Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild (born February 28, 1954) is an American billionaire who co-founded several companies. He is the founding engineer and a large shareholder of Facebook. Despite his name, he is not a member of the Rothschild banking family.[1]
Jeffrey J. Rothschild | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild February 28, 1954 |
| Education | Vanderbilt University (BS, MS) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founding engineer, Facebook |
| Spouse | Marieke Rothschild |
| Children | 3 |
Early life
editRothschild is the son of Beverley and William B. Rothschild.[2] His father was president of M. Rothschild & Company, an importer of commodities from South East Asia founded by his grandfather, Marcus Rothschild.[2] He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University in 1977 and 1979, respectively.[3][4] He is of Jewish descent.[5]
He is not a member of the Rothschild family.[1]
Career
editRothschild worked as an engineer at Honeywell and Intel, and then for a consulting firm that worked on projects such as Locus Computing Corporation.[6] Rothschild co-founded Veritas Software in 1988.[1] He co-founded Mpath Interactive in 1995, which became a public company in 1999.[1]
Rothschild is listed as co-inventor on several MPath patents.[7][8] In 1999 he became an advisor and venture partner at the venture capital firm Accel Partners.[6]
In 2003, Rothschild co-founded Mendocino Software, with fellow former-Veritas executives Peter Levine and Steve Colman.[9][10] Mendocino shut down quietly by March 2008.[11][12]
Rothschild started working for Facebook in 2005.[1] He was the oldest person working for Facebook at the time.[1] He became Facebook's vice president of infrastructure software.[1] In 2012, he owned 18 million Facebook shares.[1]
Other activities
editRothschild serves as the vice chair of the board of trustees of his alma mater, Vanderbilt University.[13][14] With his wife, he endowed two scholarships in the School of Engineering and the College of Arts and Science in 2013, and he donated $20 million for the construction of two new buildings on campus, Vanderbilt Hall and Barnard Hall, in December 2016.[15]
Personal life
editRothschild and his wife Marieke have three children, and live in Palo Alto, California.[1] According to Forbes, Rothschild is worth about $2.9 billion as of May 2022.[16]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i Mac, Ryan (February 28, 2014). "Meet New Billionaire Jeff Rothschild, The Engineer Who Saved Facebook From Crashing". Forbes. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
Rothschild, who has no relation to the wealthy banking family of the same name, was known at the time for his deep knowledge of backend systems and technology that helped power websites.
- ^ a b New York Times: "WILLIAM ROTHSCHILD Obituary" December 1, 2015
- ^ Engineering alumnus elected to Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust, Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, May 1, 2014
- ^ Jeffrey J. Rothschild, Bloomberg Business
- ^ "The World's Jewish Billionaires". Forbes Israel. February 2, 2023.
- ^ a b "Jeff Rothschild". Team profile. Accel Partners. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ Daniel Joseph Samuel; Marc Peter Kwiatkowski; Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild (July 18, 1997). "Server-group messaging system for interactive applications". US Patent US6018766 A. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild; et al. (March 6, 1997). "Online gaming architecture". US Patent US 6152824 A. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "Form D: Notice of Sale of Securities" (PDF). June 24, 2004. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "Mendocino Software raises $15 million". San Francisco Business Times. March 30, 2004. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ Jerome M. Wendt (February 11, 2008). ""No Comment" from HP; No Callback From Mendocino Software". DCIG blog. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ Dave Raffo (February 11, 2008). "Mendocino Software, R.I.P." Search Storage. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "Vanderbilt taps board chair, vice chair". The Nashville Post. April 22, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ Vanderbilt University Board of Trust: Members
- ^ Tamburin, Adam (December 29, 2016). "Former Facebook exec donates $20 million to Vanderbilt". The Tennessean. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
- ^ "Forbes Profile: Jeff Rothschild". Forbes. Retrieved May 20, 2022.