Pichai Sundararajan (born 12 July 1972), also known as Sundar Pichai, is an Indian American business executive.

Pichai is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Google Inc. Formerly the Product Chief of Google, Pichai's current role was announced on 10 August 2015, as part of the restructuring process that made Alphabet Inc. into Google's parent company, and he assumed the position on 2 October 2015.

Early life and education

Pichai was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu , India, in a Tamil Brahmin family to Lakshmi and Ragunatha Pichai. Sundar grew up in a two-room apartment on 46th Street, 7th Avenue, in Ashok Nagar, Chennai.

Sundar comNavodaya Vidyalaya, Ashok Nagar Chennai and completed the Class XII from Vana Vani school located in the IIT, Chennai. Pichai earned his degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in Metallurgical Engineering. He holds an M.S. from Stanford University in Material Sciences and Engineering and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, respectively.

Career

Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.

Pichai joined Google in 2004, where he led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google's client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive. He went on to oversee the development of different applications (apps) such as Gmail and Google Maps. On 19 November 2009, Pichai gave a demonstration of Chrome OS and the Chromebook was released for trial and testing in 2011, and released to the public in 2012. On 20 May 2010, he announced the open-sourcing of the new video codec VP8 by Google, and introduced the new video format, WebM.

On 13 March 2013, Pichai added Android to the list of Google products, which he oversees. Android was formerly managed by Andy Rubin. He was a director of Jive Software from April 2011 to 30 July 2013. Pichai was selected to become the next CEO of Google on 10 August 2015 after previously being appointed Product Chief by CEO, Larry Page. On 24 October 2015, he stepped into the new position at the completion of the formation of Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google company family.

Pichai had been suggested as a contender for Microsoft's CEO in 2014, a position that was eventually given to Satya Nadella.

Personal life

Pichai is married, has two children, and lives in Los Altos Hills, in a home designed by Robert Swatt of Swatt Miers. Pichai's interests include soccer and cricket. He is an avid fan of Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona, and he states that "he watches every game of the club."

References

External links

• Sundar Pichai on Twitter
• Sundar Pichai's rise to fame in 90 seconds

Learn more »

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies.

Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. At the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label.

In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for "services to entrepreneurship". For his work in retail, music and transport (with interests in land, air, sea and space travel), his taste for adventure, and for his humanitarian work, he became one of the most prominent figures in British culture. In 2002 he was named in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In January 2016, Forbes listed Branson's estimated net worth at $5.2 billion.

Early life

Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson (née Evette Huntley Flindt; born 1924), a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson (1918â€"2011), a barrister. Branson has two younger sisters. His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Berkshire, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex. His third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793. His father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined him in Madras. On the show Finding Your Roots, Branson was shown to have 3.9% South Asian (Indian) DNA, likely through intermarriage. Branson attended Stowe School, an independent school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance; on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson, told him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. Branson's parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age. Branson's mother was an entrepreneur. One of her most successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins.

Career

Record business

Branson started his record business from a church where he ran Student magazine. Branson interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s for the magazine including Mick Jagger and R. D. Laing. Branson advertised popular records in The Student and it was an overnight success. Trading under the name "Virgin", he sold records for considerably less than the "High Street" outlets, especially the chain W. H. Smith. Branson once said, "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration." The name "Virgin" was suggested by one of Branson's early employees because they were all new at business. At the time, many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, despite efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to limit so-called resale price maintenance.

Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1971, Branson was questioned in connection with the selling of records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock. The matter was never brought before a court because Branson agreed to repay any unpaid tax and a fine. Branson's mother, Eve, re-mortgaged the family home to help pay the settlement.

Earning enough money from his record store, Branson in 1972 launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell and bought a country estate north of Oxford, in which he installed a residential recording studio, The Manor Studio. He leased out studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, whose debut album Tubular Bells (1973) was the first release for Virgin Records and became a chart-topping best-seller.

Virgin signed such controversial bands as the Sex Pistols, which other companies were reluctant to sign. Virgin Records would go on to sign other artists including the Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, UB40, Steve Winwood and Paula Abdul and allow it to become the world's largest independent record label. It also won praise for exposing the public to such obscure avant-garde music as Faust and Can. Virgin Records also introduced Culture Club to the music world. In 1982, Virgin purchased the gay nightclub Heaven. In 1991, in a consortium with David Frost, Branson made an unsuccessful bid for three ITV franchisees under the CPV-TV name. The early 1980s also saw his only attempt as a producerâ€"on the novelty record, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", by Singing Sheep in association with Doug McLean and Grace McDonald. The recording was a series of sheep baa-ing along to a drum-machine-produced track and reached number 42 in the UK charts in 1982.

In 1992, to keep his airline company afloat, Branson sold the Virgin label to EMI for £500 million. Branson said that he wept when the sale was completed because the record business had been the very start of the Virgin empire. In 1996 he created V2 Records to re-enter the music business, owning 5% himself.

Business ventures

Branson formed Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984, launched Virgin Mobile in 1999, and Virgin Blue in Australia (now named Virgin Australia) in 2000. He was ninth in The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 of the wealthiest people or families in the UK, worth slightly more than £3 billion. Branson wrote in his autobiography of the decision to start an airline:

"My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them ... from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it."

Branson's first successful entry into the airline industry was during a trip to Puerto Rico. His flight was cancelled, so he decided to charter his own plane the rest of the way and offer a ride to the rest of the stranded passengers for a small fee in order to cover the cost.

In 1993, Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business. Virgin Trains won the franchises for the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country sectors of British Rail.

