PLACE OF BIRTH: PARIS
TITLE: FOUNDER, EBAY AND FIRST LOOK MEDIA
IMPACT: PIERRE OMIDYAR’S PARENTS, BOTH IRANIAN STUDENTS STUDYING IN PARIS, immigrated to Maryland when he was a child. He fell in love with computers, writing his first program at age 14. After studying computer science at Tufts University, Omidyar founded eBay in 1995 and transformed e-commerce forever, becoming quite wealthy along the way. In recent years Omidyar has devoted himself to media and free-speech causes, and in 2014 he founded investigative news outfit The Intercept, in which journalists including Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill cover national security and surveillance issues brought to light by Edward Snowden. He’s also become involved with movie production, and his film Spotlight won the 2015 Best Picture Oscar for its portrayal of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sex abuse by priests.
TITLE: FOUNDER, EBAY AND FIRST LOOK MEDIA
IMPACT: PIERRE OMIDYAR’S PARENTS, BOTH IRANIAN STUDENTS STUDYING IN PARIS, immigrated to Maryland when he was a child. He fell in love with computers, writing his first program at age 14. After studying computer science at Tufts University, Omidyar founded eBay in 1995 and transformed e-commerce forever, becoming quite wealthy along the way. In recent years Omidyar has devoted himself to media and free-speech causes, and in 2014 he founded investigative news outfit The Intercept, in which journalists including Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill cover national security and surveillance issues brought to light by Edward Snowden. He’s also become involved with movie production, and his film Spotlight won the 2015 Best Picture Oscar for its portrayal of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sex abuse by priests.
Photo by James Leynse
