With the mission to connect the world, Facebook CEO has not only grown the social networking site Facebook, but also become a voice to reckon with. From Harvard dorm room to now more than 2 billion users over the world, Facebook is innovating on everything from, drones and other methods of bringing internet access to unreached parts of the globe to helping brands reach their target audience and get a better ROI.
Here are five highlights from Zuckerberg’s incredible journey to become one of the most convincing CEO’s in the world:
While a titan of Silicon Valley now, Zuckerberg was raised in the quaint town of Dobbs Ferry, New York. He was born to Edward and Karen Zuckerberg, a dentist and psychiatrist, respectively. He has three siblings: Randi, Donna, and Arielle.
A precocious child, Mark at age 12 created a messaging program called “Zucknet” using Atari BASIC. He also coded computer games for his friends at a young age.
Zuckerberg started at Harvard University in 2002, he earned a reputation as a skilled developer. His first hit was “Face mash,” a hot-or-not-style app that used the pictures of his classmates that he hacked from the school administration’s dormitory ID files. It got 22,000 page views from 450 people in the first four hours it was up. Harvard quickly ordered it to be taken down, citing copyright and security concerns.
He started “The Facebook” with several friends out of his dorm room and dropped out of school after his sophomore year to focus on it full-time.
Zuckerburg hasn’t been afraid to spend Facebook’s money either: The company has some major acquisitions under its belt, including $1 billion for Instagram, $19 billion for WhatsApp, and $2 billion for Oculus.
In May 2017, Zuckerberg returned to his Alma mater, Harvard, as its youngest commencement speaker ever. He received an honorary doctorate as well.