Virgin acquired European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines in 1996 and renamed it Virgin Express. In 2006, the airline was merged with SN Brussels Airlines forming Brussels Airlines. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria. Another airline, Virgin America, began flying out of San Francisco International Airport in August 2007.

A series of disputes in the early 1990s caused tension between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, which viewed Virgin as an emerging competitor. Virgin subsequently accused British Airways of poaching its passengers, hacking its computers, and leaking stories to the press that portrayed Virgin negatively. After the so-called campaign of "dirty tricks", British Airways settled the case, giving £500,000 to Branson, a further £110,000 to his airline, and had to pay legal fees of up to £3 million. Branson distributed his compensation (the so-called "BA bonus") among his staff.

On 25 September 2004, Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship Oneâ€"funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by legendary American aeronautical engineer and visionary Burt Rutanâ€"to take paying passengers into suborbital space. Virgin Galactic (wholly owned by Virgin Group) plans to make flights available to the public with tickets priced at US$200,000 using Scaled Composites White Knight Two. At the time, Branson said that he planned to take his two children, 31-year-old Holly and 28-year-old Sam, on a trip to outer space when they ride the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane on its first public flight then planned for 2014. As part of his promotion of the firm, Branson has added a variation of the Virgin Galactic livery to his personal business jet, the Dassault Falcon 900EX "Galactic Girl" (G-GALX).

Branson's next venture with the Virgin group is Virgin Fuels, which is set to respond to global warming and exploit the recent spike in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and, in the near future, aircraft. Branson has stated that he was formerly a global warming sceptic and was influenced in his decision by a breakfast meeting with Al Gore.

On 21 September 2006, Branson pledged to invest the profits of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains in research for environmentally friendly fuels. The investment is estimated to be worth $3 billion.

On 4 July 2006, Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to UK cable TV, broadband, and telephone company NTL/NTL:Telewest for almost £1 billion. A new company was launched with much fanfare and publicity on 8 February 2007, under the name Virgin Media. The decision to merge his Virgin Media Company with NTL was to integrate both of the companies' compatible parts of commerce. Branson used to own three-quarters of Virgin Mobile, whereas now he owns 15 percent of the new Virgin Media company.

In 2006, Branson formed Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience. The company was founded with author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra. Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity to store their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem-cell banks.

In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led both UK and US competition authorities to investigate price-fixing attempts between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. In August 2007, British Airways was fined £271 million over the allegations. Virgin Atlantic was given immunity for tipping off the authorities and received no fineâ€"a controversial decision the Office of Fair Trading defended as being in the public interest.

On 9 February 2007, Branson announced the setting up of a new global science and technology prizeâ€"The Virgin Earth Challengeâ€"in the belief that history has shown that prizes of this nature encourage technological advancements for the good of mankind. The Virgin Earth Challenge will award $25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design that will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects. This removal must have long-term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth's climate. Branson also announced that he would be joined in the adjudication of the prize by a panel of five judges, all world authorities in their respective fields: Al Gore, Sir Crispin Tickell, Tim Flannery, James E. Hansen, and James Lovelock.

In July 2007, Branson purchased his Australian home, Makepeace Island, in Noosa. In August 2007, Branson announced that he bought a 20-percent stake in Malaysia's AirAsia X.

On 13 October 2007, Branson's Virgin Group sought to add Northern Rock to its empire after submitting an offer that would result in Branson personally owning 30% of the company and changing the company's name from Northern Rock to Virgin Money. The Daily Mail ran a campaign against his bid and Vince Cable, financial spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, suggested in the House of Commons that Branson's criminal conviction for tax evasion might be felt by some as a good enough reason not to trust him with public money.

On 10 January 2008, Branson's Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open a chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies, a development that was welcomed by Ben Bradshaw, the UK's health minister.

Plans where GPs could be paid for referring National Health Service (NHS) patients to private Virgin services were abandoned in June 2008. The BMA warned the plan would "damage clinical objectivity", there would be a financial incentive for GPs to push patients toward the Virgin services at the centre. Plans to take over an NHS Practice in Swindon were abandoned in late September 2008.

In February 2009, Branson's Virgin organisation was reported as bidding to buy the former Honda Formula One team. Branson later stated an interest in Formula One, but claimed that, before the Virgin brand became involved with Honda or any other team, Formula One would have to develop a more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image. At the start of the 2009 formula one season on 28 March, it was announced that Virgin would be sponsoring the new Brawn GP team, with discussions also under way about introducing a less "dirty" fuel in the medium term. After the end of the season and the subsequent purchase of Brawn GP by Mercedes Benz, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix, with the team being renamed Virgin Racing.

Branson and Tony Fernandes, owner of Air Asia and Lotus F1 Racing, had a bet for the 2010 F1 season where the team's boss should work on the winner's airline during a charity flight dressed as a stewardess. Fernandes escaped as the winner of the bet, as Lotus Racing ended tenth in the championship, while Virgin Racing ended twelfth and last. Branson kept his word after losing the bet, as he served his duty as a stewardess on an Air Asia flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur on 12 May 2013.

In 2010, Branson became patron of the UK's Gordon Bennett 2010 gas balloon race, which has 16 hydrogen balloons flying across Europe. In April 2010, Branson described the closure of large parts of European airspace owing to volcanic ash as "beyond a joke". Some scientists later concluded that serious structural damage to aircraft could have occurred if passenger planes had continued to fly.

In April 2012 Virgin Care commenced a five-year contract for provision of a range of health services which had previously been under the aegis of NHS Surrey, the local primary care trust. By March 2015 Virgin Care was in charge of over 230 services nationwide.

