and Influence

George Kurtz's achievements include founding and selling Foundstone, serving as McAfee's chief technology officer, and co-founding and building CrowdStrike into a leading global cybersecurity company that made him a billionaire. His influence is significant across the cybersecurity industry, where CrowdStrike's cloud based approach helped define modern security, and he is also notable in motorsport as a co-owner of a Formula One team. He is one of the most prominent entrepreneurs in security.

George Kurtz in 2026

As of 2026, George Kurtz continues to lead CrowdStrike as its co-founder and chief executive. The themes around him include the company's recovery and growth following its major outage, the surging demand for cybersecurity driven by ever more sophisticated threats and the rise of artificial intelligence, and his continued involvement in elite motorsport.

He is profiled alongside other founders in the Tech sector on Founder Canon, the entrepreneurs building the companies that defend and power the digital world.