Yishan Wong | |
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 Yishan Wong (2019) | |
| Born | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States[1] |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Occupation | Co-founder of Sunfire Offices |
| Years active | 2001-present |
| Known for | Former CEO ofReddit |
| Spouse | Kimberly Algeri-Wong |
| Website | algeri-wong.com |
| Yishan Wong | |||||||
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| Chinese | 黃易山 | ||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Huáng Yìshān | ||||||
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Yishan Wong (Chinese:黃易山;pinyin:Huáng Yìshān) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who was CEO ofReddit from March 2012 until his resignation in November 2014.[2][3][4][5] WithNiniane Wang he is also co-founder of theMountain View coworking space Sunfire Offices,[6] and was an advisor atQuora. Wong was briefly a contributing blogger toForbes magazine.[7]
Wong worked as a senior engineering manager atPayPal from 2001 to 2005. He is a member of PayPal's early group of employees known collectively as thePayPal Mafia. In 2005, he joinedFacebook as a director of engineering on projects includingcrowd translation.[8] Before leaving Facebook in 2010, he became an activeReddit user and posted often.[9]
After three months of talks with Reddit in late 2011, Wong was offered the position of CEO, an offer which he claims friends met with "uproarious laughter".[10]
In 2012, when asked about variouscontroversial Reddit communities, Wong said that the site should offer a platform for objectionable content: "We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it."[11] In 2013, he hiredEllen Pao as the Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships and later recommended her as CEO.[12]
In 2014, Reddit board member and YC presidentSam Altman announced that Wong was leaving the company, after being unable to garner support for a proposal to move the Reddit office fromSan Francisco toDaly City.[13] Reportedly, Wong "stopped showing up at the office" when the board of directors ignored his proposal.[14] Wong, who thought newer employees would prefer to work in a less expensive area, stated that before the disagreement he had considered leaving due to an abundance of stress.[15]
In 2020, Wong founded Terraformation to combat global warming through reforestation.[16]
Wong is a graduate ofMounds View High School inArden Hills, Minnesota, and ofCarnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is married to Kimberly Algeri-Wong, who holds aMaster of Fine Arts in screenwriting.[17]
Wong supportedBarack Obama and spoke favorably about Obama's familiarity with the Internet.[18]
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