Nadav Zafrir

Nadav Zafrir joined Check Point as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member in December 2024, succeeding founder Gil Shwed. Zafrir is based in Tel Aviv and brings more than 30 years of operational and business experience to the role. He steps into leadership at a critical juncture for cybersecurity, where AI and the rapid move to cloud security are reshaping how businesses defend their digital assets.

Prior to Check Point, Zafrir established the Israel Defense Forces' Cyber Command and served as Commander of the elite Unit 8200, retiring as a Brigadier General. At Team8, which he co-founded and served as managing partner, Nadav and his partners built and invested in over 40 companies, and he chaired over a dozen cyber security companies. Team8's foundry created companies including Sygnia (acquired for $250 million by Temasek), Portshift (acquired by Cisco), Curv (acquired by PayPal), and Claroty. He was a board member of SolarEdge Technologies (after serving as chairman for five years) and has also served on the boards of 14 private cyber security companies.

Zafrir holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and an LLB from Reichman University. He spent a considerable part of his childhood in Latin America (his father was a diplomat) and returned to Israel in 1988 to enlist in the IDF. At just 30 years old, he was appointed deputy commander of Unit 81, the elite technological division of the IDF's Intelligence Corps; five years later he became deputy commander of Unit 8200, and four years after that he was appointed to lead the entire unit. Two decades later, Zafrir retired from the IDF with the rank of brigadier general.

Career History

• Chief Executive Officer, Check Point Software Technologies (December 2024–present)
• Managing Partner, Team8 (June 2014–December 2024)
• Vice Chairman, ISTARI (2019–December 2024)
• Chairman, SolarEdge Technologies (2019–October 2024)
• Commander of the elite Unit 8200 and founder of Israel Defense Forces' Cyber Command (prior to Team8)

What Zafrir could bring to CEO at Check Point: With extensive experience building and scaling multiple cybersecurity companies through Team8, establishing the IDF's Cyber Command, and commanding Unit 8200—Israel's elite intelligence unit recognized as a world-class talent incubator—Zafrir brings deep domain expertise in threat assessment and organizational leadership. His track record of transforming startups into successful exits and his advisory relationships with Fortune 500 executives position him to navigate Check Point's evolution amid rapid industry consolidation and the emerging challenges of AI-driven security threats.