2024 –
Co-founder and CEO of
WethosAI. The company builds AI that models how people make decisions, so that leaders can rehearse an important decision before they make it for real. You can also try
Stu's Twin, an AI model of how Stuart thinks, built and run by WethosAI. It is an AI, not Stuart live, and the link takes you off this site to wethos.ai.
2022 –
Founded
NumberOne AI, a venture studio, which is a firm that starts and builds its own companies. The companies it builds are designed around AI from the beginning.
2020 – 2025
Served as CEO and a board member of
Qwiet AI, which used AI to find security flaws in software applications. He led it until Harness acquired the company in 2025.
2012 – 2019
Co-founded
Cylance. Instead of matching malicious code against a list of known threats (called signatures) after the fact, Cylance used machine learning to recognize malware and stop it before it could run. BlackBerry acquired Cylance for $1.5 billion in February 2019.
2004 – 2012
Joined McAfee when it acquired Foundstone, and served there as Worldwide Chief Technology Officer and as General Manager of its Risk & Compliance business. Intel agreed to acquire McAfee in 2010.
1999 – 2004
Co-founded
Foundstone, a security consulting company that also built software to find and manage the weaknesses in computer networks. The family of network vulnerability patents listed below came out of that work. McAfee acquired Foundstone in 2004.
1999 – 2012
Co-wrote
Hacking Exposed with Joel Scambray and George Kurtz. The book laid out the attacker's playbook and published it for the people defending against those attacks. It ran to seven editions between 1999 and 2012.
1996 – 2002
Wrote for InfoWorld magazine: 40 articles and reviews, plus 92
Security Watch columns co-written with Joel Scambray. All 132 pieces are
listed further down this page.
1992 – 1994
Founded Computerese in Palm Desert, California, his first company. It built computer networks and wrote custom software.
1989
Survived
United Airlines Flight 811. Over the Pacific, an electrical short told the cargo door to open and a faulty latch allowed it; the door blew off, and nine passengers were lost. Finding failures like that one before they happen became the focus of his work.
bio
Stuart McClure has spent his career on one idea: prevention. He co-founded Foundstone, served as Worldwide CTO of McAfee, and co-founded Cylance, which used artificial intelligence to stop malware before it could run. Cylance was acquired by BlackBerry in 2019. He co-authored Hacking Exposed with Joel Scambray and George Kurtz, and later led Qwiet AI until its acquisition by Harness. Today he is co-founder and CEO of WethosAI, which models how people decide so leaders can rehearse consequential decisions before making them, and founder of the venture studio NumberOne AI. He also writes the weekly letter (un)Lonely at the Top.
companies, boards and investments
Companies he founded or led, companies whose boards he sat on or advised, and companies he invested in: 24 entries in all.
Feb 2026 · Calcalist
Identity resilience platform. Stuart served on C-Suite Advisory Board. Acquired by Semperis.
May 2025 · Orange County Business Journal
Stuart's investment in Fluxwear, Inc.
2024 · WethosAI
Founder and CEO of Wethos AI, an AI-powered platform for understanding and optimizing human potential and team dynamics.
2024 · EIN Presswire
Lead investor and advisor to TechLok Solutions, a physical device security and mobile productivity platform.
2024 · PR Newswire
Joined the MightyID C-Suite Advisory Board, advising on strategic initiatives for their identity resilience platform. Acquired by Semperis in 2025.
2023 · Fast Company Executive Board
Member of the Fast Company Executive Board, a vetted professional network of company founders and executives defining the future of business.
2023 · SiliconANGLE
Third-party risk management platform. Stuart was an investor. Acquired by ProcessUnity in July 2023.
2022 · NumberOne AI
Founder and CEO of NumberOne AI, an AI incubator and accelerator spawning the next generation of AI-native companies.
2022 · NetRise
Appointed to the board of directors of NetRise, an XIoT security platform for firmware and software risk assessment.
2021 · DEV
Investor in Soluble, a cloud infrastructure security platform. Acquired by Lacework in 2021.
2020 · Globus AI
Served on the board of directors of Globus AI, a Norwegian AI company delivering enterprise AI solutions.
2020 · Hyperwise Ventures
Advisor to Hyperwise Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in cybersecurity and deep tech startups.