In July 2012, Branson announced plans to build an orbital space launch system, designated LauncherOne. Four commercial customers have already contracted for launches and two companies are developing standardised satellite buses optimised to the design of LauncherOne, in expectation of business opportunities created by the new smallsat launcher.

In August 2012, the franchise for the West Coast Main Line, managed by Virgin Rail since 1997, came to an end. The contract was awarded to FirstGroup after a competitive tender process overseen by the Department for Transport. Branson had expressed his concerns about the tender process and questioned the validity of the business plan submitted by FirstGroup. When Virgin Rail lost the contract, Branson said he was convinced the civil servants had "got their maths wrong". In October, after an investigation into the bidding process, the deal was scrapped. The Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced there were "significant technical flaws" in the process and mistakes had been made by transport staff. Virgin Rail continues to operate the West Coast line.

In September 2014, Branson announced his investment in drone company 3D Robotics stating, "It's amazing to see what a little flying object with a GoPro attached can do. Before they came along the alternative was an expensive helicopter and crew. I'm really excited about the potential 3D Robotics sees in drones. They can do a lot of good in the world, and I hope this affordable technology will give many more people the chance to see our beautiful planet from such a powerful perspective."

In November 2015, Branson announced the addition of Moskito Island to the Virgin Limited Edition portfolio. This resort, The Branson Estate on Moskito Island, offers 11 bedrooms for 22 guests.

Branson has been involved in many failed business ventures, such as Virgin Cola, Virgin Cars, Virgin Clothing and Virgin Brides.

Tax

Branson's business empire is owned by a complicated series of offshore trusts and companies. The Sunday Times stated that his wealth is calculated at £3 billion; if he were to retire to his Caribbean island and liquidate all of this, he would pay relatively little in tax. Branson has been criticised for his business strategy, and has been accused of being a carpetbagger. Branson responded that he is living on Necker for health rather than tax reasons.

SeaWorld

Branson has been criticised by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation organisation for profiting from selling trips to SeaWorld and similar themed parks that hold dolphins, whales and other sea life in captivity for entertainment purposes.

World record attempts

Branson made several world record-breaking attempts after 1985, when in the spirit of the Blue Riband he attempted the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing. His first attempt in the "Virgin Atlantic Challenger" led to the boat capsizing in British waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter, which received wide media coverage. Some newspapers called for Branson to reimburse the government for the rescue cost. In 1986, in his "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II", with sailing expert Daniel McCarthy, he beat the record by two hours. A year later his hot air balloon "Virgin Atlantic Flyer" crossed the Atlantic.

In January 1991, Branson crossed the Pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada, 6,700 miles (10,800 km), in a balloon of 2,600,000 cubic feet (74,000 m³). This broke the record, with a speed of 245 miles per hour (394 km/h).

Between 1995 and 1998 Branson, Per Lindstrand, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Larry Newman, and Steve Fossett made attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In late 1998 they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter 3 in March 1999.

In March 2004, Branson set a record by travelling from Dover to Calais in a Gibbs Aquada in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds, the fastest crossing of the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle. The previous record of six hours was set by two Frenchmen. The cast of Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, attempted to break this record in an amphibious vehicle which they had constructed and, while successfully crossing the channel, did not break Branson's record. After being intercepted by the Coast Guard and asked what their intentions were, Clarkson remarked "..our intentions are to go across the Channel faster than 'Beardy' Branson!". The Coast Guard wished them good luck and left.

In September 2008, Branson and his children made an unsuccessful attempt at an eastbound record crossing of the Atlantic Ocean under sail in the 99 feet (30 m) sloop Virgin Money. The boat, also known as Speedboat, is owned by NYYC member Alex Jackson, who was a co-skipper on this passage, with Branson and Mike Sanderson. After two days, four hours, winds of force 7 to 9 (strong gale), and seas of 40 feet (12 m), a 'monster wave' destroyed the spinnaker, washed a ten-man life raft overboard and severely ripped the mainsail. She eventually continued to St. George's, Bermuda.

Television, film and print

Branson has guest starred, usually playing himself, on several television shows, including Friends, Baywatch, Birds of a Feather, Only Fools and Horses, The Day Today, a special episode of the comedy Goodness Gracious Me and Tripping Over. Branson made several appearances during the nineties on the BBC Saturday morning show Live & Kicking, where he was referred to as 'the pickle man' by comedy act Trev and Simon (in reference to Branston Pickle). Branson also appears in a cameo early in XTC's "Generals and Majors" video. He was also the star of a reality television show on Fox called The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best (2004), in which sixteen contestants were tested for their entrepreneurship and sense of adventure. It did not succeed as a rival show to Donald Trump's The Apprentice and only lasted one season. According to Trump, Branson's "show was terrible. And I thought he was terribly mi scast. He’s a lot of hot air, like his balloons".

His high public profile often leaves him open as a figure of satireâ€"the 2000 AD series Zenith features a parody of Branson as a super villain, as the comic's publisher and favoured distributor and the Virgin group were in competition at the time. He is also caricatured in The Simpsons episode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" as the tycoon Arthur Fortune, as the ballooning megalomaniac Richard Chutney (a pun on Branson, as in Branston Pickle) in Believe Nothing, and voiced himself in "The Princess Guide". The character Grandson Richard 39 in Terry Pratchett's Wings is modelled on Branson.

