Yishan Wong (Chinese: 黃易山; pinyin: Huáng Yìshān) 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]
Yishan Wong | |
|---|---|
 Yishan Wong (2019) | |
| Born | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States[1] |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Occupation | Co-founder of Sunfire Offices |
| Years active | 2001-present |
| Known for | Former CEO of Reddit |
| Spouse | Kimberly Algeri-Wong |
| Website | algeri-wong.com |
| Yishan Wong | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 黃易山 | ||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Huáng Yìshān | ||||||
| |||||||
Career
editPayPal and Facebook
editWong 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
editAfter 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
editIn 2020, Wong founded Terraformation to combat global warming through reforestation.[16]
Personal life
editWong 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]
References
edit- ^ "I was born in Pittsb…". 21 April 2012.
- ^ "A new team at reddit". Sam Altman blog. 2014-11-13.
- ^ "Reddit CEO Wong resigns, co-founder Ohanian to return". Reuters. 2014-11-13.
- ^ Wong, Yishan (2012-03-08). "New reddit CEO reporting for duty". Reddit. Retrieved 2012-03-28.
- ^ "Longtime Facebook Engineer Yishan Wong Departs". TechCrunch. 2010-03-24.
- ^ "Ex-Googler and Ex-Facebooker Start Invite-Only Workspace Sunfire Offices". TechCrunch. 2010-08-28.
- ^ "Yishan Wong - SNIPPETS FROM SILICON VALLEY". Forbes. April 2011. Archived from the original on May 6, 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
- ^ "Longtime Facebook Engineer Yishan Wong Departs". techcrunch.com. 24 March 2010. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ "Reddit's chief executive resigns, co-founder returns to helm". Los Angeles Times. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Kain, Erik (2012-04-09). "An interview with new Reddit CEO Yishan Wong". Forbes. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
- ^ "New CEO: Some People on Reddit 'Shouldn't Be Here at All'". Re/Code. 14 Jul 2015.
- ^ Cuthbertson, Anthony (2014-11-14). "Reddit CEO resignation 'so weird it must be true'". IB Times. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
- ^ Kumparak, Greg (2014-11-13). "Ex-Reddit CEO wanted to move the company to Daly City instead of SF". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
- ^ Ouellette, Jennifer (30 December 2018). "Book tells the inside story of how Reddit came to be the Internet's "id"". arstechnica.com. Ars Technica. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
- ^ Mendoza, Menchie (2014-11-14). "Reddit CEO Yishan Wong steps down, here's the real reason why". Tech Times. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
- ^ "Terraformation helping mitigate climate change through reforestation". West Hawaii Today. 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
- ^ Wong, Yishan (2009-04-18). "Things I learned from my wife's screenwriting education". Retrieved 2015-09-14.
- ^ Morris, Kevin (2012-03-09). "Stalking Reddit's new CEO Yishan Wong". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2015-09-14.