Mark Zuckerberg

AGE: 24 OCCUPATION: Facebook founder

PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 1

PRO: With Facebook's population inching toward 200 million — even your grandma's on it, though her status updates are usually pretty lame — Zuckerberg is managing the fastest-growing social-networking site on the Web.

CON: A recent dustup over the site's terms of service — many feared their tipsy Wall-to-Walls might become permanent Facebook property — demonstrated just how quickly users could turn against Zuckerberg's creation.

Mark Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. As a Harvard student, he created the online social website Facebook, a site popular among students worldwide, with fellow computer science major students and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. He serves as Facebook's CEO.^[3] He has been the subject of controversy for the origins of his business^[4] and his wealth.^[5]

Time Magazine added Zuckerberg as one of The World's Most Influential People of 2008. Zuckerberg fell under the Scientists & Thinkers category for his web phenomenon, Facebook, and ranked 52 out of 101 people.

Zuckerberg was raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York, by his Jewish parents, Edward and Karen Zuckerberg. His father Edward is a dentist in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and his mother is a physician. He started programming when he was in middle school. Early on, Zuckerberg enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. While attending Phillips Exeter Academy, he built a program to help the workers in his father's office communicate; he also built a version of the game Risk and a music player named Synapse that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits. Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he decided to attend Harvard University instead.