Stelios Valavanis, founder of onShore Security and investor in several early stage companies, graduated from the University of Chicago in 1988 with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics. Stel has worked in the IT services space for over 30 years and has run companies from an independent software vendor to an application developer to an ISP, VAR, and MSP. He currently is the CEO of onShore Security, an established cybersecurity provider of managed security since 1999, serving primarily the financial services industry. Stel held a number of technical positions at the University of Chicago before founding onShore. He currently serves on the board of the ACLU of Illinois and advisory boards and committees for several other organizations and companies. Stel’s business and technical strengths center around the network and security, designing Internet security for trading firms in the 90s and eventually building what is today a managed security company with an emphasis on banking. He is a strong advocate of open source software and its contribution to Internet security.
