Chris Drake is the founder and CEO of FireHost where his main responsibility is solving the customers’ problems. 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.

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 hand-picked by commanding General Henry Hugh Shelton (later to be become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) to migrate the 82nd from their Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) to their first private websites. Since email wasn’t standard practice,these websites had to be totally secure so deployed units could communicate with their families. Chris successfully undertook this challenge and enabled troops to enjoy secure communication electronically with their families around the world.

While in college, Drake was the Director of Interactive Marketing for a Dallas-based Advertising Agency. His primary responsibility was to turn a once traditional agency into an interactive shop. There, he helped grow the 12-person agency to 115 employees in a few years with annual revenues of $20 million.

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.