Pierre Omidyar

Born June 21, 1967 in Paris, France and moved to the United States in 1973 at the age of 6. Omidyar graduated from Tufts University in 1988 and began working for Claris. He co-founded Ink Development in 1991. Pierre Omidyar is the founder and chairman of the eBay auction site.

“We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.”

“I've got a passion for solving a problem that I think I can solve in a new way. And that maybe it helps that nobody has done it before as well.”

“I was just pursuing what I enjoyed doing. I mean, I was pursuing my passion.”

“When I started eBay, it was a hobby, an experiment to see if people could use the Internet to be empowered through access to an efficient market. I actually wasn't thinking about it in terms of a social impact. It was really about helping people connect around a sphere of interest so they could do business.”

“I was thinking about hoe to put tools into the hands of regular folks to level the playing field.”