Overview

Stu Sjouwerman (pronounced “shower-man”) is the founder and CEO of KnowBe4, Inc. A serial entrepreneur and data security expert with more than 30 years in the IT industry, Sjouwerman was the co-founder of Inc. 500 company Sunbelt Software, a multiple award-winning anti-malware software company that was acquired 2010. Realizing that the human element of security was being seriously neglected, he decided to help organizations manage the problem of cybercrime social engineering tactics through new school security awareness training and founded KnowBe4 in 2010. Sjouwerman is the author of four books, with his latest being “Cyberheist: The Biggest Financial Threat Facing American Businesses.” From 1996 through 2011, Stu was the Editor-In-Chief of WServer News, an email newsletter to 100,000+ IT system administrators helping them to keep their systems secure. Along with his CEO duties, Stu is currently Editor-in-Chief of Cyberheist News, an e-zine tailored to deliver IT security news, technical updates and social engineering alerts to IT professionals.

The most monumental moment of Stu’s career so far has been when KnowBe4 became a publicly-traded company. It was a lot of years of hard work by our team and the culmination was when our co-presidents got to ring the NASDAQ bell on Wall Street back in April of 2021.

On a personal note, in 2019, Stu and his wife donated $4 million to the Humane Society of Pinellas to finance construction of a new animal adoption center. In 2020, they donated $2 million to the Gladys Douglas-Hackworth Preserve to try to help save the 44 acres of undeveloped land in Dunedin, Florida. Stu and his wife make significant donations to causes that they believe in to help better their local community.