He has a cameo appearance in several films: Around the World in 80 Days (2004), where he played a hot-air balloon operator, and Superman Returns (2006), where he was credited as a 'Shuttle Engineer' and appeared alongside his son, Sam, with a Virgin Galactic-style commercial suborbital shuttle at the centre of his storyline. He also has a cameo in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006). Here, he is seen as a passenger going through Miami Airport security check-in and being frisked â€" several Virgin Atlantic planes appear soon after. British Airways edited out Branson's cameo in their in-flight screening of the movie. He makes a number of brief and disjointed appearances in the documentary Derek and Clive Get the Horn (1979) which follows the exploits of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore recording their final comedy album. Branson and his mother were also featured in the documentary film, Lemonade Stories. In early 2006 on Rove Live, Rove McMa nus and Sir Richard pushed each other into a swimming pool fully clothed live on TV during a "Live at your house" episode.

Branson is a Star Trek fan and named his new spaceship VSS Enterprise in honour of the Star Trek spaceships, and in 2006, reportedly offered actor William Shatner a ride on the inaugural space launch of Virgin Galactic. In an interview in Time magazine, 10 August 2009, Shatner claimed that Branson approached him asking how much he would pay for a ride on the spaceship. In response, Shatner asked "how much would you pay me to do it?"

In August 2007, Branson announced on The Colbert Report that he had named a new aircraft Air Colbert. He later doused political satirist and talk show host Stephen Colbert with water from his mug. Branson subsequently took a retaliatory splash from Colbert. The interview quickly ended, with both laughing as shown on the episode aired on Comedy Central on 22 August 2007. The interview was promoted on The Report as the Colbert-Branson Interview Trainwreck. Branson then made a cameo appearance on The Soup playing an intern working under Joel McHale who had been warned against getting into water fights with Stephen Colbert, and being subsequently fired.

In March 2008, he launched Virgin Mobile in India and during that period, he even played a cameo performance in Bollywood film, London Dreams. In July 2010, Branson narrated Australian sailor Jessica Watson's documentary about her solo sailing trip around the world.

In April 2011, Branson appeared on CNN's Mainsail with Kate Winslet. Together they re-enacted a famous scene from the 1997 film Titanic for the cameras. On 17 August 2011, he was featured in the premier episode of Hulu's first long-form original production entitled, A Day in the Life.

At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards on ITV on 30 October, Branson, along with Michael Caine, Elton John, Simon Cowell and Stephen Fry, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "Ifâ€"" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes.

Humanitarian initiatives

In the late 1990s, Branson and musician Peter Gabriel discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small group of leaders working to solve difficult global conflicts. On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mandela announced the formation of a new group, The Elders. Kofi Annan serves as Chair of The Elders and Gro Harlem Brundtland as Deputy Chair. The Elders is funded by a group of donors, including Branson and Gabriel.

In 1999, Branson became a founding sponsor of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children ("ICMEC"), the goal of which is to help find missing children, and to stop the exploitation of children, as his mother Eve became a founding member of ICMEC's Board of Directors.

Through the Carbon War Room, founded in 2009, the entrepreneur is seeking solutions for global warming and the energy crisis. "We all have a part to play, but I believe entrepreneurs will have a really significant role to play in bringing investment and commercial skills to help develop the new technologies needed to grow a post-carbon economy," he says in his interview with Vision. Through Carbon War Room initiative he is focusing its efforts on finding sustainable alternatives for three industry sectors: shipping, energy efficiency and aviation and renewable jet fuels.

He also launched Virgin Startup, an official delivery partner for the UK's Start Up Loans programme. Through this new organisation, he will provide loans to entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 30 UK-wide. A pilot of the scheme, which ran over 11 months, injected £600,000 into 100 businesses.

Branson's other work in South Africa includes the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, set up in 2005 as a partnership between Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of Virgin, and entrepreneur Taddy Blecher, the founder of CIDA City Campus, a university in Johannesburg. The school aims to improve economic growth in South Africa by supporting start-ups and micro-enterprises with skills, mentors, services, networks and finance arrangements. Fundraising activity to support the school is achieved by The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, sponsored by Virgin Group, at its yearly event, where places to join Richard Branson on trips to South Africa to provide coaching and mentoring to students are auctioned to attendees. In 2009, Jason Luckhurst and Boyd Kershaw of Practicus, Martin Ainscough of the Ainscough Group and Matthew Riley of Daisy Communications helped raise £150,000 through the auction.

In March 2008, Branson hosted an environmental gathering at his private island, Necker Island, in the Caribbean with several prominent entrepreneurs, celebrities, and world leaders. They discussed global warming-related problems facing the world, hoping that the meeting would be a precursor to future discussions regarding similar problems. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and Larry Page of Google were in attendance.

On 8 May 2009, Branson took over Mia Farrow's hunger strike for three days in protest of the Sudanese government expulsion of aid groups from the Darfur region. In 2010, he and the Nduna Foundation (founded by Amy Robbins), and Humanity United (an organization backed by Pam Omidyar, the wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar) founded Enterprise Zimbabwe.

Branson is a signatory of Global Zero campaign, a non-profit international initiative for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide. Since its launch in Paris in December 2008, Global Zero has grown to 300 leaders, including current and former heads of state, national security officials and military commanders, and 400,000 citizens worldwide; developed a practical step-by-step plan to eliminate nuclear weapons; launched an international student campaign with 75 campus chapters in eight countries; and produced a documentary film, Countdown to Zero, in partnership with Lawrence Bender and Participant Media.

Since 2010, Branson has served as a Commissioner on the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a UN initiative which promotes universal access to broadband services. In 2011, Branson served on the Global Commission on Drug Policy with former political and cultural leaders of Latin America and elsewhere, "in a bid to boost the effort to achieve more humane and rational drug laws."

