Press kit/Wikimedia People/Board members/Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales is an Internet entrepreneur and wiki enthusiast, and founder of the Wikipedia project. He serves on the Board of Trustees as the Chair, and speaks extensively about the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects all over the world.

Born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1966, Jimmy is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama. His early education was in his mother's private school program, after which he attended Randolph School, a preperatory school in his hometown. He earned a Bachelor's degree in <GET DEGREE> at Auburn University in <GET YEAR>, and his Master's in <GET DEGREE> in <GET YEAR> at the University of ALabama.

He taught at the University of Alabama and at Indiana University while also taking coursework toward a PhD, but left academia to pursue a career as Research Director at Chicago Options Associates in Chicago. He began an internet search portal as an entrepeneurial project, and as a part of this "retirement" project came up with the concept of a freely distributable encyclopedia which eventually developed into Wikipedia.

With Wikipedia being established in 2001, Jimmy was the lead cheerleader and shepherd of a completely new social construct, the massive online community. This new career has made him a media celebrity of a cause célèbre, completely unlike any of his previous endeavours. In 2003 he helped found the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., and has been traveling the world since speaking its behalf.