THE PHILANTHROPIC ARCHITECT OF NAPSTER AND MANY MORE OUTSTANDING VENTURES: SEAN PARKER

Atechnological mind with an entrepreneurial spirit, Sean Parker is best known for his wonderful creation –Napster, a global file-sharing service. He is also the president of the social networking site Facebook. His creation Napster allowed users to share music files with people across the world and became one of the most demanding and popular file-sharing platforms with time.

Early life and career

Born on 3rd December 1999 Sean was a student at Northeastern University. After attending high school at Oakton High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, Sean studied computer science further at Boston University where he learned about how to do business using innovative thoughts.

The journey of Napster

Parker co-founded Napster in 1999 and in no time the service attracted masses across the globe. He was known for his love for technology and was constantly involved in the development of several innovative products and services. Napster is a venture founded both by Parker and his teammate Shawn Fanning while both were studying at Northeastern University. They devised a program that allowed users to share MP3 copies of music stored on their personal computers over the internet. When this idea flickered, both of them thought of launching this as a company and thus Napster was born. It is still a wonder that the birth of Napster took place when Sean was just 19. It completely changed the world of music sharing at that time. Napster became one of the fastest-growing businesses of all time and a revolutionary sharing platform amongst others at that time. Parker is often credited with the name of the one who completely took the consuming music industry to newer heights.

The tech journey ahead

The journey didn’t end here. In 2004, he again co-founded an online address book- Plaxo, an online campaigning platform- Causes, a group video chat gap- Airtime.com and a civic technology platform – Brigade Media. Plaxo was a website that hosted a downloadable software app serving as an online address book for users to collect contact information. Parker was selected as the president of Facebook in 2004. He then joined Founders Fund, a venture capital firm co-founded by Thiel, in 2006 as a managing partner. Together, they founded Causes, an app for Facebook users to mobilize groups of people for advocacy and philanthropic donation purposes. Parker was also given a position on the board of Spotify to expand its services in the U.S. to challenge the dominance of Apple’s iTunes in the American digital market.

Parker played a key role in Facebook site development and helped it to become one of the most popular social networking sites, the world has ever known.

A face with a heart of gold

He is also known for his outstanding contribution towards many philanthropic activities. He has supported many educational programs, conservation of cultural ethics, etc through his creation, the Sean N. Parker Foundation. In 2013, he founded the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy which has accelerated the development of cancer treatment through collaboration with leading researchers and institutes. His foundation also focuses on life sciences, global public health and civic engagement.

Awards and recognition

According to TFP’s Advanced Research:

He was awarded the Oliver R. Grace Award in 2013 for distinguished service in Advancing Cancer Research. He figured in ‘Time’ Magazine Healthcare 50 for work in the cancer field. In 2018, he won the Kemp Leadership Award for his role in Opportunity Zones Program.

As per Forbes, his real-time net worth as of now is $2.8 billion.

Through the years, he has been voted onto various influential lists, including Vanity Fair’s New Establishment, Politico’s Politico 50, Forbes 100 Greatest Business Minds, Billboard’s Power 100, etc. he is also on the Obama Foundation’s Board of Directors, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board of Trustees and Global Citizen’s Board of Directors.