Chris Drake
Founder and CEO, FireHost

Chris Drake is the founder and CEO of FireHost where he oversees the growth, direction, and innovation at the company. According to Chris, “It’s not about secure hosting features, industry trends, or what technologies we invest in. It’s about solving our customers core problems and empowering them with the feeling of total security when it comes to their website.”

Prior to founding FireHost, Drake was the founder of and partner in an interactive marketing and web development company, TargetScope, which oversaw hundreds of websites containing critical data, applications and ecommerce. After seeing time and again that clients’ websites were not adequately protected from new hacker threats, viruses and other malicious cybercrimes, Drake began offering hosting services that addressed clients’ security and performance needs. What emerged was FireHost. In 2008, Drake took the company from being a one-off solution that was offered to customers of TargetScope to being a whole new, and fast growth company all on its own. Since the company’s marketing launch in June 2009, FireHost has grown an average of 40 percent each quarter, raised $2 Million in capital, and been recognized as a major player in the Web security space.

Drake’s career as a secure hosting “superhero” didn’t start the way of most in the Web hosting world. He started off as a real-life superhero serving as a paratrooper in the storied 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army. While Based in Fr. Bragg, North Carolina, Drake was selected to build some of the Army’s first private and secure websites in addition to his paratrooper duties.

Drake is sought after speaker and writer on everything related to Web development, hosting and security. He is frequently published in major industry news sites such as VentureBeat, Ecommerce Developer, and Ecommerce Times, and speaks at leading industry events and tradeshows on timely Web security issues.

Drake holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of North Texas, where he was also named Marketing Alumni of the Year in 2007. When he’s not working tirelessly to bring secure web hosting to all, Drake enjoys spending time with his wife Katrena, playing Rugby and mentoring other business owners with start-up challenges.