Mark Zuckerberg

(orientation)
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984. He is an American computer
programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is the chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder
of Facebook. His net worth is estimated to be US$58.6 billion as of March 2017, ranking him the
fifth richest person in the world.

He is the son of Karen (Kempner), a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist. His
ancestors came from Germany, Austria, and Poland. He and his three sisters, Randi, Donna, and
Arielle, were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a small Westchester Country village about 21
miles north of Midtown Manhattan. Zuckerberg was raised Jewish and had his Bar Mitzvah when
he turned 13.

(events)
At Ardsley High School, Zuckerberg excelled in classes. He transferred to the exclusive
private school Phillips Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire, in his junior year, where he won prizes
in science (math, astronomy, and physics) and classical studies. On his college application,
Zuckerberg claimed that he could read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek.

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard University dormitory room on February 4,
2004. He was assisted by his college roommates and fellow Harvard students Eduardo Saverin,
Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The group then introduced Facebook to
other college campuses. Facebook expanded rapidly, reaching one billion users by 2012.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg was involved in various legal disputes brought by others in the group, who
claimed a share of the company based on their involvement during the development phase of
Facebook.

In December 2012, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced that over the course
of their lives they would give the majority of their wealth to “advancing human potential and
promoting equality” in the spirit of The Giving Pledge. On December 1, 2015, they announced they
would eventually give 99 percent of their Facebook shares (worth about US$45 billion at the time)
to the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.

(re-orientation)
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 award. In December 2016,
Zuckerberg was ranked 10th on Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People. According to
Forbes Magazine, Zuckerberg has a net worth of US$55.9 billion as of February 2017.