Meet Pierre Omidyar
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Pierre is an entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of eBay, an online platform that gives people equal access to information, opportunity, and tools to pursue their goals. Pierre created eBay in 1995 on the premise that people are basically good, and he continues to serve as chairman of the board. Today, eBay enables more than 90 million buyers and sellers to connect and prosper over shared interests.
Omidyar graduated from Tufts University in 1988 with a degree in computer science and worked for both Macintosh and Apple before founding eBay. By the end of 1998, the company boasted 2.1 million members and generated $750 million in revenues. In January 2000, Omidyar accepted his first board position outside of eBay. He joined the board of directors of ePeople, an online marketplace for technical support. He later started the philanthropic firm Omidyar Network. With an avowed interest in journalism, he also launched First Look Media in collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian reporter who published government documents leaked by the National Security Agency's Edward Snowden. The company's first online publication appeared in early 2014, The Intercept. The venture stresses "the fundamental importance of a free and independent press" for a democratic society, according to Omidyar in a statement. Omidyar is wed to Pamela Wesley, with the couple having three children. |
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