Guide Note

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of the online social networking website Facebook, which he created while he was a student at Harvard University in 2004.¹

Fast Facts

1. Full name: Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
2. Born: May 14, 1984
3. Education: Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University
4. Ranked by #785 on Forbes list in 2008²
5. Net worth in 2008: $1.5 billion²

Zuckerberg attended the prestigious prep school Phillips Exeter Academy. While he was there, he and his roommate built a WinAmp plug-in that would track a user's music preferences and craft playlists based on his or her taste. Both he and his roommate were recruited by several major companies, including AOL and Microsoft, but decided to go to college instead.³

At Harvard, he engaged in several hacking projects, including one that pulled photos of current students from a Harvard University database. He founded Facebook from his dorm room, and it became very successful in a short time. He dropped out of Harvard and moved to Silicon Valley.³

Harvard classmates Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss have claimed Zuckerberg stole their concept and business plan, and brought him to court in 2008. However, the judge ruled in favor of Facebook.⁴