Check Point Software Technologies co-founder and CEO Gil Shwed announced his intention to step down from his role as CEO and transition into the position of executive chairman. This news came immediately before the company's Q4 2023 earnings call.

Shwed has been at the helm since Check Point was founded in Israel in February 1993. The other two cofounders are Marius Nacht, who stepped down from the chairman role in 2020, and Shlomo Kramer, who left Check Point in 2003 and co-founded Cato Networks.

“In 2023, Check Point hit the 30-year milestone as a company. We have delivered 30 years of growth and achieved record highs in almost every parameter for the year,” Shwed said in a statement. “I feel it is the right time for me to focus on the evolution of Check Point and its next stage.”

“I intend to transition into the role of executive chairman, charting the future of Check Point and the cybersecurity market. We’re initiating the succession process to hire a new CEO, and once completed I will transition into my new position as Executive Chairman,” he added.

Shwed said during the earnings call that he plans to stay in the company and continue to be involved in the future of Check Point, but shift his attention from day-to-day management to shaping the future of the cybersecurity market and the company in particular.

“I'm struggling with that question. I mean, people ask me, when are we going to move on? When are we going to do something else for approximately 27 years now, almost since we went public?” he said.

The search for a new CEO is set to begin, a “more thorough succession planning” process Shwed anticipates could span from six months to two years.

The ideal candidate, as described by Shwed, will be deeply passionate about cybersecurity, embodying Check Point's commitment to delivering the best security solutions.

“I would look for somebody that has many Check Point characteristics that -- I mean can -- detail-oriented, understands the big picture, understands the details and so on,” he said. “But I would look for somebody that's very outbound, that's very sales-oriented, that can go out and meet with customers and partners and travel the world and represent Check Point in every step of the way.”

“Once we identify the right person, I will work with her or him to do the right passes of the torches, and then I intend to stay here. Executive chairman means it's not just the title, I want to stay at Check Point, I want to dedicate more time and I want to select the subjects that I'm working on, whether it's the future of cyber, whether it's new security technologies, whether it's making everything in the Check Point platform work and tick and simple like -- I would like it to be,” Shwed said.

The announcement comes at a time when Check Point is doubling down on its Infinity platform and artificial intelligence (AI) integration.

The security vendor reported a total revenue of $2,415 million, a 4 percent increase year over year for the full fiscal year of 2023.

“I think for 2024, our focus is what we call the platform company,” Shwed said.

In the last quarter of 2023, revenue from the vendor's Infinity family exceeded 10% of total revenue, said CFO Roei Golan. “We can see more and more customers -- also new customers, adopting our platform, which enhances their needs under one umbrella of product and services.”

“A significant part of our new business today is coming from Infinity. Every quarter, the portion of the Infinity is higher. It's growing very fast,” Shwed echoed, adding the Infinity platform has a consistent double-digit growth in revenue for the last few quarters.

“In the end, we expect the big portion of the new business that will be related to Infinity will grow every quarter based on the demand that we see today and the pipeline that we see today for the whole Infinity solution,” he said.

Image credit: Check Point Software Technologies