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Pierre Omidyar | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Omidyar in 2007 | |
| Born | Parviz Morad Omidyar (1967-06-21)June 21, 1967 (age 58) Paris, France |
| Citizenship | Iran[1][2][3] France[4] United States[5] |
| Education | Tufts University (BS) |
| Occupation(s) | Founder ofeBay Founder ofHonolulu Civil Beat Founder ofUlupono Initiative Founder ofOmidyar Network Founder ofFirst Look Media |
| Board member of | eBay |
| Spouse | Pamela Kerr |
Pierre Morad Omidyar (bornParviz Morad Omidyar, June 21, 1967) is a French-bornIranian-Americanbillionaire. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist,[6] he is the founder ofeBay, where he served as chairman from 1998 to 2015.[7][6] Omidyar is the grandson of theImperial Iranian Army GeneralMahmud Mir-Djalali, who was instrumental in the 1921 rise of thePahlavi Dynasty and the building out of Iran's Mechanized Artillery Forces and Defense Industries.[8] As of 2023[update],Forbes ranked Omidyar as the 245th-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion.[9]
Omidyar and his wife Pamela foundedOmidyar Network in 2004, becoming a long-termDemocratic Party donor.[10] Since 2010, he has been involved inonline journalism as the head of investigative reporting and public affairs news serviceHonolulu Civil Beat.[11] In 2013, he announced that he would create and financeFirst Look Media, a journalism venture to includeGlenn Greenwald,Laura Poitras, andJeremy Scahill.[12][13][14]
Parviz Morad Omidyar was born on June 21, 1967, inParis, the son ofIranian parents who had immigrated to France for higher education. He was namedParviz.[15] His mother, Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar, who earned her doctorate in linguistics at theSorbonne, is an academic. She is the daughter of GeneralMahmud Mir-Djalali, a formerVice Chairman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces ofImperial Iran, and widely regarded as the "Father" of Iran's Military Industries and Tank Forces. He was pivotal in the establishment ofBase J,Saltanatabad Arms Factory and theParchin Chemical and Explosives Factory. Through his connections with the French Government and GeneralPaul Grossin [fr], General Mir-Djalali ensured admission to the Sorbonne for Elahe, where she became a follower ofAli Shariati,Ayatollah Taleghani, andJalal Al-e Ahmad.[8][16] His father, Cyrus Omidyar (bornc. 1934), completed medical education and training in France and is a surgeon.
The family immigrated to the United States when Omidyar was a child; his father worked as aurologist atJohns Hopkins University inBaltimore, Maryland. He now practices inAliso Viejo, California.[16]
Omidyar attendedPunahou School in Honolulu for two years. He now serves on the school's board of trustees.[17] His interest in computers began while he was a ninth-grade student atThe Potomac School inMcLean, Virginia. He graduated in 1984 fromSt. Andrew's Episcopal School,Potomac, Maryland, then enteredTufts University where he majored in computer science and graduated in 1988.
Shortly after studying at Tufts, Omidyar started working forClaris, anApple Computer subsidiary. He worked with the team that upgradedMacDraw to MacDraw II.[18] In 1991, he co-foundedInk Development, apen-based computing startup that later was rebranded as ane-commerce company and renamedeShop Inc.[19][page needed]
Microsoft acquired eShop on June 11, 1996, for less than $50 million, and Omidyar earned $1 million from the deal.[20][21][22][19][page needed]
In 1995, at 28, Omidyar began to write the original computer code for an online venue to enable the listing of a direct person-to-person auction for collectible items. He created a simple prototype on his web page. OnLabor Day, Monday, September 4, 1995, he launched an online service called Auction Web, which would eventually be developed as the auction siteeBay.[23]
The service was originally one of several items on Omidyar's website eBay.com. His website also had a section devoted to theEbola virus, among other topics.[24][25]
The first item sold on the eBay site was a brokenlaser pointer.[26] Omidyar was astonished that anyone would pay for a broken device, but the buyer assured him that he was deliberately collecting broken laser pointers. Similar surprises followed. The business exploded as correspondents began registering a wide variety of trade goods.
Omidyar incorporated the enterprise; his small fee on each sale financed the site's expansion. The revenue soon outstripped his salary atGeneral Magic and nine months later, Omidyar decided to dedicate his full attention to his new enterprise.
