Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York. He grew up with his three siblings in the nearby town, Dobbs Ferry. At the age of 12, Zuckerberg used Atari Basic to create a messaging programme his dad used in his dental office.
Zuckerberg enrolled in Harvard University in 2002, where he quickly became known for his developer skills. After his sophomore year, he decided to drop out and focus on 'The Facebook', which he had been running out of his dormroom.
By the end of 2005, Facebook had surpassed 5.5 million users and received $12.7 million from Accel Ventures.
He took Facebook public on May 18, 2012. The IPO raised $16 billion almost instantly, making it the biggest tech IPO in history.
Another sign of Zuckerberg having made it is the fact he received a $1 salary in 2013. (Not including the $653,164 for "other compensation," most of which covered bills for private chartered jets.)
Also, he was the most charitable philanthropist in 2013, having donated half a billion dollars worth of Facebook stock to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. He has also donated a lot of money to Newark, New Jersey's public school system and his non-profit Internet.org.
Earlier this week, Facebook crushed its second quarter earnings and its stock hit an all-time high — which really just means Mark Zuckerberg is one step closer to being the richest man in the world.
Zuckerberg's current net worth is about $33.1 billion, putting him at No. 16 in Forbes's ranking of the world's billionaires. More impressively, he is one of just three people who currently have more billions under their belt than years lived.
