Founders
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim founded YouTube, Inc. on February 14, 2005. Jawed Karim left the company to pursue an advanced degree at Stanford.
Since the rise in popularity of YouTube, the site has been awarded "Best Invention of the Year" by Time magazine and was the first Web site to receive "Entertainer of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly. Both Chad and Steve have received several prestigious honors and acknowledgements from the business and entertainment communities including: Business 2.0's "50 Most Influential People," GQ's "Men of the Year," and Fortune's "Most Powerful People in Business." They also were prominently featured in Time magazine's "Person of the Year" issue and received credit for largely influencing the publication's unprecedented selection of "you" in a year that YouTube led the digital democracy explosion.
Chad Hurley, CEO
YouTube, Inc.
Chad Hurley is CEO of YouTube and co-founded the company in February 2005. Chad is responsible for making YouTube one of the most highly trafficked Web sites, serving billions of videos around the world.
Chad, along with co-founder and CTO Steve Chen, led YouTube to one of the most talked-about acquisitions to date, negotiating a $1.65 billion buyout with Google within a year of its launch.
Chad's overall vision for YouTube is to keep the process of watching and sharing video effortless for everyone. As CEO, Chad's responsibilities include oversight of business development, marketing and operations for the company. He also created the clean, simple interface that lets the community easily interact and share video across the globe and designed YouTube's distinctive logo.
Prior to YouTube, Chad was the first user-interface designer at PayPal, where he played a fundamental role in the early development of the payment service. He designed the first PayPal logo, which is still used today. Following the eBay acquisition, Chad consulted for several technology companies as well as for the producers of the hit movie Thank you for Smoking.
Chad received a B.A in Fine Art at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Steve Chen, CTO
YouTube, Inc.
Steve Chen is Chief Technology Officer of YouTube and co-founded the company in 2005 after he and Chad Hurley resolved to provide a more simple way to share videos online.
Steve has been instrumental in building YouTube into a viral video phenomenon and helped lead YouTube through the Google acquisition for $1.65 billion less than a year after launching the site.
As the company's key technologist, Steve is credited with developing the company's massive data centers and helping build YouTube into a premier entertainment destination and one of the most popular Web sites on the Internet today. He oversees all areas of both engineering and product development, including managing site operations, and developing features and services that are compelling and easy to use for everyone.
Before YouTube, Steve was one of the first product engineers at PayPal. He led development efforts and served as an engineering manager on a variety of critical projects.
Steve studied computer science at the University of Illinois.