Omidyar Network's leadership and investment professionals bring rich experience from the public, private, and social sectors to their roles. Our team works together to create opportunity for people to improve their lives by making catalytic investments and collaborating with investees to help them grow and succeed.
Photo: Allison V. Smith
As an entrepreneur and innovator, Pierre guides Omidyar Network with his strategic vision, values, and fresh approach to the field of philanthropy. Pierre's work at Omidyar Network is greatly influenced by his belief that people are inherently capable but often lack equal opportunity.
Starting from the premise that people are basically good, Pierre created eBay in 1995—an online platform and marketplace that gives people equal access to information, opportunity, and tools to pursue their goals. Today, eBay enables more than 90 million buyers and sellers worldwide to connect and prosper over shared interests.
After eBay became a public company in 1998, Pierre and his wife, Pam, co-founded the Omidyar Foundation to support nonprofits. Simultaneously, eBay's vast scale and accelerating social impact were demonstrating that business could also be an effective tool for making the world a better place. In response, they broadened their scope in 2004 to form a new entity, Omidyar Network, to make for-profit company investments as well as nonprofit organization grants. By supporting innovative, market-based approaches, Omidyar Network creates opportunity for individuals to connect with others, discover their power to make a difference in the world and truly improve their lives.
As an extension of Omidyar Network's activities in microfinance, Pierre and Pam gave $100 million to Tufts University to create the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund. Their endowment, the single largest in the history of Tufts, aims to accelerate the growth of the microfinance industry, while generating income to support university programs.
Active philanthropists, Pierre and Pam also dedicate their time, energy, and resources to three additional family philanthropies: HopeLab, Humanity United, and Ulupono Initiative. To support local efforts at home, in 2009 Pierre and Pam committed $50 million to the Hawaii Community Foundation.
Before starting eBay, Pierre co-founded Ink Development Corp., later renamed eShop and acquired by Microsoft. Upon receiving his BS in computer science from Tufts, Pierre worked as a consumer software engineer at Claris, a subsidiary of Apple Computer. Today, Pierre serves as a trustee of Punahou School, a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, and as chairman of eBay. Pierre is also Co-Founder, CEO and Publisher of Honolulu Civil Beat, a local online news service in Hawaii that encourages greater civic participation through media.