Plano-based cybersecurity and compliance services company Armor Defense brought aboard a new CEO with a longtime connection to founder Chris Drake.

Nicholas Lee, former CEO of Dallas-based Fujitsu Intelligence, takes over day-to-day leadership as Drake shifts from CEO to chief innovation officer and remains on Armor’s board of directors. 

Founded in Richardson in 2009 as FireHost, the company rebranded in 2015 to Armor Defense. Armor serves over 1,700 customers across more than 40 countries.

‘A rising star’

In a LinkedIn post, Drake said he met Lee 14 years ago and “saw a rising star.”

“I tried to bring him on then, and the timing didn’t work, but we stayed connected,” Drake, who splits his time between Singapore and New York City, wrote on LinkedIn.

Lee will concentrate on scaling growth at Armor, freeing Drake to focus on driving innovation.

Armor Defense founder Chris Drake is shifting from CEO to chief innovation officer. In October, he gave a presentation about a CISO’s role in AI innovation at GovWare 2026 in Singapore. [Photo: Armor]

“Solving hard problems for customers is what I love, and the past six months bringing Sovereign AI to market reminded me of that. My other priority was finding the right leader to help Armor scale,” Drake said in a statement.

In a LinkedIn post, Armor said Drake will lead exploration of “emerging needs” and development of products.

Drake said Lee’s experience in cybersecurity, large-scale AI and growth of service providers makes him “exactly the right person to drive Armor’s growth.”

Veteran leadership

Lee spent nearly 20 years at Japanese tech giant Fujitsu. He helped found Fujitsu Intelligence and became its CEO in 2024. As CEO, he built and grew the data and AI business, Armor said, and brought technology to market that offered “measurable customer value.”

In 2020, Lee co-founded the Entangle Community, a platform for collaboration among professionals in quantum computing, AI and related fields.

Earlier this year, he became a founding member of the Dallas chapter of Blend, a network of C-suite executives. He also serves on the Dallas Regional Chamber’s board of directors.

In his new role at Armor, Lee will oversee Sovereign AI, which Armor launched in July. The platform lets organizations use AI privately within their own infrastructure. A company controls its AI data, spending and audit trails, rather than outsourcing that work to a vendor. Sovereign AI targets customers in regulated industries. 

“Armor combines a proven cybersecurity business with an exciting opportunity to help customers adopt AI securely and confidently,” Lee said in a statement. “Sovereign AI is a strong example of that opportunity.”

Fostering innovation

In 2025, Dallas Innovates and the Dallas Regional Chamber named Lee an AI Visionary. The honor recognized his work to push “the boundaries of quantum-inspired computing to help define what’s next for artificial intelligence,” the organizations said.

“My first priority is to listen to our people, customers and partners, and build on the company’s strengths,” Lee said.