| Eduardo P. Saverin | |
|---|---|
Saverin in 2010 |
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| Born | March 19, 1982 [1] São Paulo, Brazil |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | Co-founder of Facebook |
| Net worth | US$2.75 billion (2011)[2] |
Eduardo P. Saverin (born March 19, 1982)[3] is a Brazilian-born American internet entrepreneur and investor. Saverin is best known for co-founding Facebook, along with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.[4] He is reported to have a 5% stake in the company,[5][6] worth about US$2.75 billion as of January 2011[update].[7]
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Eduardo Saverin was born in São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil, to a wealthy Brazilian Jewish family,[8][9][10][11] and was raised in Miami, Florida, United States. Eduardo's father was a Brazilian industrialist working in export, clothing, shipping, and real estate.[12]
Saverin attended Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami, and went on to Harvard University, where he was a member of the Phoenix S.K. Club, and president of the Harvard Investment Association. While an undergraduate at Harvard, Saverin made $300,000 by strategic investments in the oil industry by taking advantage of lax insider trading regulations in Brazil. [1] [12][13] In 2006, Saverin graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Economics. He is a brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity (Eta Psi chapter of Harvard University). He is currently living in Singapore since January 2011.[5]
During his junior year at Harvard University, Saverin met fellow Harvard classmate sophomore Mark Zuckerberg. Noting the lack of a dedicated social networking website for Harvard students, the two worked together to launch The Facebook in 2004. As co-founder, Saverin held the role of CFO and business manager.[14] As Facebook rapidly expanded to universities across the US, internal conflicts and differences of opinion between Saverin and Zuckerberg arose. The following summer, as Saverin was staying in New York (where he worked briefly as an intern at Lehman Brothers), The Facebook relocated operations to California, having already attracted interest as a fast-growing Silicon Valley start-up.
After outside investors—principally venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and an early employee of the file-sharing service Napster, Sean Parker—took control of the start-up's finances and capital needs and backed Zuckerberg as its CEO, Saverin's direct involvement and influence diminished.
A lawsuit filed by Saverin against Facebook was settled out of court. Though terms of the settlement were sealed, the company affirmed Saverin's title as co-founder of Facebook. Saverin signed a non-disclosure contract after the settlement.[15]
He has liquidated at least $250 million worth of Facebook stock through late venture rounds and secondary markets such as SecondMarket, as of late 2010, according to Forbes Magazine.
In the 2010 film The Social Network—which depicts the relationship between Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg from the creation of Facebook to Saverin taking legal action against Zuckerberg—Saverin is played by actor Andrew Garfield.[16]
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