Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, and grew up in the nearby Dobbs Ferry area; he attended Phillips Exeter Academy before enrolling at Harvard University in 2002 where he studied computer science and psychology. As a Harvard student, he built early projects such as Facemash and, with roommates and classmates, launched TheFacebook on February 4, 2004. Zuckerberg and co‑founders initially ran TheFacebook from their Harvard dormitory and soon moved operations to Palo Alto, California, after taking early investment; by the end of 2004, the site had roughly one million users and continued rapid expansion to colleges, high schools, and then the general public by 2006. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to focus on the company and served as CEO while steering major product and business decisions; Facebook’s growth brought legal disputes, regulatory scrutiny over privacy and content, and public debate about the platform’s societal effects. In 2021, he rebranded the parent company to Meta Platforms to highlight an increased focus on virtual-reality and metaverse technologies. As founder, chairman, and CEO of Meta, Zuckerberg continues to oversee Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, and Meta’s VR/AR initiatives, and he has been involved in philanthropic efforts with his wife through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.