Profile: Pierre Omidyar
Founder and Chairman, eBay

Today, Pierre Omidyar is hailed as the architect of a new age of digital commerce, but the founder of eBay, the worldıs largest personal online trading community, became a web entrepreneur almost by accident. His girlfriend, an avid collector of Pez candy dispensers, was having trouble finding fellow devotees. Omidyar placed a page on his personal website to help her and other Pez collectors trade their treasures. Visitors began posting offers and requests for other items, and paying Omidyar for the privilege.

Five years later, eBay attracts more than 1.5 billion page views per month, and hosts nearly 4 million auctions in more than 4,000 categories every day. Almost half a million new items are added for sale every 24 hours. The price of eBay stock has risen by as much as 1,400 percent since its initial public offering in 1998.

Omidyar and his wife have donated $10 million to help launch Tufts Universityıs new College of Citizenship and Public Service, an initiative designed to "create a community of graduates who can combine successful careers with active participation in public service organizations for social and environmental causes, and politics." Omidyar, whose net worth is measured in billions of dollars, has said he plans to give away all but one percent of his wealth within 20 years.