Pierre Omidyar

“Our nation is stronger when we protect the rights of individuals to speak their minds, associate with whomever they please, and criticize their government and others in power,” Pierre Omidyar says of First Look Media, the media company he launched in 2013 to fund independent journalism initiatives like The Intercept. As the founder of eBay, Omidyar became a multi-billionaire at the age of 31 after the company’s initial public offering in 1998. He and his wife, Pamela, then co-founded the Omidyar Foundation to support nonprofits, and later the Omidyar Group, a collection of companies, organizations, and initiatives with the aim of catalyzing social impact. He is CEO and publisher of Honolulu Civil Beat, a local news service in Hawaii that encourages greater civic participation through media. Omidyar has publicly committed to giving away the vast majority of their wealth away within his lifetime and in 2010 joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s “giving pledge.” Updated 2018