Mark Zuckerberg marries Priscilla Chan
A day after his company went public, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his Facebook status to “married.” Zuckerberg wed 27-year-old Priscilla Chan (his girlfriend of nearly a decade) in a surprise ceremony in Palo Alto.
The couple married at Zuckerberg’s California home in front of fewer than 100 stunned guests who thought they would be attending a party to celebrate Chan’s graduation from medical school.
Zuckerberg gave his new bride a ring he had designed with a “very simple ruby” to end an incredibly eventful week, according to a guest authorized to speak for the couple.
On Monday, Zuckerberg turned 28 and Chan graduated from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, where she studied pediatrics.
The seemingly well-coordinated timing was largely a coincidence – the guest said. The wedding had been planned for months and the couple was waiting for Chan to finish medical school, but the date of the IPO was a “moving target” not known when the wedding was set.
Attendees, including Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, were told after they arrived that they were not mere party guests, but actually wedding guests.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.
Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, California, home, capping a busy week for the couple.
Zuckerberg took his company public in one of the most anticipated stock offerings in Wall Street history Friday. And Chan graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, on Monday, the same day Zuckerberg turned 28.
The couple met at Harvard and have been together for more than nine years.
A company spokeswoman said Zuckerberg designed the ring featuring “a very simple ruby” that he designed himself.
The ceremony took place in Zuckerberg’s backyard before fewer than 100 guests, who all thought they were there to celebrate Chan’s graduation.
Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg remains Facebook’s single largest shareholder, with 503,6 million shares. And he controls the company with 56 percent of its voting stock.
The site, which was born in a dorm room eight years ago and has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people.
Zuckerberg founded Facebook at Harvard in 2004.
He was named as Time’s Person of the Year in 2010, at age 26.
Zuckerberg grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVSv_dDhgU
Zuckerberg met Chan at Harvard, where he founded Facebook in a dorm room in 2004, and have been together for more than nine years.
Chan’s own Facebook page, which now lists her as married to the founder, said she is a native of Braintree, Massachussets. and attended high school in nearby Quincy.
She graduated from Harvard in 2007 then taught science to fourth and fifth graders at the Harker School in San Jose for two years before starting medical school – according to her profile.
Her page also says she “loves cooking and soft things”.
Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg, who grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York remains Facebook’s single largest shareholder, with 503,6 million shares, and he controls the company with 56 per cent of its voting stock.
The site has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people and made its founder, Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2010, one of the most famous businessmen of the Internet age.