Born: 1967 in Paris
Other Names: Parviz Omidyar
Personal: married to Pam, with two children.
Lives in Redwood City, CA.
Education: B.S. in Computer Science
from Tufts University.
Occupation: Computer Programmer,
Founder of eBay, Co-Founder of Omidyar Networks, Philanthropist
Claim to Fame: eBay
Famous Quote: We believe people are
basically good. Treat others the way that you
want to be treated.
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Biography
Early Years:
Born to an Iranian family
in Paris in 1967, Pierre Omidyar was blessed with educated
parents who taught him a strong value system at an early
age. With a doctor for a father and a linguist for a
mother, Pierre, an only child, was six when the family
moved to Baltimore so
that his father could complete a urology residency
at Johns Hopkins. As a child, Pierre was fascinated
and very good with computers and programming. After completing
high school, Omidyar pursued a computer science degree
at Tufts University, where he also met his future wife
Pam.
Online
Auction Man:
 In
his junior year at Tufts, Omidyar took a summer intership
with Innovative
Data Design, which led to a full-time
job. He moved out to California to complete his
undergraduate degree at Berkeley. Omidyar's next job
was with Claris,
an Apple sub, where he developed consumer applications.
Following a botched IPO at Claris, Omidyar
founded
Ink Development Corporation in 1991 to develop software
for pen-based computers, like the Palm stylus of today.
It took the company a year and a half to abandon that
project and develop for e-commerce. The first eShop was
launched on closed networks, which did not please Omidyar.
Microsoft bought eShops two year later and made Omidyar
a millionaire with the stock.
Omidyar's next job at General Magic gave him the internet
and public exposure that he had seeked all these years.
This startup, founded by
a group
of Apple
veterans,
tried to build a new generation of small, communication-oriented
Apple computers that would work with telephones and faxes.
Omidyar went on to co-founded
Ink Development Corp., which was later renamed eShop
and acquired by
Microsoft.
 While
at General Magic, Omidyar created his first auction website
in his free time and called it AuctionWeb. The
project was started in 1995 as a part-time hobby, supposedly
to help his fiancée Pam with her eclectic
PEZ dispenser collection. Omidyar had to rename the company
to eBay because the initial intended name "Echo
Bay"
was already taken by another company. Initial postins
were marketed through other message boards and a small
user following which grew over time. Although Omidyar
has started Auctionweb as a free service for
listing
items. he had to start charging
in order to cover his basic ISP
costs. In 1996 Jeff Skoll, a Stanford MBA, joined the
company and by 1998 eBay had gone public, making Omidyar
a billionaire. His current net worth according to Fortune
Magazine's 40 under 40 Article (9/03) is just over
$7 billion. Pierre and Pam are concerned with many issues
and work as philanthropists
through such organizations as the recently founded Omidyar
Network. Omidyar also finds time to serve
as a trustee of Tufts University and Santa Fe Institute,
a
director
of
Meetup,
and as
Chairman of Omidyar Network and of eBay Inc.
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Famous Iranians
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