About: Mark Zuckerberg

“Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. A Harvard student, he is credited with developing and launching the online social networking website Facebook with the help of fellow Harvard student and computer science major Andrew McCollum as well as roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. He now serves as Facebook’s CEO. In 2008, Forbes Magazine declared him “[the] youngest billionaire on earth and possibly the youngest self-made billionaire ever,” with a theoretical net worth of $1.5 billion USD. However, the validity of this label has also been met with controversy.”

Early life

“Mark Zuckerberg was born to a Jewish-American family and raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy where he was a resident of Browning House and was recruited by both Microsoft and AOL in his senior year due to a hacking project. Instead, he opted to attend Harvard University.”

College years

“Zuckerberg attended Harvard University and was enrolled in the class of 2006. He was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. At Harvard, Zuckerberg continued creating his projects. An early project, Coursematch, allowed students to view lists of other students enrolled in the same classes. A later project, Facemash.com, was a Harvard-specific image rating site similar to Hot or Not. A version of the site was online for four hours before Zuckerberg’s Internet access was revoked by administration officials. The computer services department brought Zuckerberg before the Harvard University Administrative Board, where he was charged with breaching computer security and violating rules on Internet privacy and intellectual property.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

TechCrunch: MedPedia Is Wikifying the Medical Search Space

“The medical industry is one that thrives on innovation and evolution. New procedures, medicines, diseases, and theories are released practically every day. In such an environment, the need for a website to reflect and allow for documentation is apparent.”

“MedPedia is a new project, currently in development, that will offer an online collaborative medical encyclopedia for use by the general public. In order to keep the content accurate and up-to-date, content editors and creators have to have an MD or a PhD. Several highly-esteemed medical colleges will be contributing content to MedPedia, including Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and University of Michigan Medical School. Medpedia is also receiving support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and many other government research groups. The content from these organizations will then be edited by MedPedia’s community of medical professionals.”

“The Advisory Board includes Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., Professor University of Michigan Medical School; Linda Hawes Clever, M.D., M.A.C.P., Clinical Professor University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical School; Joseph B. Martin, M.D., Ph.D., former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University; and Mitch Kapor, philanthropist and founder of Lotus Development Corporation, designer of Lotus 1-2-3, Chair of Board of Directors for Linden Lab (creator of Second Life), Chair of Mozilla Corporation, and a member of the Advisory Board for the Wikimedia Foundation.”

From TechCrunch
Read more here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/23/medpedia-is-wikifying-the-medical-search-space

About: Henry Samueli

“Henry Samueli (born September 20, 1954 in Buffalo, New York) is co-founder and chief technology officer of the Broadcom Corporation and a philanthropist in the Orange County, California community. In 2007 Forbes placed Samueli’s net worth at $2.3 billion. He currently resides in Corona del Mar, California.”

Education

“Samueli’s parents, Sala and Aron, were Polish Jewish immigrants who survived Nazi Europe and arrived in the United States with almost nothing. Samueli stocked shelves in his family’s Los Angeles liquor store and graduated from Fairfax High School.”

“Samueli attended UCLA, where he received his bachelor’s degree (1975), master’s degree (1976), and Ph.D (1980), all in the field of electrical engineering. His Ph.D. dissertation is entitled “Nonperiodic forced overflow oscillations in digital filters”.”

Broadcom Origins

“In 1991, while still working as a professor at UCLA, Samueli co-founded his company, Broadcom Corporation, with one of his former students, Henry Nicholas. Each invested in $5,000 and worked out of Nicholas’ Redondo Beach home, moving to Irvine four years later and took the firm public three years after that. In 1998, when Broadcom became a publicly traded company, Samueli stopped working as a professor, but the UCLA Department of Electrical Engineering still maintains his name on the list of faculty.”

Anaheim Ducks Ownership

“In June 2005 he and his wife Susan bought the NHL’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, now called the Anaheim Ducks, from the Walt Disney Company for $75 million. Samueli also owns the company that operates the city-owned Honda Center, the home of the Ducks. The Anaheim Ducks are now worth a reported value of $197 million.”

“Under the ownership of Samueli and his wife Susan, the Anaheim Ducks won the 2007 Stanley Cup championship.”

Philanthropy

“The schools of engineering at UC Irvine and UCLA, where he is a professor, were renamed after Samueli after he donated $20 million and $30 million, respectively, to each in 1999. Samueli’s donation founded the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library at Chapman University, which was dedicated in 2005.”

“He is Jewish and has been known for helping many Israeli causes.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Samueli

About: Sergey Brin

“Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is a Soviet Union-born American entrepreneur who co-founded Google with Larry Page.”

