“We established the Schlein Center to bring together world-class faculty and practitioners to educate and enable the next generation of cyber talent. The Masters of Systems, Software, and Cybersecurity program will engage some of the best and brightest students in the country, and equip them to build and protect our most critical infrastructure.”
Ted Schlein
Ted Schlein is a pioneering venture capitalist and one of the most influential early investors in cybersecurity. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he has played a defining role in shaping the modern security landscape by identifying and backing transformative technologies well before cybersecurity became a mainstream priority. Schlein spent nearly 30 years as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, where he focused on enterprise software and security, investing in companies that helped establish entire categories of cyber defense.
Prior to his venture career, he was an early executive at Symantec and later the founding CEO of Fortify Software, a trailblazing application-security company whose technology reshaped how organizations identify and mitigate software vulnerabilities.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Schlein has remained deeply engaged with the university as a member of its Board of Trustees and the Board of Overseers for Penn Engineering. In 2021, he made a transformative philanthropic investment to establish the Schlein Center for Cybersecurity, reflecting both his professional expertise and his belief in the critical role universities play in advancing secure and trustworthy technologies. His support enables Penn to pursue foundational research in cybersecurity, privacy, and data science while fostering collaboration across engineering, policy, law, and the social sciences.
Through the Schlein Center for Cybersecurity, Schlein’s legacy extends beyond individual companies to the broader societal challenges posed by an increasingly digital world. The center advances interdisciplinary research, education, and real-world impact, preparing the next generation of leaders to address evolving cyber threats with technical rigor and ethical awareness. Schlein’s career-long commitment to innovation, security, and public good continues to shape how cybersecurity is researched, taught, and applied at Penn and beyond.