Craig Newmark is best known as the founder of the classifieds ad site craigslist, which showed tens of millions of Americans that the Internet could be reasonably useful and easy to use. Now, he engages in full time philanthropy, focusing on helping and protecting the people who help and protect our country. That includes cybersecurity, trustworthy journalism, and support for military families and veterans. He was greatly influenced by his Sunday School teachers who had escaped the Holocaust, set his moral compass, and taught him to treat people like you want to be treated, and how to know when enough is enough. Craig might be #nerdpatient0, having worn plastic pocket protectors, thick black glasses, taped together, and being poorly socialized. He remains poorly socialized but can simulate social skills as needed. He originally intended to study Large Language Models like ChatGPT in the early seventies, but decided he wanted gainful employment, and went into software development. Since then, he’s worked at IBM, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, and worked at craigslist for about 25 years. He retired from craigslist customer service job some years ago. He ascribes any success to accidentally being in the right place at the right time, making him the Forrest Gump of the Internet.
