Who is Pierre Morad Omidyar? Born in Paris in 1967, he is an American billionaire entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist.. He is the founder of eBay, where he served as president from 1998 to 2015.. In 1998, at age 31, Omidyar became a billionaire through eBay’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), aka public election. Omidyar and his wife Pamela have done a lot of work on behalf of non-profit organizations and public policy. The famous couple established the Omidyar Network in 2004 in order to expand these organizations.
Omidyar has participated in the publishing of the famous online newspaper “Honolulu Civil Beat”, which is the pioneer of research and reporting since 2010.. In 2013, Glenn Greenwald announced that he would create and finance First Look Media, a journalism venture featuring Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill.
The Early Life of Pierre Morad Omidyar
Pierre Morad Omidyar was born on June 21, 1967 in Paris.. Her mother is a renowned linguist and her father is a renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins University.
The family later settled in the United States.. Here Pierre Morad Omidyar began studying at the Potomac School in Virginia. He completed his secondary education in St.. Andrew’s Diocesan School.
Pierre Morad Omidyar has decided he wants to pursue his undergraduate degree in computer science. He specialized in this field in 1988 and received his diploma from Massachusetts Tufts University.. After graduating, he spent several years in the “Apple Inc.” He worked for a company called “Claris” that developed some of the software used by the software manufacturer. In 1994, the software manufacturer started out as a software engineer for General Magic, earning some money as a freelance Web page designer. This is how he met his wife, Pamela Wesley. An avid collector of Pez candy dispensers, Wesley complained that he had trouble finding like-minded spirits online. Eager to help, Omidyar set up Wesley’s personal web page so he could connect, buy and sell with other collectors from all over the US.. This web page contained a small auction service.
Working on eBay
In 1995, Omidyar started writing computer code for online items when he was 28 years old.. Enabled listing items to be sent directly from person to person for collectible items. Created a simple prototype on his personal web page. This prototype was working with the auction system. On Monday, September 4, 1995, Labor Day, it launched an online service called Auction Web.. Auction Web is a sketch of the famous site now known as e-Bay.
The first item sold on the site was a broken laser pointer. Omidyar, like everyone else, was surprised that the buyer paid for a broken laser pointer.. However, it was learned that the buyer has a deliberately broken laser collection.. Similar surprises and surprises have continued since the establishment of the site.. This business exploded when Omidyar started recording a wide variety of merchandise and the businessman became known.
Omidyar acquired the company; The small fee it collects on each sale enabled the site to expand.. Income soon outstripped his salary at General Magic, and nine months later Omidyar decided to devote his full attention to his new venture.. In 1997, Omidyar changed the company’s name from Auction Web to e-Bay. The eBay name was his second choice. His first choice was already registered with a Canadian mining company called “Echo Bay”. Omidyar wanted Echo Bay so badly because it sounded good, as he put it.. When he learned that echobay.com was taken, he left cho and ebay.com was born. Thus, the small auction site that Omidyar set up for his girlfriend to sell candy now operates as eBay.
What Does Pierre Morad Omidyar Do With His Wealth?
Who is Pierre Morad Omidyar? answering makes you wonder what the famous billionaire did with his fortune. Omidyar and his wife Pamela founded a company called Omidyar Network.. Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing market power to create an opportunity to improve people’s lives. It started service in 2004. The organization invests and helps to scale innovative ideas according to their economic, social situation and quality. Omidyar Network has invested in multiple areas to date, including property rights, governance and citizen participation, education and technology.. More than $992 million has invested to date in dynamic ideas and technological innovations.
In 2018, Omidyar founded another global philanthropic organization, Luminate. It is known that this investment company, which belongs to the famous entrepreneur, made an investment of 500 million dollars in 2019.
Pierre Morad Omidyar’s Awards
“I never thought that one day I would start a company and be truly successful. I did not bring. I was motivated just by working on technology.” This is what the famous software developer says about his eBay adventure in an interview.. However, when we look at Pierre Morad Omidyar’s awards, we see that this adventure, which was beyond even the dreams of the famous entrepreneur, came true in a beautiful way.
- In 1999, he received the EY Entrepreneur National Award. Success was crowned with the American Academy of Achievement Gold Plate Award.
- He received an Honorary Doctorate from Tufts University in 2011
- Receiving the Third Most Influential French Entrepreneur award from Richtopia in 2018, he proved this successful path he started with eBay with the awards he received.