Dean Drako

Dean Drako
Drako at the Design Automation Conference 3 June 2013
Alma mater	University of Michigan (BS,EE 1987) UC Berkeley (MS,EE 1988)
Occupation	Founder, CEO, Eagle Eye Networks
Board member of	Barracuda Networks, Brivo
Website	Linked in

Dean Drako is an American businessman and serial entrepreneur who has started more than five companies. Drako is best known as a co-founder, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks (NYSE Ticker CUDA) from 2003 to July 2012. Drako is currently President and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks. He is also an active angel investor.

He graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MS in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley. As of 2013, Drako is a holder of 27 patents, including patents in network security, network protocols, digital circuits, software, biochemical processes, and sporting equipment.

In 1982, Drako founded his first company, which sold a bulletin board system software package called T-net, used to share messages via modems. Drako used the profits to fund his college education.

In 1992, Drako founded Design Acceleration, Inc, served as its CEO, and sold it to Cadence Design Systems in 1999. Drako was also founder and CEO of Boldfish and Velosel; Boldfish was acquired by Siebel Systems in 2003. In 2003 Drako founded IC Manage, where he continues to be president and CEO.

Drako has written a number of articles on open source, big data, and system on chip design.

Drako is a frequently invited speaker and contributor on the topic of entrepreneurship, including by UC Berkeley, University of Michigan,ISPD, and Forbes.

Also in 2003, Drako founded Barracuda Networks and introduced their email spam and virus appliance product line. Other Barracuda product lines launched during Drako's tenure were: web filters,load balancers,email archiving, and digital PBXs.