ATLANTA – Oct. 19, 2017 – The Technology Executives Roundtable (TER), an organization of more than 120 Georgia technology leaders, announced it will honor Chris Klaus with the Eighth Annual John Imlay Leadership Award. Klaus is the founder and former CTO of Internet Security Systems and current CEO of Kaneva. The ceremony will be held Tues., Nov. 14 at 7 a.m. at the City Club of Buckhead.
The John Imlay Leadership Award recognizes and celebrates individuals who have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of the Georgia high-tech community. It is named in honor of the late John Imlay, Jr., former chairman of Imlay Investments, who is credited with helping create two of Atlanta’s biggest tech industries — software and internet security.
At just 20 years old, while attending the Georgia Institute of Technology, Chris Klaus developed Internet Scanner, a software package designed to probe a network’s vulnerability, analyze security weaknesses and recommend solutions. Seeing potential with his creation, Klaus left Georgia Tech to found a startup, Internet Security Systems (ISS), in 1994, and it quickly took off. Four short years later, in 1998, ISS went public, and in 2006, IBM bought ISS for $1.3B. Today, Klaus is founder and CEO of Kaneva, a 3D video game community.
“Without a doubt, Chris is highly regarded as one of the youngest and brightest internet pioneers of our time, as well as a foremost philanthropist and community leader in Atlanta,” said Walter Czarnecki, president of TER. “His commitment to innovation helped put Atlanta on the tech map, through funding of multiple Atlanta business accelerators, as well as a pledged donation that helped create the Christopher W. Klaus Advanced Computing Building on Georgia Tech’s campus. Chris’ dedication to giving back ensures the technology industry will continue to thrive in Georgia.”
Passionate about startups and young entrepreneurs, Klaus also co-founded NeuroLaunch, the first accelerator program for early-stage neuroscience start-ups, and CyberLaunch VC, an accelerator for information security and machine learning startups. Klaus also invigorates the future of technology at Georgia Tech by supporting CREATE-X, a program that gives students a platform to connect with industry leaders and receive the guidance, support and capital to launch their own startups.
“Through hard work and dedication, I was able to have my first big success fairly early in life,” Klaus said. “However, I realize that not all young entrepreneurs have the resources I did to transform their ideas into a successful product. I have always wanted to do what I can to grow talent and innovate technology. I am honored to receive the John Imlay Leadership Award — it represents not only the efforts of my companies, but also all of the companies that have decided to make Atlanta their home. The Atlanta tech industry has grown so much in the last 25 years, and I am excited to see what is to come for our city.”
The TER awards ceremony will include a fireside chat led by John Yates, partner overseeing the technology practice at Morris, Manning & Martin LLP.
Past recipients of the John Imlay Leadership Award include Michael R. Cote, president and CEO of SecureWorks; David Cummings, co-founder of Pardot and founder of Atlanta Tech Village; Bill Nussey, former chairman and CEO of Silverpop; Alan Dabbiere, founder of Manhattan Associates and former chairman of AirWatch; Charlie Moseley, founder of Noro-Moseley Partners; Tom Noonan, co-founder of JouleX, Endgame and TechOperators and former chairman and CEO of Internet Security Systems; and Sig Mosley, managing partner of Mosley Ventures and former president of Imlay Investments.
For more information about the Technology Executives Roundtable (TER), visit http://www.ter-atlanta.com/.
About Technology Executives Roundtable
Technology Executives Roundtable (TER) is an association for Georgia technology executives that provides CEOs, CFOs and general managers with the ability to maximize the value of companies through the exchange of top ideas, candid talk and a forum to share what is working, what is not and best practices to unlock business value. Monthly meetings feature speakers and panels of local and national experts covering topics such as strategic alliances, crisis management, non-conventional financing, M&A, intellectual property protection and other issues of interest to senior executives on company growth. For more information, visit www.ter-atlanta.com.
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