Who is Jack Dorsey

Jack Patrick Dorsey is the 43-year-old American CEO and co-founder of two vastly successful tech companies — Twitter and Square Inc. Since the launch of Twitter in 2006, it has gone on to become a widely known social media website, while Square is a small business payments company, which was founded in 2009 and was opened to the public in 2015.

 

In April 2020, with the onset of coronavirus pandemic across the world, the billionaire pledged to give away $1 billion - nearly 28% of his net worth - to Covid-19 relief, girls' education, and health, and universal basic income. According to Forbes, his current net worth stands at $6.9 billion. 

 

Just like many other Silicon Valley tech tycoons, Dorsey also dropped out while studying in New York State University to start his own company. In the 1980s, he forayed into the world of tech with a taxi dispatching software. Much later, his start-up started offering the dispatch software through the Internet. Soon after, the idea of Twitter crossed his mind.

 

Dorsey has found himself in several controversies over time. Recently, in May 2020, he locked horns with US President Donald Trump after Twitter started attaching fact-check warnings to President's tweets. In 2019, he faced a severe backlash in India over a picture of his with a placard reading "Smash Brahminical patriarchy". He was summoned by MPs, while several accused him of hate-mongering. 

 

In July 2020, the social media platform was hit by a widespread hack that targetted several high-profile accounts and offered bitcoin deals. Following the hack, Twitter shares tumbled 3.3 per cent, wiping out more than $1 billion from its market cap.