Ben Silbermann (born July 14, 1982) is an American

Internet entrepreneur An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some Chie ...

. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of

Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...

, a visual discovery engine. which lets users organize images, links, recipes and other things.

Early life

Silbermann was born in 1982. He was raised in

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. His parents, Jane Wang and Neil Silbermann, are

ophthalmologists Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

. In 1998, Silbermann attended the

Research Science Institute The Research Science Institute (RSI) is an international summer research program for high school students. RSI is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) and hosted by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. RSI brings together the top S ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

. He graduated from Des Moines Central Academy and Des Moines Roosevelt with the class of 1999. He then graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in the spring of 2003 with a degree in Political Science.

Career

Before

(which launched in March 2010), Silbermann worked at

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

in the online advertising group. However, after a short time with the company he left and started designing his own

iPhone apps A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

with a college friend,

Paul Sciarra Paul Sciarra (born c. 1981) is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Pinterest. Early life Sciarra was born circa 1981. He graduated from Yale University. Career Sciarra worked at venture capital firm Radius Ventures, LLC. I ...

. After their initial application, Tote, failed to gain significant traction, the cofounders teamed up with

Evan Sharp Evan Sharp (born 1982) is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and chief design and creative officer of Pinterest, a visual discovery engine. He joined the company's board of directors in March 2019. Early life Sha ...

to create a pinboard product that would eventually be named Pinterest. Silbermann says that the genesis of Pinterest came from his love of collecting as a kid. "Collecting tells a lot about who you are," he said, and when they looked at the web "there wasn't a place to share that side of who you were." A little over nine years after starting Pinterest, the company held its IPO in April 2019 which valued the company around 12 billion dollars, beating expectations. On June 28, 2022, it was announced Silberman would step down as Chief Executive Officer and transition to the role of Executive Chairman, and online commerce expert Bill Ready will become Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors.

Personal life

Silbermann is married to Divya Bhaskaran, with whom he has two children. He resides in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silbermann, Ben Living people 1982 births American people of Chinese descent Businesspeople from Des Moines, Iowa Businesspeople from San Francisco Yale College alumni American technology company founders Y Combinator people Pinterest people American billionaires Theodore Roosevelt High School (Iowa) alumni American chief executives