Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales
Wales in 2019
Born	Jimmy Donal Wales (1966-08-07) August 7, 1966 (age 57) Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
Other names	Jimbo Wales (screen name)[1]
Citizenship	United States United Kingdom
Education	Auburn University (BS) University of Alabama (MS) Indiana University Bloomington
Occupations	Internet entrepreneur webmaster financial trader (formerly)
Title	President of Fandom, Inc. (2004–present) Chair of Wikimedia Foundation (2003–2006) Chair emeritus of Wikimedia Foundation (2006–present)
Successor	Florence Devouard (as Chair of Wikimedia Foundation)
Board member of	Wikimedia Foundation Creative Commons Sunlight Foundation (advisory board) (until September 2020) MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (advisory board) Guardian Media Group (until April 2017)[2]
Spouses	Pamela Green ​ ​ (m. 1986; div. 1993)​ Christine Rohan ​ ​ (m. 1997; div. 2011)​ Kate Garvey ​ (m. 2012)​
Children	3
Jimmy Wales' voice Recorded August 2014
Website	Official website
Signature

Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also referred to as Jimbo Wales (as a user of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects), is a British-American^[3] Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of Wikipedia and the for-profit wiki hosting service Fandom (formerly Wikia). He has worked on other online projects, including Bomis, Nupedia, WikiTribune, and WT Social.

Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama, where he attended the Randolph School. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in finance from Auburn University and the University of Alabama, respectively. In graduate school, Wales taught at two universities; he departed before completing a PhD to take a job in finance and later worked as the research director of Chicago Options Associates.

In 1996, Wales and two partners founded Bomis, a web portal primarily known for featuring adult content. Bomis provided the initial funding for the free peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia (2000–2003). On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, Wales launched Wikipedia, a free open-content encyclopedia that enjoyed rapid growth and popularity. As its public profile grew, Wales became its promoter and spokesman. Though he is historically credited as a co-founder, he has disputed this, declaring himself the sole founder.

Wales serves on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the charity that he helped establish to operate Wikipedia, holding its board-appointed "community founder" seat. For his role in creating Wikipedia, Time named him one of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2006.