Mark Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, United States, on May 14, 1984. He is an American programmer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, best known worldwide for being the creator of Facebook. To achieve that milestone, Mark had the help of his Harvard classmates, the computer science coordinator, and his roommates.
Zuckerberg entered Harvard in 2003 and joined the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He began developing programs such as CourseMatch, which allowed students to see the list of classmates enrolled in their courses. He also launched the website Facemash.com. Due to this, Harvard’s IT department brought Mark before the administration on charges of security violations.
In 2004, Zuckerberg created Facebook and took a leave of absence from Harvard. A year later, he dropped out of the university entirely.
On September 5, 2006, Facebook launched a news feed, a list showing friends’ activities on the platform. Mark received harsh criticism for this feature, which many deemed unnecessary and intrusive. Days later, he issued a public apology and introduced new privacy settings.
On October 24, 2007, Facebook and Bill Gates’ company Microsoft announced that the latter had purchased a 1.6% stake in the social network. Many claimed that this deal valued Facebook at approximately $1.5 billion. A slight extension of the partnership later increased its valuation in 2011.
Since 2005, Mark Zuckerberg has been in a relationship with Priscilla Chan, a medical student of Chinese descent whom he met at Harvard. The couple married on May 19, 2012, at their home in Palo Alto, California.
Mark has stated that he is a vegetarian.
Recognition
The magazine Vanity Fair ranked the Facebook founder at the top of its list of the most influential people in the tech world.
He was also named Person of the Year in 2010.