In December 2013, Branson urged companies to boycott Uganda because of its "anti-homosexuality bill". Branson stated that it would be "against my conscience to support this country...governments must realize that people should be able to love whoever they want."

In 2014, Branson joined forces with African Wildlife Foundation and partner WildAid for the "Say No" Campaign, an initiative to bring public awareness to the issues of wildlife poaching and trafficking.

Branson is an opponent of the death penalty, stating: "the death penalty is always cruel, barbaric and inhumane. It has no place in the world." The U.S. is one of the few countries that practice the death penalty in 2015, and on 30 September 2015 Branson released a letter in support of American inmate Richard Glossip on the day he was due to be executed, buying an ad in The Oklahoman newspaper which had advocated the execution. Branson stated the evidence against Glossip is flawed and that "every person is deserving of a fair trial", adding: "Your state is about to execute a man whose guilt has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

Climate change pledge

In 2006, Branson made a high-profile pledge to invest $3 billion toward addressing global warming over the course of the following decade. However, author and activist Naomi Klein has criticised Branson for contributing "well under $300 million" as of 2014, far below the originally stated goal. Additionally, Klein says Virgin airlines' greenhouse gas emissions increased considerably in the years following his pledge.

Politics

In the 1980s, Branson was briefly given the post of "litter Tsar" by Margaret Thatcherâ€"charged with "keeping Britain tidy". In 2005 he declared that there were only negligible differences between the two main parties on economic matters. He was suggested as a candidate for Mayor of London before the first 2000 election, with polls indicating he would be a viable candidate, but he did not express interest.

Branson has supported continuing British membership of the European Union and was opposed to the 2016 referendum. On 28 June 2016, interviewed for ITV's Good Morning Britain, he said that his company had lost a third of its value as a result of the referendum result and that a planned venture, employing over 3,000 people, which he had announced before the referendum, had been shelved. He gave his backing for a second referendum.

Honours and awards

In 1993, Branson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Technology from Loughborough University.

In the New Years Honours list dated 30 December 1999, Elizabeth II signified her intention to confer the honour of Knight Bachelor on him for his "services to entrepreneurship". He was knighted by Charles, Prince of Wales on 30 March 2000 at an investiture in Buckingham Palace. Also in 2000, Branson received the Tony Jannus Award for his accomplishments in commercial air transportation.

Branson appears at No. 85 on the 2002 list of 100 Greatest Britons on the BBC and voted for by the public. Branson was also ranked in 2007's Time magazine "Top 100 Most Influential People in the World". On 7 December 2007, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon presented Branson with the United Nations Correspondents Association Citizen of the World Award for his support for environmental and humanitarian causes.

In 2009, Branson was voted the UK's "Celebrity Dream Boss" in an opinion poll by Cancer Research UK. On 24 January 2011, Branson was awarded the German Media Prize (organised by "Media Control Charts"), previously handed to former US president Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama. On 14 November 2011, Branson was awarded the ISTA Prize by the International Space Transport Association in The Hague for his pioneering achievements in the development of suborbital transport systems with "Virgin Galactic". On 11 February 2012, Branson was honoured with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' President's Merit Award for his contributions to the music industry.

On 2 June 2013, Branson received an honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from Kaunas Technology University in Kaunas, Lithuania. On 15 May 2014, Branson received the 2014 Business for Peace Award, awarded annually by the Business for Peace Foundation in Oslo, Norway.

On 21 September 2014, Branson was recognized by The Sunday Times as the most admired business person over the last five decades. On 9 October 2014, Branson was named as the No. 1 LGBT ally by the OUTstanding organisation. On 29 October 2015, Branson was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 1 in the list of 100 Most Influential British Entrepreneurs. In October 2015, Branson received the International Crisis Group Chairman's Award at the United Nations Development Programme's In Pursuit of Peace Awards Dinner.

Personal life

Branson married Kristen Tomassi in 1972 and divorced her in 1979. He remarried in 1989, at Necker Island, a 74-acre (30 ha) island owned by Branson in the British Virgin Islands. He had a daughter named Holly and a son named Sam with his second wife, Joan Templeman. He stated in an interview with Piers Morgan that he and Joan also had a daughter named Clare Sarah, who died when she was just four days old in 1989.

In 1998, Branson released his autobiography, titled Losing My Virginity, an international best-seller. Branson was deeply saddened by the disappearance of fellow adventurer Steve Fossett in September 2007; the following month he wrote an article for Time magazine, titled "My Friend, Steve Fossett".

In 2013 Branson became President of the Old Stoic Society of Stowe School. In March 2015 Branson said that almost all drug use should be decriminalised in the UK, following the example of Portugal.

Branson was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church Monastery. Branson is also an experienced kitesurfer, holding some world records in the sport. In August 2016 Branson was injured while riding his bicycle in the British Virgin Islands and suffered torn ligaments and a cracked cheek as a result. He was taken to hospital in Miami for X-rays and scans.

Informal dress code

Branson is known for his preference of casual clothing both at home and the workplace. On his dislike of ties, he says "I have been carrying out a lifelong campaign to say bye to the tie. I often carry a pair of scissors with me, ready to cut off the tie of any unsuspecting wearer. I even have a cushion on Necker Island made up of some of my victims! I remain convinced that ties only exist because managers, after spending years being forced to wear ties by their bosses, decide to force the next generation to do the same. They subtly encourage conformity. Most people in business dress the same and that contributes to them acting the same. Wearing a tie really can restrict new ideas and innovative thoughts â€" not to mention breath!"

