Pierre Omidyar

Biography

Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay was born in Paris, France to Iranian migrants parents on 21^st June 1967. They were sent to Paris, France by his grandparents to attend the university there. His mother was Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar.  His father was an Iranian surgeon. When Omidyar was six years old, the family moved to Washington DC. His parents separated when he was only two years old. He stayed with his mother but yet still very close to his father. Omidyar first developed an interest in computing when he was attending St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland. After moving to Hawaii to finish eight and nine, he returned to Washington to finish his high school. Omidyar continued his studies in Computer Science in Tuffs University and graduated his degree with 3.01 GPA. 

Career

When Omidyar was 28 years old, he went on a long holiday to write the original computer code for what eventually became one of the most famous website, the auction side eBay. Ebay’s was launched by 4^th September 1995 which was on “Labor Day” as the Auction web. When his first choice name for the website, ‘echobay’ was approved, Omidyar started to make up the word ‘ebay’. One of the stories about eBay was that it founded to basically help Omidyar fiancée to trade, it was confirmed by eBay through Adam Cohen’s 2002 book.  Later then the website changed its name from Auction Web to eBay. By 1996, Jeffery Skoll joined the company and by March 1998, Meg Whitman was brought in as President and CEO to continue running the company. That was only until she announced her retirement on January 2008. In September 1998, eBay launched a successful public offering that had made both Omidyar and Skoll billionaires. By July 2008, Omidyar’s 178 million eBay shares worth around $4.45 billion. Omidyar launched an online news service in Honolulu called Civil Beat that covers civic affairs in Hawaai in 2010.