4 months in the past Nadav Zafrir grew to become CEO of Israeli cybersecurity firm Examine Level Software program Applied sciences Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP). That is the primary time in its 32-year historical past that Gil Shwed is just not the CEO, though he has turn out to be government chairman, and continues to be concerned within the activity of administration along with Zafrir. In his first interview since changing into CEO, Zafrir spoke to “Globes” information editor Bar Lavi on the Globes TECH IL Convention, about his ideas and emotions on managing Israel’s prime cybersecurity firm.
You come to the job with wealthy expertise – you served as commander of the IDF 8200 unit after which based the Team8 funding fund however that is the primary time you could have been CEO of a giant publicly traded firm.
“It is difficult, however total it is enjoyable. My interest is to get out of my consolation zone and indisputably, I left it by deciding to work right here. It is a tremendous firm with superb individuals and I’ve individuals to study from right here, and there is nonetheless rather a lot to study.”
4 months into the function, has something shocked you about Examine Level that you simply did not know earlier than?
“Probably not, I do know the corporate and have been following it for a few years, however in each firm, actually within the cybersecurity market, there are elements that require us to vary shortly. The truth that we’re not rising like our rivals is a effectively documented problem and we’ll must cope with that, and maybe the factor that shocked me in regards to the firm is that we not too long ago held three person conferences – in Vienna, Bangkok and Las Vegas, and at every of them there was a celebration – you could possibly say I wasn’t anticipating wild events at Examine Level.”
Examine Level is a worthwhile firm, however the huge problem is to carry it to increased development, how do you get it to develop no less than as a lot as its rivals?
“I do not assume I’ve solutions to that proper now. I took workplace 4 months in the past. The corporate additionally has a DNA that we do not wish to change. The DNA of an Israeli firm, with technological depth, with improvement performed from right here, an organization that believes that protection is protection – and we do not wish to change any of that. However we should be extra vocal, inform extra about what we do as a result of that is the world we reside in and there are additionally fairly a couple of alternatives on this planet of AI, for instance. It’s altering the best way cybersecurity is completed dramatically, and the final time there was such a change was when the Web started. We are going to take this chance with each fingers by way of the individuals we usher in, and the businesses we have a look at, as an alternative of chasing improvements, we are going to reinvent what cybersecurity seems to be like within the age of AI.”
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Concerning AI, you introduced an intriguing collaboration with Wiz simply earlier than it was bought to Google for $32 billion.
“One of many issues in our subject is that the variety of merchandise that knowledge safety managers in enterprises must undertake is growing, and managers discover themselves with the necessity to synchronize between methods. So lately there was an increasing number of discuss consolidation – merging – when cybersecurity corporations are basically changing into platforms and we imagine in open platforms. The place we imagine now we have the perfect product, we are going to put it up entrance, (even when it’s not a product developed inside Examine Level). Wiz has managed to create the main system within the cloud sector and our resolution to collaborate with them is to make it accessible to the person.”
Palo Alto Networks founder CEO Nir Zuk was not too long ago interviewed by “Globes”, and though he did provide you with reward in your collaboration with Wiz, he mentioned that you simply had lastly remembered to do now what different corporations had understood years in the past.
“Nir and I’ve totally different perceptions. Once I was discharged from the military and went on a visit after the military, I devoted time to studying all of the ideas within the industrial business and plenty of good individuals helped me, together with Nir, whom I reward in return. We’re associates, but in addition rivals, and our corporations have totally different perceptions with very totally different DNA. There may be one notion that claims – I’ll do every part – and there are additionally different perceptions.”
Final month, Examine Level additionally entered a brand new actual property mission, when along with Canada Israel it received a young to buy land on Kreminitsky Road in Tel Aviv for NIS 818 million, for the development of two buildings with 60,000 sq. meters for flats and a couple of,700 sq. meters industrial house. The workplace and commerce rights will likely be entrusted to Examine Level, which can pay NIS 500 million of the general quantity.