Influences

Branson has stated in a number of interviews that he has been much influenced by non-fiction books. He most commonly mentions Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, explaining that Mandela was "one of the most inspiring men I have ever met and had the honour to call my friend." Owing to his interest in humanitarian and ecological issues, Branson also lists Al Gore's best-selling book, An Inconvenient Truth, and The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock amongst his favourites. According to Branson's book, Screw It, Let's do It. Lessons in Life, he is also a huge fan of works by Jung Chang. In fiction, Branson has long admired the character Peter Pan, and in 2006 he founded Virgin Comics LLC, stating that Virgin Comics will give "a whole generation of young, creative thinkers a voice."

Bibliography

• Branson, Richard (1998). Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-81296-714-2. 
• Branson, Richard (2006). Screw It, Let's Do It. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-1149-7. 
• Branson, Richard (2008). Business Stripped Bare. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-1503-7. 
• Branson, Richard (2010). Reach for the Skies: Ballooning, Birdmen and Blasting Into Space. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-905264-91-9. 
• Branson, Richard (2011). Screw Business as Usual. Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59184-434-1. 
• Branson, Richard (2013). Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won't Teach You at Business School. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-75351-992-9. 
• Branson, Richard (2014). The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-90526-490-2. 

References

External links

• Richard Branson on Twitter
• Branson's blog on virgin.com
• Richard Branson at TED
• Richard Branson interview on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, 9 June 1990

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Mary Teresa Barra (née Makela, born December 24, 1961) is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the General Motors Company. She has held the CEO position since January 15, 2014, and she is the first female CEO of a major global automaker. On December 10, 2013, GM named her to succeed Dan Akerson as Chief Executive Officer, and prior to that, Barra served as the Executive Vice President of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain at General Motors.

In April 2014, Barra was featured on the cover of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World."

Early life and education

Barra's father, Ray Makela, worked as a die maker at Pontiac for 39 years. Mary attended Waterford schools in Waterford, Michigan. She is a graduate of Waterford Mott High School.

Barra graduated from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. She then attended Stanford Graduate School of Business on a GM fellowship, receiving her Masters in Business Administration degree in 1990.

Career

Barra started working for General Motors at the age of 18 as a co-op student in 1980 and subsequently held a variety of engineering and administrative positions, including being manager of the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant.

In February 2008, she became Vice President of Global Manufacturing Engineering. In July 2009 she advanced to the position of Vice President of Global Human Resources, which she held until February 2011, when she was named Executive Vice President of Global Product Development. The latter position included responsibilities for design; she has worked to reduce the number of automobile platforms in GM. In August 2013, her Vice President responsibility was extended to include Global Purchasing and Supply Chain.

In December 2013, Barra was named to replace outgoing CEO Dan Akerson, and assumed the position of CEO in January 2014. During her first year as CEO, General Motors was forced to issue 84 safety recalls involving over 30 million cars. Barra was called before the Senate to testify about the recalls and deaths attributed to the faulty ignition switch. Barra and General Motors also came under suspicion of paying for awards to burnish the CEO and corporation's image during that time.

Awards and honors

Barra was listed as one of the world's most powerful women by Forbes, for the third time, in 2014. She was listed seventh, rising from 35th in 2013.

On May 3, 2014 she delivered the Spring Commencement address for University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus at Michigan Stadium. She received an honorary degree.

Barra was listed number 1 in Fortune's Most Powerful Women list in 2015, moving from 2nd place the year before.

Personal life

Barra's parents are of Finnish descent. She is married to consultant Tony Barra, whom she met while studying at Kettering University, and has two children. The family lives in Northville, a suburb of Detroit. She has named the Chevrolet Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird as her favorite cars.

References

External links

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Masayoshi Son (Japanese: 孫 正義, Hepburn: Son Masayoshi, Korean: 손정의 Son Jeong-ui; born August 11, 1957) is a Korean-descendant (Zainichi Korean) Japanese businessman and the founder and current chief executive officer of SoftBank, the chief executive officer of SoftBank Mobile, and current chairman of Sprint Corporation. According to Forbes magazine, Son's estimated net worth is US $17 billion and he is the second-richest man in Japan, despite having the distinction of losing the most money in history (approximately $70bn during the dot com crash of 2000). Forbes also describes him as a philanthropist.

Son was named the world's 45th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People in 2013.

Background

His ancestors are from the province of Fujian (China) but then, they moved from China to Korea. He explained in an interview that his family name "Son" is different from the korean one from the korean ethnic group. After Korean media wrote articles about him being of korean ethnicity, he clarified he is a descendant of Sun Wu, a famous chinese strategist during the period of Spring and Autumn and Warring state period. His ancestors then moved from Korea to Japan.

Son's family adopted the Japanese surname Yasumoto (安本) in daily life and Son used this surname as a child. Son pursued his interests in business by securing a meeting with Japan McDonald's president Den Fujita. Taking his advice, Son began studying English and computer science.

At age 16, Son moved to California and finished high school while staying with friends and family in South San Francisco. After spending two years at Holy Names University, he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, at which he majored in economics and studied computer science. Enamored of a microchip featured in a magazine, Son at age 19 became confident that computer technology would ignite the next commercial revolution.

Convinced that anything related to microchips could yield a fortune, Son decided to produce at least one entrepreneurial idea a day. He patented a translating device that he eventually sold to Sharp Electronics for $450,000. Applications of the patent include the Wizard series of Sharp PDAs.

Son graduated from Berkeley with a BA in economics in 1980, and started Unison in Oakland, California, which has since been bought by Kyocera. Son decided to use his Korean-style surname when he came back to Japan to become a role model for ethnic Korean children there. In 1990, Son adopted Japanese citizenship.