“Brin currently holds the position of President of Technology at Google and has a net worth estimated at $18.5 billion as of March 9, 2007, making him the 26th richest person in the world and the 5th richest person in the United States, together with Larry Page.[4] He is also the fourth-youngest billionaire in the world.”

Early life and education

“Brin was born in Moscow, in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family, the son of Michael Brin and Evgenia Brin (nee: Krasnokutskaya), both mathematicians who graduated from the Moscow State University. In 1979, when Brin was six, his family emigrated to the United States. Brin attended grade school at Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland, but he received further education at home; his father, a professor in the department of mathematics at the University of Maryland, nurtured his interest in mathematics and his family helped him retain his Russian-language skills. In September 1990, after having attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Brin enrolled in the University of Maryland, College Park to study computer science and mathematics, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in May 1993 with honors.”

“Brin began his graduate study in Computer Science at Stanford University on a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation. He earned his master’s degree in August 1995 ahead of schedule in the process of his Ph.D. studies. He is on leave from his Ph.D. studies at Stanford.”

“Brin has also received an honorary MBA from the IE Business School.”

Interest in search engines

“Brin expressed interest in the Internet very early on in his studies at Stanford. He authored and co-authored various papers on data-mining and pattern extraction. He also wrote software to ease the process of putting scientific papers often written in TeX, a text-processing language, into HTML form, as well as a website for film ratings.”

“The defining moment for Brin, however, was when he met future co-president of Google, Larry Page. According to Google lore, Page and Brin “were not terribly fond of each other when they first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995.” They soon found a common interest: retrieving relevant information from large data sets. Together, the pair authored what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.” The paper has since gone on to become the tenth-most accessed scientific paper at Stanford University.”

Personal life

“In May 2007, Brin married Anne Wojcicki in The Bahamas. Wojcicki is a biotech analyst, and a 1996 graduate of Yale University with a degree in biology. She co-founded 23andMe, a personal DNA genotyping service.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin

About: Irwin Jacobs

Irwin Mark Jacobs (born October 18, 1933 in New Bedford, Massachusetts), is an electrical engineer and the chairman of Qualcomm.

Jacobs earned his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1956, and his S.M. and Sc.D. degrees in EECS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1957 and 1959, respectively. Additionally he is a brother of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity.

Jacobs was Assistant and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT from 1959 to 1966 and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, San Diego from 1966 to 1972. He co-authored a textbook entitled Principles of Communication Engineering in 1965, which is still used today.

In 1968 Jacobs co-founded Linkabit Corporation with Andrew Viterbi to develop satellite encryption devices. That company merged with M/A-COM in 1980, becoming M/A-COM Linkabit.

In 1985 Jacobs went on to co-found Qualcomm to commercially develop CDMA technology, which he pioneered and which uses the communication bandwidth more efficiently than the older fixed time-sliced TDMA technology. Dr. Jacobs is currently chairman of Qualcomm.

Jacobs delivered the 2005 commencement speech at MIT.

Jacobs and his wife Joan Jacobs are generous contributors to public arts and education in San Diego. For this Jacobs was given the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in 2004.

He and his wife have four sons. Their son Paul E. Jacobs is CEO of Qualcomm. Their other son Gary Jacobs is the head of the board of High Tech High. Jacobs is Jewish. Jacobs’s grandson Adam Jacobs is a catcher on the Cornell University baseball team.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irwin_M._Jacobs

Valleywag: “TechNigga” video gets 1938 Media removed from Verizon

“1938 Media is a one-man videoblog run by Loren Feldman. The guy is funny, in that edgily-offensive way that makes you wonder when someone’s going to punch him in the face. Last week, Verizon cut a deal with Feldman to market his videos on Verizon phones and broadband connections — a big win for a one-man act.”

From Valleywag
Read more here: http://valleywag.com/5022935/technigga-video-gets-1938-media-removed-from-verizon

About: Loren Feldman

“Loren Feldman is an entertainer and videographer based in New York City. He comments on the tech industry on 1938media.com. He is president of 1938media, a video production agency. He has been called “the most controversial video blogger in social media today.” Before focusing exclusively on the internet, Loren worked as an actor and independent filmmaker in Los Angeles. Loren is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the New York Friars’ Club.”

“Feldman was a featured video blogger at The Huffington Post and formerly at Podtech. He was prominently featured on Valleywag for his controversial TechNigga video. He has been a featured speaker at tech conferences, including speaking on the future of media at Mesh and Mobile Monday in NYC, where he was a panelist discussing business and investment opportunities in mobile video. A Wired writer said, “In classic brass knuckles, New Yorker style, Podtech.net/1938 Media video blogger Loren Feldman may have posted the final, definitive word on the whole email versus telephone Interview debate.”"

