Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14,
1984) is an
American computer programmer and
Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of five co-founders of the social networking website
Facebook.
As of April 2013,
Zuckerberg is the chairman and chief executive of
Facebook, Inc. and his personal wealth, as of July 2014, is estimated to be $33.1 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg receives a one-dollar salary as
CEO of Facebook.
Together with his college roommates and fellow
Harvard University students
Eduardo Saverin,
Andrew McCollum,
Dustin Moskovitz, and
Chris Hughes, Zuckerberg launched Facebook from
Harvard's dormitory rooms. The group then introduced Facebook onto other campuses nationwide and moved to
Palo Alto, California shortly afterwards. In
2007, at the age of 23, Zuckerberg became a billionaire as a result of Facebook's success. The number of
Facebook users worldwide reached a total of one billion in
2012. Zuckerberg was involved in various legal disputes that were initiated by others in the group, who claimed a share of the company based upon their involvement during the development phase of Facebook.
Since
2010,
Time magazine has named Zuckerberg among the
100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as a part of its
Person of the Year distinction. In
2011, Zuckerberg ranked first on the list of the "Most Influential
Jews in the
World" by
The Jerusalem Post and has since topped the list every year as of
2013. Zuckerberg was played by actor
Jesse Eisenberg in the
2010 film The Social Network, in which the rise of Facebook is portrayed.
Zuckerberg voiced himself on an episode of
The Simpsons titled "
Loan-a Lisa", which first aired on October 3, 2010
. In the episode,
Lisa Simpson and her friend
Nelson encounter Zuckerberg at an entrepreneurs' convention. Zuckerberg tells
Lisa that she does not need to graduate from college to be wildly successful, referencing
Bill Gates and
Richard Branson as examples.[88]
On October 9, 2010,
Saturday Night Live lampooned Zuckerberg and Facebook.[89]
Andy Samberg played Zuckerberg. The real Zuckerberg was reported to have been amused: "I thought this was funny."[90]
Stephen Colbert awarded a "
Medal of
Fear" to Zuckerberg at the
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on
October 30, 2010, "because he values his privacy much more than he values yours".
On
December 9, 2010, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and investor
Warren Buffett signed a promise they called "
The Giving Pledge ", in which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time, and invited others among the wealthy to donate 50% or more of their wealth to charity.[104]
On
December 19, 2013, Zuckerberg announced a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to the
Silicon Valley Community Foundation, to be executed by the end of the month—based on Facebook's valuation as of then, the shares totaled $990 million in value. On
December 31, 2013, the donation was recognized as the largest charitable gift on public record for 2013.[105]
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on
February 10, 2014 that Zuckerberg's donation was the largest charitable gift on the public record in 2013 and put Zuckerberg and his wife at the top of the magazine's annual list of 50 most generous
Americans in 2013, having donated roughly 1 billion dollars to charity.[106]
In
October 2014, Zuckerberg and his wife
Priscilla Chan donated $25 million to combat the ebola virus disease, specifically the ebola virus epidemic in
West Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
- published: 05 Feb 2015
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