He provides on this topic, “I’ll solely say that the municipality has not but accredited the plan, however assuming it does – the background to the mission is pondering many years forward. Gil Shwed based the corporate 32 years in the past, and I think about that in one other 32 years, I most likely will not be sitting right here, however another person will. The corporate has an vital place within the Israeli ecosystem and to ensure that us to be right here in 30 years, we have to handle the long run and this future additionally contains actual property and infrastructure. We should look many years forward. The mission has a number of dimensions. These are two buildings, one for preservation and the opposite that will likely be rebuilt and can permit us to have a look at our development. The character of labor anticipated sooner or later might be as we all know it within the post-Covid actuality – hybrid, and likewise hybridity within the sense of cloud – use of the cloud, and that’s how the constructing is designed. There may be an mental problem right here, to plan 20 years forward, since nobody is aware of what the world will seem like then.”
You’re increasing, and different corporations available in the market are downsizing – simply this morning we heard about Intel’s plans to put off 20% of its workforce.
“That is what it’s and it is unhappy. All of us should be reminded that nothing is ever safe and all of us have to look to the long run, look at a number of attainable ‘futures’, and attempt to put together as finest as attainable, actually within the age of AI, the place even when we think about a thousand eventualities, the thousand and first situation continues to be the one which will likely be deadly. We should make investments sooner or later on a regular basis and from its perspective to carry at the beginning the freshest, hungriest and most curious minds that there are in Israel. We are going to quickly be making main hiring of these abilities and simply as there are corporations which are in problem, there may also be corporations that can flourish.”
You’re truly moving into Gil Shwed’s footwear, which some would say are huge footwear.
“We’ve identified one another for a few years. Gil and the opposite founders (Shlomo Kramer and Marius Nacht) all grew out of the identical habitat that I do know effectively, and Gil was a kind of who, after I was discharged, accepted me into the business, and I thank him for that. We’ve been collectively for six months, and for 4 months since I took workplace, now we have complemented one another, regardless that we’re totally different individuals, with totally different worldviews and backgrounds, and we intend to triumph collectively.”
You manufacture your safety containers in Taiwan. How is the tariff warfare affecting you?
“We’re principally a software program firm and virtually nearly all of our income comes from there, so by and huge the direct impression is minor, though in the long run there are {hardware} elements that we placed on the desk. Like the remainder of the world, we’re holding our eyes open, understanding that issues could change at any second and we are going to see the way it impacts us. Once I placed on my optimistic glasses, firstly, now we have not seen or should not seeing any impression from our clients on transactions made with us. Secondly, traditionally, even when there’s a decline within the economic system, the cybersecurity world is comparatively immune as a result of it’s the final precedence for cuts by IT managers. Definitely, on this planet we’re in, we won’t see fewer cyberattacks when there may be problem within the economic system.”
The place do you see the Israeli economic system and native tech business in 5 years?
“Let’s speak in regards to the final 19 months – we’re all in a difficult interval, I look first on the tech sector and the way it has seemed within the final yr and a half. Total, with all of the difficulties and definitely after 7/10, the Israeli tech business and the multinational corporations are proving actual resilience. We did not miss even a bit bit (at Examine Level), and it’s true that many of the improvement is right here, however the rivals, even when they’re empathetic, will take each alternative to take benefit so we, Israeli tech, deserve a excessive rating for our conduct within the final two years.
“Trying forward, I believe the distinctiveness of the place continues and has been confirmed repeatedly. Within the week after October seventh, we checked out ourselves and mentioned, ‘What is going on on right here?’ And I believe the truth that tech ought to give us unbiased confidence, and many individuals who served and had been on the entrance strains are returning dwelling. I hope they discover associates, and their households in a scenario that wish to transfer ahead, and I hope there will likely be an settlement right here quickly and that the hostages will return. And as Mark Twain mentioned after a disaster, while you attain an answer, there may be development.”
Full disclosure: The Convention was held in collaboration with Starkware, Startup Nation Central, Microsoft Israel, Dream, FBC regulation agency, the Israel Innovation Authority, and Mekorot
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on April 23, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