“When Anna Nicole Smith died, the New York Times said about Feldman’s video linking Smith and Marilyn Monroe, “If anyone can pull off the just-gotta-do-it comparison, it’s Loren at 1938 Media.” Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNet says, “Loren Feldman of 1938 Media is bringing his lampooning brand of humor to Web 2.0 land. It’s as if Lenny Bruce landed in 21st century Silicon Valley instead of at Carnegie Hall in 1961.”"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loren_Feldman

About: Mitch Kapor

“Mitchell David Kapor (born November 1, 1950) is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the “killer application” often credited with making the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980s. He is known as an entrepreneur, investor, social activist, and philanthropist.”

Early Life and Education

“Kapor was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended public schools on Long Island in Freeport, New York, where he graduated from high school in 1967. He received a BA from Yale College in 1971 and studied psychology, linguistics and computer science as part of an interdisciplinary major in Cybernetics. Kapor served as Music Director and Program Director at Yale’s radio station WYBC-FM”

“During the 1970s, Kapor was employed as a radio disc jockey at WHCN-FM, a commercial progressive rock station based in Hartford, Connecticut. It was also in this period that he became interested in Transcendental Meditation, going on to teach the philosophy in Cambridge, Massachusetts (where he also worked as a low-level computer programmer) and Fairfield, Iowa. In 1978, he graduated with a Master’s degree in counseling psychology from Campus-Free College (later renamed Beacon College) in Boston. Kapor subsequently began a career as a mental health counselor at New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts.”

“In 1980, Kapor left his counseling career to attend the Master’s of Science in Management program at the MIT Sloan School of Management, but did not graduate.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Kapor

Sumner Redstone (About)

Sumner Murray Redstone (born Sumner Murray Rothstein; May 27, 1923) is majority owner and Chairman of the Board of the National Amusements theater chain. Through National Amusements, Sumner Redstone and his family are majority owners of CBS Corporation, Viacom, and Midway Games, MTV Networks, BET, and movie production and distribution Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks movie studios, and are equal partners in MovieTickets.com.

Early life and career

Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Belle (née Ostrovsky) and Michael Redstone. His family’s name was changed from Rothstein to Redstone, when Sumner was 17. His father was the owner of the Northeast Theater Corporation in Dedham, Massachusetts–the forerunner of National Amusements.

Redstone attended the prestigious Boston Latin School, where he graduated first in his class. He then attended Harvard College, where he completed his B.A. in three years. Later, Redstone served in World War II, serving with the team that decoded Japanese messages for the United States Army. Upon completion of his Army service, he worked in Washington, D.C. and attended Georgetown University Law School. He chose to transfer into Harvard Law School and received his LL.B., later amended to a Juris Doctor from that institution.

After completing law school, Redstone worked primarily in Washington, D.C., working at first for the U.S. Department of Justice in San Francisco and then going into private practice. However, after a few years in practice, he chose to join his father’s theater chain.

As National Amusements grew Redstone believed that content would become more important than distribution mechanisms. There would always exist channels of distribution (albeit in varied forms), but content was always going to be necessary (his famous quote is “content is king!”). He then made investments in Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Orion Pictures, and Paramount Pictures (the latter of the 4 of which Redstone’s Viacom would buy in the 1990s-see below), all of which turned over huge profits when he chose to sell the stock in the early 1980s.

In 1979 he almost died in the Boston Copley Hotel fire. He crawled out of a window onto a ledge. He was not expected to survive and underwent 60 hours of burn surgery.

In 1999 he was divorced from his first wife of 55 years, Phyllis Gloria Raphael. He is the father of Shari Redstone and Brent Redstone. Three years after his divorce, he married Paula Fortunato, a former primary school teacher who is forty years his junior.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Redstone

Steve Ballmer (About)

Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000. Ballmer is the second person after Roberto Goizueta to become a billionaire in U.S. dollars based on stock options received as an employee of a corporation in which he was neither a founder nor a relative of a founder. In Forbes 2008 World’s Richest People ranking, Ballmer was ranked the 43rd richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of $15 billion.

Family

On October 2, 2006, Ballmer was awarded honorary citizenship of Lausen, Switzerland. His father, Frederick Ballmer, who emigrated to the US at the age of 23 as “Hans Friedrich Balmer”, was a citizen of the same municipality. His father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. In 1990 Ballmer married Connie Snyder, on Microsoft’s PR team at the Waggener Group in the ’80s. They have three sons. Ballmer’s grandfather lives in Minsk, Belarus.

Pre-Microsoft & Life History

Steve Ballmer was born March 24, 1956 and grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan to a Swiss father and a Jewish-American mother. In 1973, he graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a high school, and now sits on its board of directors. In 1977, he graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the Harvard Advocate, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. He then worked for two years as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble, where he shared an office with Jeffrey R. Immelt, the current CEO of General Electric. In 1980, he dropped out from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer