Brian Chesky

Brian Chesky was born in Niskayuna, New York, and grew up there before attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he earned a BFA in industrial design and met future co-founder Joe Gebbia. Chesky has described himself as a creative, design-focused youth who pursued art and design from an early age. In 2007, Chesky and Joe Gebbia started what became Airbnb after hosting guests on air mattresses during a San Francisco conference to help pay rent; they later brought in Nathan Blecharczyk as the third co-founder and launched the site originally called Airbedandbreakfast.com. As CEO, Chesky has guided Airbnb’s transformation from a small sharing-economy experiment into a global platform with millions of hosts and billions of stays across hundreds of countries, embedding a design-driven culture focused on trust, belonging, and community in the product and company operations. Chesky is a signatory of the Giving Pledge and has committed to donating the net proceeds of his CEO equity compensation to philanthropic causes. He has publicly discussed leadership, work-life balance, and the creative values that inform Airbnb’s strategy and culture, and remains an active public figure and spokesperson for the company.