Gene Kim, The Phoenix Project

As a student of Gene Spafford, Kim co-authored the open source tool Tripwire while at Purdue University in 1992. He co-founded Tripwire, Inc in 1997 with Wyatt Starnes.

In 1999, Kim started his work studying IT organizations, capturing and codifying how high performing organizations have IT operations, security, audit, management, and governance working together to solve common business objectives. Kim co-wrote the “The Visible Ops Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps” in 2004, and “Visible Ops Security: Achieving Common Security and IT Operations Objectives in 4 Practical Steps” in 2008.

Kim was named as a Computer Science Outstanding Alumni in 2007 for “exceptional professional achievements and their success in advancing world technology with the application of computer science”, and as one of Computerworld’s “Forty Technology Innovators Under Forty” in 2007.

After Spafford and Kim co-authored Tripwire at Purdue University, Kim co-founded Tripwire, Inc in 1997 with Wyatt Starnes in Portland, Oregon. He served as the CTO there for thirteen years, leaving in July 2010 to become a full-time author and researcher. The company grew from 17 to 75 employees in 1999, and reached over 260 employees and $74 million in revenue by 2009.