Mark Zuckerberg
Want to know some facts about Mr Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg?
Well first off, he is a very private person and talking to the press is not something he does.
He was born in White Plains, New York in 1984. His father was a dentist and his mother a psychiatrist.
The soon to be billionaire began writing computer programmes when he was eleven years old and studied at the renowned Phillips Exeter Academy high school. Here Zuckerberg won numerous prizes in subjects such as mathematics, physics, astomony as well as classical studies.
It is claimed he can write and speak fluently French, Latin, Hebrew and ancient Greek.
It was while he attended Exeter that his father began teaching him Atari Basic programming. Some time later a software developer, David Newman was hired to tutor him privately.
As if that wasn’t enough on his plate, Zuckerberg also undertook a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while still at high school.
In 2002 he went to Harvard University and it was while he was there that he co-launched ‘thefacebook.com’ in 2004 with classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin.
Two years on, he dropped out of Harvard to head for Silicon Valley.
Zuckerberg’s first financial backing came from PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel, to the tune of $500,000. One year later venture capital company, Accel Partners backed him with $13 million.
Fast forward to to-day and our shy Mr Zuckerberg is the single largest shareholder in Facebook with over 28 per cent of common stock and just under 57 per cent of the voting rights.
With an estimated 900 million members, his wealth is now estimated at $17 billion, give or take a couple of million dollars.
One other point of interest about this young man from White Plains is that he is a philanthropist. In 2010 he signed a pledge with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett where each man promised to donate over half their wealth to charity during the course of their lives.
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