Michelle Zatlyn

Michelle Zatlyn is a Canadian-American technology executive and co-founder of Cloudflare, the internet security and infrastructure company she launched with Matthew Prince and Lee Hollenbeck in 2009. Born in Canada, Zatlyn holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and built much of Cloudflare's early go-to-market and business development strategy. She serves as President of Cloudflare, making her one of the very few women to hold a C-suite leadership role at a major internet infrastructure company that she also helped found.

Zatlyn has been a prominent voice on internet security, entrepreneurship, and the role of infrastructure companies in global internet governance. She and Prince developed the initial concept for Cloudflare while at Harvard Business School, entering it in a business competition before launching the company. Cloudflare listed on the NYSE in 2019, with Zatlyn and Prince co-presenting the IPO roadshow. Her public profile focuses on promoting women in technology and enterprise security.

In the AI employment story, Zatlyn's significance is structural: Cloudflare's May 2026 decision to cut 1,100 jobs on record revenue was a joint company decision she co-leads, illustrating how even tech companies with strong egalitarian public brands are restructuring workforces around AI efficiency.

As Cloudflare President, Zatlyn was part of the executive leadership that approved the May 2026 decision to cut approximately 1,100 jobs while the company reported record quarterly revenue. The cuts represented one of the starkest examples in the 2026 tech cycle of profitable companies restructuring around AI productivity rather than financial necessity, a decision made under joint Prince/Zatlyn leadership.