Jimmy Wales is a well-known Internet entrepreneur from America. Founder of Wikipedia. Director of Wikia, Inc. Since March 2012, she has been an adviser to the UK government on issues of public openness and politics. From 2003 to 2006, he was chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation. In this article, we describe a brief biography of a businessman.
Family and study
Jimmy Wales was born in Huntsville (USA) in 1966. The boy's father worked as a manager in a grocery store. And the grandmother and mother of the future entrepreneur owned a private school where instruction was based on the methodology of Maria Montessori. It consisted in the fact that the children determined the content, time and form of the lessons on their own. Jimmy liked reading encyclopedias most of all.
After studying in a private institution for relatives, Wales enrolled in Randolph School. There, a young man was prepared for exams at the University of Auburn. Then Jimmy transferred to Alabama. After graduating from Wales, there was a desire to write a doctoral dissertation in philosophy. To realize this goal, he began teaching at the universities of Indiana and Alabama. But the future entrepreneur did not write a dissertation.
First business
From 1994 to 2000, Jimmy Wales worked for the Chicago Optins Associates. There, a young man traded in securities and received a rather high salary.
In 1996, in partnership with Tim Shell, he opened the Bomis Internet company. In fact, it was a search engine designed exclusively for men. Later, Jimmy made a very substantial profit with a paid resource with premium.bomis.com pornographic content. In 2012, the entrepreneur said in an interview that bomis.com no longer exists. And before he was the same search engine as "Yahu". Users could create communities on the Bomis and share links. Jimmy dubbed bomis.com "Wikipedia’s great-grandfather."
In 2011, the hero of this article came to Russia. On June 15, he performed at the Pushkinsky Cinema with an open lecture. After graduation, the students asked him questions for an hour. The next day, the entrepreneur addressed MIREA to teachers and students.
In the same year, Wales served on the jury of the German Quadriga Prize, awarded to politicians. Most of the judges decided to give the award to Vladimir Putin. But Jimmy was categorically against and even left the jury. As a result, the Russian Prime Minister was not awarded the award. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev considered this story a manifestation of “inconsistency and cowardice” by members of the organizing committee. He also said that "for the international community, the prize is definitely over."
In 2012, Wales became an adviser to the UK government on issues of public openness and politics. This post is unpaid. Jimmy deals with issues of expanding public participation during the determination of state policy.
Wikimedia Foundation
In 2000, the network was one very popular project. And it was called "Nupedia." On the site in free access lay articles written by experts. The volume of content grew very slowly. Therefore, in January 2001, Wikipedia was created by the founder of the site, Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. At first, it was supposed to develop materials for the main project on it. But soon Nupedia receded into the background. Due to rapid growth, the secondary site has become the main one. In the early stages, Wikipedia was exclusively developed by Larry. And the hero of this article solved only financial issues.
Jimmy Wales, whose fortune is now approaching the $ 25 million mark, considers himself the founder of Wikipedia. After all, Sanger was formally hired. Although Larry still continues to call himself a co-founder. He soon left the project and began to criticize Jimmy. Sanger portrayed Wales as a man who hates the elite.
In 2003, Jimmy organized the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. The headquarters of the company was in Tampa (Florida). The main responsibility of the Fund was to maintain Wikipedia and its fraternal projects. Wales is still on the board of directors and promotes them.
From the beginning of 2005 to the present, the Wikimedia Foundation has existed only through donations and grants. There are no other sources of financing.
Other projects
In 2004, Jimmy Wales founded Wikia with Angela Beasley. The service provided hosting services to sites using wiki technology.
Personal life
Jimmy Wales, whose biography is presented above, met his first wife at a student party. In 1994, he and Pam moved to Chicago. But the marriage did not last long.
In March 1997, Jimmy married Kristina Roan, who worked as a Mitsubishi trader. Soon the couple had a daughter. However, then there was a divorce.
Since 2011, Wales has been dating Kate Garvey. At one time, she worked as a secretary-referent for Tony Blair himself (a former English prime minister). At the end of 2012, lovers got married. Later they had a daughter.