"Status Updates": Facebook Founders

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, right, credits his roommates, Dustin A. Moskovitz '06 and Christopher R. Hughes '06, left and middle, as the site's social directors in 2004. By Ravi P. Ramchandani

Mark E. Zuckerberg

Mark E. Zuckerberg currently serves as the Chairman and CEO of Facebook, Inc., and is the twenty-fifth richest person in the United States with a net worth of $19 billion, according to Forbes. In 2011, Zuckerberg returned to Cambridge, where he visited Harvard and MIT to recruit new employees and meet with administrators. In the same year, Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jesse Eisenberg, who played Zuckerberg in Academy Award-winning film “The Social Network.”

He currently resides in Palo Alto with his wife Priscilla Chan ’07, whom he met at a party thrown by Harvard fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. Although he is still focused on Facebook, he has become involved with non-profits FWD.us and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Zuckerberg has become an education advocate, notably donating $100 million to Newark, NJ to improve its public schools. Zuckerberg has joined the ranks of Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett in pledging to donate at least half of his wealth to charity.

Eduardo L. Saverin ’05

Co-founder of Facebook and the company’s first CFO, Eduardo L. Saverin ’05 was Zuckerberg’s friend and provided the company’s initial funding. After a dispute chronicled in the movie, “The Social Network”, Saverin left Facebook, but he still owns 2.2% of the company, which is now worth about $2.65 billion. Saverin has spent his post-Facebook career as an angel investor, notably investing in startup app Qwiki.

Although Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship shortly before the Facebook went public, which some thought to be a form of tax evasion, he has made himself comfortable in his adopted home of Singapore. He is often spotted driving in a Bentley, and enjoys celebrity-status at Singapore nightclubs. According to an article in The Daily Mail, Saverin “glides around Singapore, where he now lives, in a Bentley, alighting on one champagne-fuelled party after another.”

Christopher R. Hughes ’06

Christopher R. Hughes ’06, unlike Moskovitz and Zuckerberg, returned to Harvard and graduated with his class, but continued to work as Facebook’s leading spokesman. As the buzz around Facebook continued to build, Hughes shocked many by leaving the company in January 2007, opting to join the campaign team of a then-presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Hughes helped create BarackObama.com, which used social networking to rally grassroot support. After the resounding successes of his first two ventures, Hughes purchased a majority stake in the financially strapped magazine The New Republic and appointed himself editor in chief. There, he has implemented many changes to revive its flagging readership. On June 30, 2012, Hughes married his longtime boyfriend Sean Eldridge, who is currently running for Congress in New York. Hughes’ net worth rests around $850 million.

Dustin A. Moskovitz

Characterized by Forbes as the world’s youngest billionaire, Dustin A. Moskovitz was Zuckerberg’s roommate and one of the original Facebook co-founders. After leaving the company in 2008, Moskovitz went on to co-found and become CEO of Asana, a company that produces software to make professional collaboration easier. Moskovitz lives in San Francisco, is engaged to former Wall Street Journal reporter Cari Tuna, and, according to Forbes, still bikes to work and flies commercial despite his $5.2 billion fortune. Earlier this year, Moskovitz bumped into the Winklevoss brothers at Nevada music festival Burning Man, a confrontation that ended in them becoming Facebook friends.

Andrew K. McCollum ’06

Andrew K. McCollum ’06 was Zuckerberg’s classmate and a designer at Facebook, creating Facebook’s first logo. He dropped out of Harvard to join Facebook, but after leaving the company in 2006, returned to complete his degree in computer science. After graduation, McCollum went on to co-found JobSpice, an internet company that helps people make resumes. Currently, he’s an entrepreneur-in-residence at New Enterprise Associates and a partner at Fresh Pond Partners in Boston. In 2012 McCollum married sociology Ph.D. Gretchen Sisson, in a ceremony that was described as the geekiest wedding ever.

Cameron S.H. Winklevoss ’04 and Tyler O.H. Winklevoss ’04

After a four year legal dispute with Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, Cameron S.H. Winklevoss ’04 and Tyler O.H. Winklevoss ’04 settled their suit with Zuckerberg in 2008 for $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook shares, which was significantly less than their original suit of $140 million. The Winklevoss twins felt deceived by the valuation of the stocks and tried to undo the settlement. The federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the settlement and the brothers decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Winklevosses continued rowing after their time at Harvard, going on to place sixth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in pairs rowing. After graduating from Oxford with MBAs, the twins became venture capitalists, investing notably in Bitcoins and the payment processor BitInstant. Their Facebook stock is now worth an estimated $120 million.