Yishan Wong Explained

Yishan Wong
Birth Place:Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[1]
Spouse:Kimberly Algeri-Wong
Education:Carnegie Mellon University
Occupation:Co-founder of Sunfire Offices
Known For:Former CEO of Reddit
Website:algeri-wong.com

Yishan Wong is an American engineer and entrepreneur who was CEO of Reddit from March 2012 until his resignation in November 2014.[2] [3] [4] [5] With Niniane Wang he is also co-founder of the Mountain View coworking space Sunfire Offices,[6] and was an advisor at Quora. Wong was briefly a contributing blogger to Forbes magazine.[7]

Career

PayPal and Facebook

Wong worked as a senior engineering manager at PayPal from 2001 to 2005. He is a member of PayPal's early group of employees known collectively as the PayPal Mafia. In 2005, he joined Facebook as a director of engineering on projects including crowd translation.[8] Before leaving Facebook in 2010, he became an active Reddit user and posted often.[9]

Reddit CEO

After three months of talks with Reddit in late 2011, Wong was offered the position of CEO, an offer which he claims friends met with "uproarious laughter".[10]

In 2012, when asked about various controversial Reddit communities, Wong said that the site should offer a platform for objectionable content: "We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it."[11] In 2013, he hired Ellen Pao as the Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships and later recommended her as CEO.[12]

In 2014, Reddit board member and YC president Sam Altman announced that Wong was leaving the company, after being unable to garner support for a proposal to move the Reddit office from San Francisco to Daly City.[13] Reportedly, Wong "stopped showing up at the office" when the board of directors ignored his proposal.[14] Wong, who thought newer employees would prefer to work in a less expensive area, stated that before the disagreement he had considered leaving due to an abundance of stress.[15]

Terraformation

In 2017, Wong founded Terraformation to combat climate change through reforestation.[16]

Personal life

Wong is a graduate of Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minnesota, and of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is married to Kimberly Algeri-Wong, who holds a Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting.[17]

Wong supported Barack Obama and spoke favorably about Obama's familiarity with the Internet.[18]

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/sk1ut/iam_yishan_wong_the_reddit_ceo/c4etsiv/?context=10000
  2. Web site: 2014-11-13. A new team at reddit. Sam Altman blog.
  3. Web site: 2014-11-13. Reddit CEO Wong resigns, co-founder Ohanian to return. Reuters.
  4. Web site: Wong. Yishan. New reddit CEO reporting for duty. Reddit. 2012-03-28. 2012-03-08.
  5. Web site: Longtime Facebook Engineer Yishan Wong Departs. 2010-03-24. TechCrunch.
  6. Web site: Ex-Googler and Ex-Facebooker Start Invite-Only Workspace Sunfire Offices. TechCrunch. 2010-08-28.
  7. Web site: Yishan Wong - SNIPPETS FROM SILICON VALLEY . https://web.archive.org/web/20110506031839/http://blogs.forbes.com/people/yishanwong/. dead. May 6, 2011 . Forbes. 28 March 2012. April 2011.
  8. Web site: Longtime Facebook Engineer Yishan Wong Departs. techcrunch.com. 24 March 2010 . 2022-10-19.
  9. Web site: Reddit's chief executive resigns, co-founder returns to helm. Los Angeles Times. 13 November 2014 . 2022-10-19.
  10. Web site: An interview with new Reddit CEO Yishan Wong. Erik. Kain. Forbes. 2012-04-09. 2015-09-14.
  11. Web site: New CEO: Some People on Reddit 'Shouldn't Be Here at All' . Re/Code . 14 Jul 2015.
  12. Web site: Reddit CEO resignation 'so weird it must be true'. Anthony. Cuthbertson. IB Times. 2014-11-14. 2015-09-14.
  13. Web site: Ex-Reddit CEO wanted to move the company to Daly City instead of SF. Greg. Kumparak. Tech Crunch. 2014-11-13. 2015-09-14.
  14. Web site: Ouellette . Jennifer . Book tells the inside story of how Reddit came to be the Internet's "id" . arstechnica.com . 30 December 2018 . Ars Technica . 31 December 2018.
  15. Web site: Reddit CEO Yishan Wong steps down, here's the real reason why. Menchie. Mendoza. Tech Times. 2014-11-14. 2015-09-14.
  16. Web site: 2021-04-25. Terraformation helping mitigate climate change through reforestation. 2021-06-11. West Hawaii Today. en-US.
  17. Web site: Things I learned from my wife's screenwriting education. Yishan. Wong. 2009-04-18. 2015-09-14.
  18. Web site: Stalking Reddit's new CEO Yishan Wong. Kevin. Morris. The Daily Dot. 2012-03-09. 2015-09-14.