XML, Extensible Markup Language, is a highly adaptable tool that gives Web page designers almost unlimited ways to share information, formatting and data on the Internet.

The problem is, XML hasn't been widely adopted as a developer tool because of its vulnerability to hacking and because, in recent years, no software existed to integrate XML applications.

Weston Swenson is solving those problems, bringing XML's flexibility and ease of use to trust management, threat protection and information solutions that companies and government can use with full security.

Swenson, president and chief executive officer of Sandy-based Forum Systems, has been both the company's strategic leader and its primary fund-raiser. He has taken the lead both in demanding production and accountability from his staff and himself, and in procuring funding from angel investors, enabling Forum to develop cutting-edge XML information security products that serve the needs of Fortune 1,000 organizations.

Forum's products help companies share various formats of information in everything from transmission and routing to validation and data protection. The company's security products embed protection in every piece of data, ensuring privacy and access control no matter where on the Web the data may travel.