Yahoo! BB

Although SoftBank's stake in Yahoo! had dwindled to 7%, Son established Yahoo! BroadBand in September 2001 with Yahoo! Japan in which he still owned a controlling interest. After a severe devaluation of SoftBank's equity, Son was forced to focus his attention on Yahoo! BB and BB Phone. So far, SoftBank has accumulated about $1.3 billion in debt. Yet, Yahoo! BB acquired Japan Telecom, the then third largest broadband and landline provider with 600,000 residential and 170,000 commercial subscribers. Yahoo! BB is now Japan's leading broadband provider.

Vodafone K. K.

On March 17, 2006, Vodafone Group announced it had agreed to sell Vodafone K.K. to SoftBank for approximately 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approximately US$ 15.1 billion). On April 14, 2006, SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the brand and company name Vodafone will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar company name and brand". Masayoshi Son is the CEO (Representative Director) of Vodafone K. K.

Sprint Corporation

Through SoftBank Masayoshi Son bought 76% in Sprint. SoftBank has further accumulated shares in Sprint (S); to about 80% ownership.

Investment in Solar Power

In response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Masayoshi Son criticized the nuclear industry for creating “the problem that worries Japanese the most today”, and engaged in investing in a nationwide solar power network for Japan.

Philanthropy

In 2011 Masayoshi Son pledged to donate 10 billion yen ($120 million) and his remaining salary until retirement to help support victims of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

References

External links

• 孫正義 (masason) on Twitter
• 孫正義 (masayosison) on Facebook
• Masayoshi Son, AXA Talents, August 1, 2006 .
• "Bio and Photo", Time (magazine) 

Articles

• "Masayoshi Son: The CEO who lost $70bn in a day before conquering the world", Hot Topics, 2014 

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Hugh Grant (born March 23, 1958) is a Scottish business executive, and CEO of Monsanto.

Early life

Grant was born in Larkhall, Scotland. He received a bachelor's degree in agricultural zoology and molecular biology from Glasgow University, a postgraduate degree in agriculture from the University of Edinburgh, and an MBA from the International Management Centre in Buckingham, England.

Career

He worked in Scotland from 1981 to 1991 for the then US-based Monsanto Company and then was appointed global strategy director in the agriculture division, based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1995, he became managing director for the company's Asia-Pacific region and in 1998, co-president of the agriculture division.

The 20th-century Monsanto Company, in the midst of a roughly five-year series of mergers and spin-offs that had the effect of reducing its focus on chemicals in favor of biotechnology), legally ceased to exist in 2000. A new Monsanto Company was created and Grant became executive vice president and chief operating officer of this new Monsanto. In 2003, he became president and chief executive officer and joined the board of directors.

In March 2009, Grant was named one of the world's 30 most respected CEOs on Barron's annual list. He was named 2010 CEO of the Year by Chief Executive magazine. In 2009, Grant earned a total compensation of $10,803,757, which included a base salary of $1,391,356, a cash bonus of $1,070,382, stocks granted of $1,875,766, options granted of $5,902,039, and other compensation of $564,214.

References

External links

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Joseph M. Tucci (born 1947), more popularly known as Joe Tucci, is the former chairman of the board of directors, president and chief executive officer of EMC Corporation. Tucci was EMC's chairman since January 2006 and president and CEO since January 2001, one year after he joined the company as president and chief operating officer.

Before joining EMC, Tucci directed the financial and operational rebirth of Wang Laboratories during six years as its chairman and CEO. Tucci is also a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Tucci received his bachelor's degree in marketing from Manhattan College in 1969, and an MS in Business Policy from Columbia University.

Compensation

While CEO of EMC in 2011, Joseph M. Tucci earned a total compensation of $13,238,857, which included a base salary of $1,000,000, a cash bonus of $2,140,869, stocks granted of $8,408,713, and options granted of $1,557,752.

References

External links

• About Joseph M. Tucci

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Etsy is a peer-to-peer (P2P) e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items. These items cover a wide range, including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, food, bath and beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks, and toys. Many sellers also sell craft supplies such as beads, wire and jewelry-making tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old. The site follows in the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee of US$0.20 per item.

As of December 31, 2014, Etsy had 54 million users registered as members, and the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods connected 1.4 million active sellers with 19.8 million active buyers. At the end of 2014, Etsy had 685 employees, and had 29 million items listed on its website. In 2014, Etsy clocked a total sales (Gross Merchandise Sales or GMS) of US$1.93 billion on the platform. Of this, 36.1% came from purchases made on mobile devices and 30.9% was generated outside the USA.

In 2014, Etsy garnered a revenue of US$195.6 million, and registered a net loss of US$15.2 million. Etsy generates revenue primarily from three revenue streams. Its 'Marketplace' revenue includes a fee of 3.5% of sale value, which an Etsy seller pays for each completed transaction, and a listing fee of 20 cents per item. 'Seller Services', Etsy's fastest growing revenue stream, includes fees for services such as Promoted Listings, payment processing and purchases of shipping labels through the platform. 'Other' revenue includes fees received from third-party payment processors.

In November 2016, Etsy disclosed it purchased Blackbird Technologies for $32.5 million. Blackbird Technologies is a startup that developed AI software used for shopping context - search applications.

History

The site was launched in 2005 by iospace, a small company composed of Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik. The initial version had taken two and a half months to build. Later Jared Tarbell joined the team. Former NPR executive Maria Thomas joined as COO in 2008, was promoted to CEO and left Etsy in December 2009. Robert Kalin resumed his role as CEO from December 2009 until July 2011. Investors include Sean Meenan, Spencer and Judson Ain, Union Square Ventures, and founders of Flickr and Delicious.

