SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet
“The Fortinet Girls Invitational expands the opportunities we are providing women at varying levels of their golf career, ranging from AJGA amateur players to LPGA champions, as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts to foster diversity and inclusion. Within our field, Fortinet is also doing this by providing training and other resources for women either looking to start a career in cyber or pursuing growth opportunities through the Fortinet Training Institute programs and other CSR initiatives.”

News Summary
Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced the inaugural American Junior Golf Association’s (AJGA) Fortinet Girls Invitational happening February 17-20, 2023 at Stanford University’s Golf Course.

Expanding its existing partnership with the AJGA as the Official Diversity & Inclusion/STEM Education Partner, this tournament for top women amateur golfers further builds on Fortinet’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion by fostering opportunities for women at various levels in their career. As part of these efforts, Fortinet also supports its ambassadors Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck, two Stanford University student athletes, as well as its LPGA brand ambassadors Alison Lee and Andrea Lee across various LPGA Tour tournaments. Additionally, the company was the Official Cybersecurity Partner for the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship in Wonju, South Korea, and the Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati, Ohio last year.

Fortinet’s Initiatives to Attract and Retain More Women in Cyber
In cybersecurity, women make up an estimated 24% of the workforce. At the same time, there is a global shortage of 3.4 million workers in cybersecurity. Fortinet is committed to fostering more diversity and inclusivity in the industry and to helping close the cyber skills gap by creating more opportunities for women to enter the field and grow in their careers.

Through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach and Fortinet Training Institute programs, Fortinet is progressing on these efforts by:

• Increasing access to its industry-leading training for women: Through its Education Outreach program, Fortinet looks for ways to work with organizations specializing in diversity and encouraging careers for women. For example, Fortinet has forged a new partnership with Latinas in Cyber (LAIC). LAIC will provide its members with access to Fortinet’s multi-level certifications and training curriculum. Additionally, through its partnership with WiCyS, Fortinet has sponsored 5 women members from its NSE 4 Certification Boot Camp to attend the annual Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Conference March 16-18 where they will have access to employers and cyber leaders, including conference keynote speaker Sylvia Schlaphof who is Head of Engineering for BOLL Engineering and a Fortinet NSE 8 certification holder.

• Donating proceeds from golf sponsorship events to women-focused organizations: Fortinet has designated proceeds from the Fortinet Championship to benefit nonprofit organizations in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); diversity and inclusion; and reskilling programs, including organizations like non-profit WINE WOMEN, focused on advancing women in their careers.

• Developing cyber skills in students to help build a diverse, inclusive workforce: Through the Academic Partner program, Fortinet is creating partnerships with universities and colleges to help expand the cybersecurity workforce. Through this program, Fortinet is also encouraging a more diverse set of candidates in other fields of study, such as business, communications, marketing and more, and helping connect them to employers.
  

Supporting Quote

“Seeing Fortinet’s commitment to supporting women in their career development is motivating and makes me proud to represent the company as a brand ambassador. It’s exciting to see the Fortinet Invitational bringing together top amateur female golfers at Stanford where I’m currently a student and as a former AJGA Player of the Year.”
- Rose Zhang, student athlete at Stanford University

“By partnering with Fortinet, we’ll be able to further carry out our mission of offering mentorship, networking, support and representation to Latina cybersecurity professionals. Having access to the Fortinet Training Institute’s award-winning curriculum will help expand our members’ cybersecurity skill sets and validate their knowledge to help propel their career development. Together with Fortinet, we look forward to building a more inclusive and equitable community for women pursuing or already in cybersecurity.”
-Vanessa Morales, Executive Director at Latinas in Cyber (LAIC)

Additional Resources

• Learn more about how Fortinet brings together customers, partners and other cyber leaders through its various golf partnerships in this blog.
• Learn more about Fortinet’s free cybersecurity training, which includes broad cyber awareness and product training. As part of the Fortinet Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), the Fortinet Training Institute also provides training and certification through the Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification, Academic Partner, and Education Outreach programs.
• Read about Fortinet’s Corporate Social Responsibility approach.
• Read more about how Fortinet customers are securing their organizations.
• Follow Fortinet on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to Fortinet on our blog or YouTube.
  

About Fortinet
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) makes possible a digital world that we can always trust through its mission to protect people, devices, and data everywhere. This is why the world’s largest enterprises, service providers, and government organizations choose Fortinet to securely accelerate their digital journey. The Fortinet Security Fabric platform delivers broad, integrated, and automated protections across the entire digital attack surface, securing critical devices, data, applications, and connections from the data center to the cloud to the home office. Ranking #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide, more than 615,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. And the Fortinet NSE Training Institute, an initiative of Fortinet’s Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), provides one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry to make cyber training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.

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