2020 · Qwiet AI
Served as CEO and board member of Qwiet AI, an AI-powered application security platform. Acquired by Harness in September 2025.
2019 · SiliconANGLE
Angel investor in Demisto, a security orchestration and automation platform. Acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $560M in 2019.
2017 · Dark Reading
Investor and board member at JASK, an autonomous security operations platform using AI-driven alert triage. Acquired by Sumo Logic in 2019.
2017 · FinSMEs
Angel investor in JASK, an autonomous security operations platform. Acquired by Sumo Logic in 2019.
2015 · Optiv
Served on the board of directors of Optiv, a leading cybersecurity solutions integrator. Acquired by KKR.
2015 · Business Wire
Appointed to the board of Digital Shadows, a cyber threat intelligence and digital risk protection company. Acquired by ReliaQuest in 2022.
2014 · ClearSky
Advisor to ClearSky Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage cybersecurity and enterprise technology companies.
2012 · Ten Eleven Ventures
Advisor to Ten Eleven Ventures, a venture capital firm focused exclusively on cybersecurity investments.
2012 · Wikipedia
Co-founded Cylance, which used AI to stop malware before it ran. Acquired by BlackBerry for $1.5 billion in February 2019.
2004 · Wikipedia
Global CTO and GM of Risk & Compliance following McAfee's acquisition of Foundstone. McAfee acquired by Intel for $7.8B in 2010.
1999 · Crunchbase
Co-founded Foundstone, a security consulting and vulnerability management firm. Acquired by McAfee in 2004.
Computerese — Founder (1992–1994)
1992
IT and networking buildouts with custom software development. Founded in Palm Desert, CA — Stuart's first company, where it all started.
patents
May 2023 · U.S. patent
[summary]Cylance's core AI patent covering automated ML-based multiclass classification of software artifacts for malware detection. Originally filed 2014; granted as US11657317B2 in May 2023 — active through October 2037. Co-invented with Ryan Permeh, Matthew Wolff, and the Cylance research team.
Oct 2020 · U.S. patent
[summary]Continuation grant (Oct 2020, active through Feb 2035) broadening claims to cover receiving features from operational, static, dynamic, and external sources to generate safety scores with confidence levels.
Mar 2019 · U.S. patent
Granted US patent (March 2019, active through Feb 2035) for Cylance's core AI security technology — real-time execution control using ensemble ML analyzing static and dynamic features to prevent malicious execution.
Mar 2015 · U.S. patent
[summary]McAfee patent (granted 2015, active through July 2031) that calculates operational dependence scores for network assets by analyzing services, connections, and data criticality to prioritize vulnerability remediation.
Dec 2013 · U.S. patent
Fourth US grant (Dec 2013) covering multi-tier port scanning and vulnerability database comparison methodology within the automated network security assessment framework.
Dec 2013 · U.S. patent
Fifth US grant (Dec 2013) covering active vulnerability assessment and quantitative security scoring components of the automated network vulnerability detection system.
Dec 2013 · U.S. patent
Third US grant (Dec 2013) covering the hierarchical graphical reporting methodology for network vulnerability results — dynamic network topology visualizations over text-based reports.
Mar 2012 · U.S. patent
Second major US grant (2012) in the Foundstone/McAfee network vulnerability family. Adds TCP fingerprinting, parallel batch port scanning (640 simultaneous slots), and intelligent UDP scanning with latency detection.
Dec 2006 · U.S. patent
Stuart's foundational 2002 patent from Foundstone — the original framework for automated network vulnerability scanning, OS fingerprinting, and quantitative security scoring. First US grant 2006 (US7152105B2); five US continuations granted through 2013. Later assigned to McAfee following acquisition.
congressional record (4)
Mar 2017 · U.S. Congress
Senate hearing examining how emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping cybersecurity threats and defenses.
Sep 2016 · House Oversight Committee
The House Oversight Committee majority staff report on the OPM breach. It found that “the significance of the cutting edge preventative technology offered by Cylance in responding to the OPM data breach cannot be overstated” (p. 123).
Jun 2012 · U.S. Congress
Third quarter, 112th Congress second session. House Committee on Homeland Security legislative and oversight activities report pursuant to House Rule XI, 1(d).
Apr 2012 · U.S. Congress
Congressional hearing on the state of cybersecurity threats facing the United States and the urgent need for improved defenses.
