Jimmy Wales is the founder of "Wikipedia"

Jimmy Wales is a famous Internet entrepreneur from America. Founder of Wikipedia. Director of Wikia, Inc. Since March 2012 is an adviser to the British government on public openness and politics. From 2003 to 2006 he was the chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation. In this article, we will 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 at the grocery store. A grandmother and mother of the future entrepreneur owned a private school, where training was practiced based on the methodology of Maria Montessori. It consisted in the fact that the children determined the content, time and form of the lessons themselves. Jimmy liked to read encyclopedias most of all.

After training in a private family of relatives, Wales entered the Randolph School. There the young man was prepared for the exams at the University of Auburn. Then Jimmy moved to Alabama. After completing his studies, Wales had a desire to write a doctoral dissertation on philosophy. To achieve 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 Opshins Associates. There, the young man traded in securities and received a fairly high salary.

In 1996, in partnership with Tim Schellom, he opened the Internet company Bomis. In fact, it was a search engine designed exclusively for men. Later, a very significant profit Jimmy brought a paid resource with pornographic content "premium.bomis.kom. In 2012, the entrepreneur said in an interview that the site bomis.com no longer exists. And earlier he was the same search engine as "Yakhu". Users could create a community on Bomis and share the links. Jimmy christened the site bomis.com "great-grandfather" Wikipedia. "

In 2011, the hero of this article came to Russia. June 15, he performed at the Pushkin cinema with an open lecture. After the end, the listeners asked him questions for an hour. The next day, the entrepreneur addressed MIREA to teachers and students.

In the same year, Wales sat on the jury of the German "Quadriga" award, which was 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 premier was never awarded. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev considered this story as a manifestation of the "inconsistency and cowardice" of the members of the organizing committee. He also said that "for the international community, the prize has exactly ended."

In 2012, Wales became an adviser to the British government on public openness and politics. This post is unpaid. Jimmy deals with the issues of increasing the participation of society during the definition of state policy.

The Wikimedia Foundation

In 2000 there was one very popular project on the expanses of the network. And he was called "Noupeedia". The site was freely available to articles written by experts. The volume of content grew very slowly. Therefore, in January 2001, the founder of the site, Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, created "Wikipedia". Initially, it was planned to develop materials on it for the main project. But soon "Nupedia" fell into the background. Due to rapid growth, the secondary site turned into the main one. In the early stages of the development of "Wikipedia" was exclusively engaged in Larry. And the hero of this article solved only financial issues.

Jimmy Wales, whose state is now approaching the $ 25 million mark, considers himself the founder of Wikipedia. After all, Sanger was formally hired to work. Although Larry still continues to call himself a co-founder. Soon he left the project and began to criticize Jimmy. Sanger portrayed Wales as a person who hates the elite.

In 2003, Jimmy organized the non-profit foundation Wikimedia. The company headquarters was in Tampa (Florida). The main duty of the Foundation 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 moment, the Wikimedia Foundation exists only through donations and grants. There are no other sources of financing.

Other projects

In 2004, Jimmy Wales, together with Angela Beasley, founded the "Wikia". The service provided hosting services to sites using wiki technology.

Personal life

With his first wife Jimmy Wales, whose biography is presented above, he met at a student's party. In 1994, he moved with Pam to Chicago. But the marriage did not last long.

In March 1997, Jimmy married Christine Rohan, who worked as a trader at Mitsubishi. Soon the couple had a daughter. But then a divorce followed.

Since 2011, Wales has met with Keith Garvey. At one time, she worked as a secretary-consultant with Tony Blair himself (former British Prime Minister). At the end of 2012, the couple married. Later they had a daughter.