Pierre Omidyar

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Pierre Morad Omidyar

Pierre Omidyar in 2007
Born June 21, 1967 (1967-06-21) (age 40)
Paris, France
Occupation Founder and Chairman, eBay Inc.
Net worth ▼US$7.7 Billion (2008) [1]
Spouse Pamela Kerr Omidyar
Website
pierre.typepad.com

Pierre M. Omidyar (Persian: پیر امیدیار, born June 21, 1967) is a French-born Iranian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist/economist, and the founder/chairman of the eBay auction site. Omidyar and his wife Pam are well-known philanthropists who founded Omidyar Network in 2004 in order to expand their efforts beyond non-profits to include for-profits and public policy. Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm committed to creating and fostering opportunity for people around the world.
According to Forbes magazine, as of March 2008, he is the 120th richest person in the world.

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[edit] Early life and work

Born in Paris, France to Iranian parents, Omidyar moved to the US at the age of six. Growing up in Washington, D.C., he developed an interest in computing while still at St. Andrew's Episcopal School (Maryland) in Bethesda. He graduated from St. Andrew's in 1984 and in 1988 he graduated in computer science from Tufts University, joining Claris, an Apple Computer subsidiary, where he helped write MacDraw. In 1991 he co-founded Ink Development, a pen-based computing startup that was later rebranded as an e-commerce company (and renamed eShop).

[edit] eBay and later career

Omidyar was 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to write the original computer code for what eventually became an Internet superbrand — the auction site eBay. The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book[2] and confirmed by eBay.

The site was launched on Labor Day, Monday, September 4 1995, under the more prosaic title of "Auction Web"; it was hosted on a site Omidyar had created for information on the ebola virus. Auction Web was later renamed "eBay", after Echo Bay, Omidyar's consulting firm, when "echobay.com" was unavailable. The service was free at first, but started charging in order to cover Internet service provider costs.

Jeffrey Skoll joined the company in 1996. In March 1998, Meg Whitman was brought in as President and CEO and continued to run the company till Jan 2008 when she announced her retirement. In September 1998, eBay launched a successful public offering, making both Omidyar and Skoll billionaires. As of end November 2007, Omidyar's 314 million eBay shares were worth around $14.8 billion.

[edit] Omidyar Network

Main article: Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm that is committed to creating and fostering opportunity for people around the world. The organization makes both grants and investments, identifying likeminded organizations to support, scale, and champion to maximize their social impact.

Omidyar Network sees philanthropy as more than a type of funding and as a tool for improving the lives of others, independent of the mechanism. Therefore, the organization uses a wide range of tools in its work, embracing market-based systems and open, web-enabled platforms as key means for making the world a better place.

Composed of a 501(c)(3) and a Limited Liability Company (LLC), Omidyar Network is uniquely structured to work across the social, business, and government sectors. Like a traditional foundation, it makes grants through its 501(c)(3) entity; Through its LLC, it invests in for-profit entities. Inspired by the social impact of eBay, Omidyar Network's work is based on the belief that business can create extraordinary opportunity and value, and that market-based solutions can generate significant social returns. The Network recognizes sustainability, innovation, and scale as hallmarks of the private sector that are critical to addressing the global challenges we face today.

As an extension of Omidyar Network's activities in microfinance, in 2005, Pierre and Pam Omidyar gave $100 million to Tufts to create the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund. Their endowment gift, the single largest in the history of Tufts, is aimed at accelerating growth in the microfinance sector and is being invested solely in microfinance initiatives.

Prior to founding eBay, Pierre co-founded Ink Development Corp., later renamed eShop and acquired by Microsoft. After graduating from Tufts with a B.S. in computer science, he joined Claris, a subsidiary of Apple Computer, as a consumer software engineer. Today, Pierre serves as a trustee of Tufts University, Punahou School and Santa Fe Institute, a director of Meetup, and chairman of eBay Inc.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Net worth: from The World's Billionaires, dated March 2008.
  2. ^ Cohen, Adam. The Perfect Store. ISBN 0-316-16493-3. 

[edit] External links