Pierre Omidyar Biography

(Chairperson of eBay)

Birthday: June 21, 1967 (Gemini)

Born In: Paris, France

Pierre Omidyar is the business magnate who is famous for having revolutionized the field of e-commerce, with his online bidding website, 'eBay'. Having a passion for computer science, as a young man he began his career with a software company called 'Claris', and helped his team develop 'Apple Inc's application 'MacDraw II'. Soon, he gave new meaning to his latent ambitions of launching a business, beginning with the establishment of 'Ink Development'. This soon came to be known as 'eShop', dealing in products like the 'InkWare Photo', and 'InkWare NoteTaker'. Eventually, he launched 'eBay', and by the time he turned 31 years old, he had earned billions of profit. 'eBay' had introduced its own stock market, and soon the company's shares brought home an income of approximately 4.45 billion dollars. Some of this money went into providing a share of the capital belonging to California-based, 'Montage Resort and Spa'. Recently, Omidyar also established the online news service, 'Honolulu Civil Beat', providing information on events occurring in Hawaii. The internet news website too has been doing well, and has earned quite a name for itself in the field of investigative journalism. According to many, this accomplished business tycoon is going strong, and looks set to reach the stars, when it comes to innovative online undertakings.
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Quick Facts

Also Known As: Pierre Morad Omidyar, Parviz Morad Omidyar

Age: 56 Years, 56 Year Old Males

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Pamela Kerr

mother: Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar

Billionaires IT & Software Entrepreneurs

Ancestry: Iranian French, Iranian American

City: Paris

Notable Alumni: Tufts University

Founder/Co-Founder: eBay, eShop, Omidyar Network

More Facts

education: University of California, Berkeley, Tufts University

Humanitarian Work: Co-founder of 'Enterprise Zimbabwe'

Childhood & Early Life
Pierre Morad Omidyar was born to Iranian settlers, Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar, and her husband, in Paris, on June 21, 1967.His mother is a renowned linguistics scholar, and his father was employed at the 'Johns Hopkins University' as a surgeon.
The family later settled down in the U.S, where the young boy attended the 'Potomac School', Virginia. He eventually completed his secondary education in 1984, from 'St. Andrew's Episcopal School' in Maryland.
In 1988, Pierre earned his bachelor's degree from Massachusetts' 'Tufts University', with a specialization in computer science. After graduating, he worked for a few years at a company called ‘Claris’ that developed some of the software used by 'Apple Inc.'.
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Career
In 1991, this software enthusiast, along with Arnold Blinn, Greg Stein, Will Poole, and Matt Kursh, founded a small-scale pen computing firm named, 'Ink Development'.
Two years later, the founders of 'Ink Development' rechristened the company to 'eShop', and began focussing on e-commerce.
On September 4, 1995, Omidyar inaugurated an internet site called 'Auction Web', which allowed users to buy and sell items online.
Within a span of one year, the brilliant businessman acquired the license to sell airplane tickets on the site. In 1996, he also hired the proficient engineer, 'Jeffrey Skoll', to work with him on 'Auction Web'.
In 1997, 'Auction Web' was renamed as 'eBay', after his initial choice of 'echobay' was already in use. During the same period auctions of items on sale had hit an average of 800,000 per day.
The following year, another competent entrepreneur was employed as the Chief Executive Officer for 'eBay'. The ‘eBay’ business continued to excel, bringing home billions for all the co-founders of the website.
In 2004, along with wife Pamela, he founded the 'Omidyar Network', which helps small businesses strive to bring about a difference to the society, by providing them with finance.
Pierre also takes a keen interest in digital media, introducing the 'Honolulu Civil Beat', a news website in 2010. Since then the 'Honolulu Civil Beat' has won the 'Best News Website' award for three years at a stretch.
In 2013, the weblog 'Huffpost Hawaii' was founded, which was a result of collaboration between the 'Huffington Post', and 'Honolulu Civil Beat'.
On February 10, 2014, the successful entrepreneur established a journalism company named, 'First Look Media', and its subsidiary, 'The Intercept', which delivers online news. The organization was made up of renowned journalists like Glenn Greenwald, Dan Froomkin, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras.
Major Works
His most successful establishment has been that of ‘eBay’, which started out as a small-scale e-business website. However in recent times, it has earned billions of dollars, and has also launched subsidiaries like ‘Half.com’, ‘Kijiji’, and ‘StubHub’.
Awards & Achievements
In 1999, Pierre won the 'EY Entrepreneur of The Year' award, for his successful venture, 'eBay'.
This ingenious entrepreneur was awarded an honorary doctorate in Public Service by his alma-mater, 'Tufts University' in 2011.
Personal Life & Legacy
Pierre is married to a biology graduate and co-founder in most of his ventures, Pamela Wesley, and the two have been blessed with three children.
In 2010, Omidyar, along with Pamela, Richard Branson, and the 'Nduna Foundation', founded the 'Enterprise Zimbabwe', as a venture aimed at helping the nation develop their economy.
Trivia
The year 2003 saw the popular e-commerce site, owned by this famous Iranian-American businessman, getting slapped with charges of having stolen the software created by Thomas Woolston.

See the events in life of Pierre Omidyar in Chronological Order

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