Ben Silbermann (born July 14, 1982) is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of Pinterest, 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 U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, 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: Wiscon ...

. His parents, Jane Wang and Neil Silbermann, are ophthalmologists. 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 ...

at MIT. 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 w ...

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

Career

Before Pinterest (which launched in March 2010), Silbermann worked at

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

in the online advertising group. However, after a short time with the company he left and started designing his own iPhone apps with a college friend, Paul Sciarra. After their initial application, Tote, failed to gain significant traction, the cofounders teamed up with Evan Sharp 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 17t ...

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