Pierre Omidyar is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist who is known for founding the internet auctioning website eBay. Peirre Morad Omidyar was born on June 21, 1967, in Paris, France; his parents are Iranian. Pierre’s father’s work as a surgeon brought the family to the United States. Omidyar attended The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia and graduated from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley before graduating with a degree in computer science from Tufts University in Medford/Sommerville, Massachusetts. Omidyar began writing the code for eBay in 1995, when he was twenty eight; the first item to sell on the auction site was a broken laser pointer.

By 1996, the site had hosted two hundred and fifty thousand auctions; by the middle of 1997, eBay was hosting eight hundred thousand auctions a day. Forbes magazine listed Pierre Omidyar’s net worth at over ten billion dollars in 2018. His philanthropic work includes the investment firm, Omidyar Network, which has committed nearly a billion dollars to organizations that foster economic advancement across multiple investment areas. Pierre Omidyar is married to Pamela Wesley; the couple has three children. Omidyar owns homes in Henderson, Nevada and Honolulu, Hawaii.