Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and founder of the private equity group MAVeCap, is an inventor, innovator and Internet security expert. His portfolio of companies includes cybersecurity giant Comodo, IT software company ITarian, home automation companies Ezlo and Vera, and national managed service provider nuMSP, among others.
Melih’s first company was Comodo Group, which he founded in 1998, growing its SSL certificate authority, Comodo CA, over the next 19 years to become the largest SSL provider in the world with 50% market share. In 2017, he sold 50% of Comodo CA to private equity firm Francisco Partners and shifted his focus to his other companies, including the cybersecurity software side of Comodo Group, Comodo Security Solutions, Inc.
Melih’s mission since founding Comodo has been to create a secure and trusted environment online. Keeping in line with this mission, Melih actively advocates for elevated standards across the security industry. In 2005, Melih founded the Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/B Forum), a voluntary consortium of Certificate Authorities, internet browser developers, and operating system vendors, which “advances industry best practices to improve the ways that certificates are used to the benefit of Internet users and the security of their communications.” In 2009, Melih initiated the Common Computing Security Standards Forum (CCSS), an organization of vendors of security software, operating systems, and browsers, working to mitigate the risk of malware and protect consumers worldwide.
In 2008, Melih Abdulhayoglu’s efforts to promote Internet security earned him the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® award in Information Technology Software for New Jersey. He is a frequent speaker on Internet security issues and has appeared as an expert on various media outlets, including Fox TV and USA Today.