# Kon Leong

> Kon Leong is the CEO and co-founder of ZL Technologies, a Milpitas-based enterprise software company he built from the ground up in 1999 to tackle the problem nobody else wanted to solve: the mountain of unstructured human data - emails, documents, messages - that sits at the center of every corporate compliance, legal, and AI challenge. A serial entrepreneur who migrated from China to India to Canada to the US, Leong brought a rare mix of deep IT engineering, Wall Street M&A finance, and startup grit to a market that was just waking up to its own data problem. Today, ZL Technologies serves Fortune 500 companies and government agencies across financial services, healthcare, and the public sector, with a platform that manages data in-place at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than conventional approaches.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at ZL Technologies
- **Organizations:** ZL Technologies, GigaLabs, KKall, Deutsche Bank, General Motors, Union Bank of California, Philips Data Systems, Burroughs Corp.
- **From:** China
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Engineering (attended 1 year), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Bachelor of Science, Computer Science and Business Administration, Concordia University (Loyola), MBA with Distinction, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- **Known for:** Co-founded ZL Technologies in 1999, which has grown to serve Fortune 500 companies and US government agencies across financial services, healthcare, and the public sector, Built a platform capable of managing data in-place up to 1,000 times faster than conventional approaches, ZL Technologies achieved DoD certification for classified records management

## Career timeline

- **1974-1975** — Attended Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
- **1975-1979** — Studied Computer Science and Business at Concordia University (Loyola), Montreal
- **1979-1981** — Territory Manager at Burroughs Corporation
- **1981-1982** — Systems Analyst at Philips Data Systems
- **1982-1985** — Business Systems role at Union Bank of California
- **1984-1986** — MBA with Distinction from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- **1985-1987** — Financial Analyst at General Motors Treasurer's Office, New York - managed GM's venture capital investments in high technology
- **1987-1992** — First Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions at Deutsche Bank
- **1992-1995** — CEO of KKall
- **1995-1999** — Co-founder and President of GigaLabs, a vendor of high-speed networking switches
- **1999-present** — Co-founded ZL Technologies; serving as CEO, building the company into a leading enterprise unstructured data management platform serving Fortune 500 and US government clients
- **2017** — ZL Technologies named to Deloitte Technology Fast 500
- **2019** — Delivered privacy keynote at ARMA InfoCon 2019
- **2024** — Presented at AI4 2024 on 'Tapping Into the Corporate Memory'
- **2025** — ZL Technologies partnered with Carahsoft to expand into US public sector; presented at AI4 2025 on generative AI and enterprise data

## Achievements

- Co-founded ZL Technologies in 1999, which has grown to serve Fortune 500 companies and US government agencies across financial services, healthcare, and the public sector
- Built a platform capable of managing data in-place up to 1,000 times faster than conventional approaches
- ZL Technologies achieved DoD certification for classified records management
- Pioneered in-place data management approach eliminating the need to move or copy data for governance purposes
- Grew ZL Technologies to 250+ employees with $31.5M in annual revenue
- Secured partnership with Carahsoft (April 2025) to distribute ZL platform across US government through NASA SEWP V and ITES-SW2 contracts
- Earlier co-founded GigaLabs, a successful vendor of high-speed networking switches
- Received MBA with Distinction from the Wharton School
- Speaker at ARMA International Conference (56th Annual) and ARMA InfoCon 2019 privacy keynote
- Featured speaker at AI4 2024 and AI4 2025 conferences on enterprise AI and data governance

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — ZL Technologies and Carahsoft announced a strategic partnership to bring ZL's unstructured data management platform to US public sector agencies through NASA SEWP V and ITES-SW2 federal contracts.
- **2025-02** — Kon Leong presented key insights on generative AI and unstructured data governance, introducing a data virtualization approach that reduces storage costs by up to 90% while enabling AI readiness.
- **2025-01** — Presented at AI4 2025 on 'Generative AI...So, Where's the Data?' addressing how enterprises can leverage their internal unstructured data for AI while meeting governance requirements.
- **2024-08** — Presented at AI4 2024 on 'Tapping Into the Corporate Memory', discussing how unstructured enterprise data from emails, calls, and documents represents an untapped strategic asset.

## Links

- Website: https://zlti.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kon-leong
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tQ4DYlBzfk
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/pages/ZL-Technologies/120507058036077

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kon-leong
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-16