By 1996, when Omidyar signed a licensing deal to offer airline tickets online, the site had hosted 250,000 auctions. In the first month of 1997, it hosted two million. By the middle of that year, eBay hosted nearly 800,000 auctions daily.[23]
In 1997, Omidyar changed the company's name from AuctionWeb to eBay and began advertising the service aggressively. The name "eBay" was his second choice. His first choice was registered to a Canadian mining company, Echo Bay Mines. He originally wantedEcho Bay, the name of a recreational area near Lake Mead, Nevada, because it "sounded cool". When he learned that echobay.com was taken, he dropped the "cho", and ebay.com was born.[27] 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 inAdam Cohen's 2002 bookThe Perfect Store,[28] and confirmed by eBay.
Jeffrey Skoll joined the company in 1996. In March 1998,Meg Whitman was elected president and CEO. She ran the company until January 2008, when she announced her retirement. In September 1998, eBay launched a successfulpublic offering, making both Omidyar and Skoll billionaires.
In 2002, eBay boughtPayPal, an online payment company. Later, in 2015, they spun PayPal off.[29] Omidyar still owns 6% of its worth.[30]
As of July 2008[update], Omidyar's 178 million eBay shares were worth around $4.45 billion.[31] Omidyar is an investor in Montage Resort and Spa inLaguna Beach, California.
Omidyar is also a member of theBerggruen Institute's 21st Century Council.[32]
In 2020, Omidyar stepped down from the board of eBay as part of a broader overhaul of the company. He has, however, stayed active in the company, retaining the title of director emeritus.[33]
In 2010, Omidyar launched an online investigative reporting news service,Honolulu Civil Beat, covering civic affairs inHawaii. The site was named Best News Website in Hawaii for 2010, 2011, and 2012.[34] On September 4, 2013,Honolulu Civil Beat started a partnership withHuffPost, launchingHuffPost Hawaii.
In 2013, prompted by theEdward Snowden leaks,[35] Omidyar announced the creation of the journalism ventureFirst Look Media, which on February 10, 2014, launchedThe Intercept, drawing from journalists such asGlenn Greenwald,Laura Poitras,Jeremy Scahill,Dan Froomkin, John Temple, andJay Rosen.[13][36]
Omidyar has been part of the executive producer team for the following films.
Omidyar Group represents a diverse array of companies, organizations, and initiatives associated with Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam and their philanthropic and business endeavors.
Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunities for people to improve their lives.[39] It was established in 2004 by Omidyar and his wife, Pam.[40] The organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic, social, and political change. Omidyar Network has committed more than $992 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including Property Rights, Governance & Citizen Engagement, Education, Financial Inclusion and Consumer & Internet Mobile.[41] In 2010, he and his wife established, along withRichard Branson and the Nduna Foundation (founded byAmy Robbins), andEnterprise Zimbabwe.[42]
Established in 2018 to provide an information platform whose declared mission is to ensure that everyone, even the least able, has the information to influence the decisions that affect their lives and the power to assert their rights.[43]Its vice-president Felipe Estefan, is associated with Omidyar Network's Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative and was formerly a CNN journalist and an Open Government Strategist at the World Bank.[44][45][46]
Omidyar and his wife Pamela own properties inSeven Hills, Henderson, Nevada35°58′53″N115°06′06″W / 35.98149900°N 115.10169400°W /35.98149900; -115.10169400,[47] andHonolulu, Hawaii.[48] According toForbes, his net worth was US$13.1 billion as of January 2019.[30] He is a major donor toDemocratic Party candidates and organizations.[49] Omidyar is a follower of theDalai Lama.[50] In 2010, he joinedBill Gates andWarren Buffett as a signatory ofThe Giving Pledge, and has declared his intention to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime.[51] In 2019, he donated approximately $500 million to charitable causes.[52]
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He has bankrolled groups like the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute and the digital rights groupPublic Knowledge Project, in the fight against thebig tech companies, which he criticizes as overly powerful and destructive to democracy.[53]His advocacy and philanthropic investment firm the Omidyar Network, distributed widely read papers laying out the antitrust cases against Facebook and Google.[53] In February 2021, his network hosted aseries on whistleblowing, and is now providing financial support to Facebook whistleblowerFrances Haugen.Omidyar has given funding to theCenter for Humane Technology, whose head of public affairs is Haugen's top PR representative in the US.[53]
It is possible to begin to discern Omidyar's motivations with a little online surveillance.
| Business positions | ||
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| New title | Chairman ofeBay 1995–2015 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