Kalin said that he named the site Etsy because he "wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini's 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes' (actually it's "eh, si"). And in Latin and French, it means 'what if.'"

In Etsy's first year, it attracted attention for frequently adding new tools and functionality to the site to help sellers gain exposure and traffic, including Adobe Flash-based visualizations and a taxonomy of categories with tags. Etsy passed $1.7 million in sales in May 2007. On July 29, Etsy had its one-millionth sale and anticipated its two-millionth sale would occur mid-December 2007. In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy, an increase of 43 percent from October 2007. In June 2007, it expected to be profitable by the fall, but in December 2007 it was not a profitable company. In January 2008, Etsy received an additional $27 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Hubert Burda Media, and Jim Breyer.

In February 2008, trouble at eBay, including a strike by some dissatisfied sellers, brought speculation that Etsy could be an increasing competitor. At the same time, however, some Etsy sellers expressed unhappiness with how Etsy was handling complaints about stores. At the time, a comparison of the two websites included complaints that on Etsy, items are difficult to find, the interface "feels slow", and the buying and selling process is United States-centric. Other reviewers enjoyed using Etsy's specialized search options, including the "Shop Local" tool.

In July 2008, Rob Kalin ceded the position of CEO to Maria Thomas. Some longtime Etsy employees left the company in August 2008, including founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire. In September 2008, Etsy hired Chad Dickerson, who formerly worked at Yahoo!, as Chief Technology Officer. The company acknowledged concerns about vendors selling other people's work as their own.

In April 2009, users organized an "etsyday" promotion on Twitter that brought extra attention to the site. As of May 2009, it had approximately 60 employees and sales of $10 to 13 million per month, possibly boosted by consumer interest in cheaper and more personalized goods due to the United States recession.

In March 2011, Etsy "introduced a Facebook-style social networking system called People Search...to help buyers and sellers connect with each other and become friends". By doing so, Etsy made any past purchase with feedback easily searchable, which caused many complaints. Etsy then made changes to the site to better guard information regarding users' purchases.

In July 2011, Chad Dickerson, CTO since September 2008, became CEO, upon the firing of Rob Kalin. Later CTOs were Kellan Elliot-McCrea and John Allspaw.

In April 2012, a newspaper article about Etsy covered its fraud detection efforts; Etsy had been criticized in the past for inconsistently applying its rules about items having to be handmade. Later in April 2012, the writer of Regretsy, a popular blog, did independent research into a specific featured vendor, Ecologica Malibu, and found evidence to accuse the vendor of being a reseller, which would be against the Etsy Terms of Service. The vendor asserted that it was in line with the Terms of Service, stating that the shop had simply failed to identify itself as a "collective" that included the work of several individuals, and many Etsy community members posted on the Etsy forum expressing unhappiness with the action (or lack of action) taken by Etsy. As of June 2012, the vendor's account is no longer active on Etsy.

In May 2012, Etsy raised $40 million in Series F funding, and announced the company had become B Corporation certified. This funding is partly going toward expanding Etsy in international markets, including France, Germany, and Australia.

On October 1, 2013, Dickerson held an online Town Hall Meeting to announce that Etsy would now permit factory-made goods and drop shipping, provided the seller either designed or hired designers of the items, disclosed to Etsy their factory, disclosed that they used factories and took "ownership" of the process. In that meeting and afterward, Etsy claimed the meaning of the word "handmade" should be redefined to encompass factory made.

In September 2016, Etsy announced the acquisition of artificial intelligence startup, Blackbird Technologies.

IPO

In March 2010, Kalin said that the company is profitable and "plans to go public, though not until at least next year." Financial statements required to be filed by Etsy in order to go public show, that due to reinvestment of annually increasing gross profits in marketing, product development, and management, the company has not reported a net profit as of 2015.

In December 2010, Etsy said it had seven million registered users and predicted $400 million in transactions for the year, and that it would continue to focus on a personal community feel as it grows larger, as that is part of what distinguishes it from eBay. In 2010, Etsy saw merchant revenues (Gross Merchandise Sales or GMS) increase from $180 million to $314 million, which fell short of the $400 million prediction.

On March 3, 2015, Etsy announced that it had filed for a $100 million USD IPO. In contrast to 2010, Etsy now generates transactions worth US$1.93 billion on its platform, which has 54 million members.

Etsy went public on April 16, 2015. The company's valuation was $1.8 billion and raised $237 million in IPO proceeds. Less than a month later, Etsy stock dropped more than 8%. The stock closed at $30 on its first day of trading on April 16 and dropped down to $20.32 as of May 11.

Investor Lawsuit

Shortly after the IPO in 2015, a group of investors filed a class action lawsuit against Etsy claiming fraud. The suit claimed that Etsy's CEO and officers failed to disclose numerous problems with the site which could affect the stock price, among them that "more than 5 percent of all merchandise for sale on Etsy’s website may be either counterfeit or constitute trademark or copyright infringement” and that “brands are increasingly pursuing sellers on Etsy for trademark or copyright infringement, jeopardizing listing fees and commissions." The suit also claimed that Etsy management knew of the rampant trademark and copyright infringement but did little to stop it, and in fact worked to hide this information from potential invenstors.

Main features

Selling

A variety of products are sold on Etsy, including arts supplies, handmade products and vintage pieces. Vintage pieces can only be listed if they are a minimum of 20 years old. In order to sell products on Etsy, users must create a username and have the option to create a shop name. The username cannot be changed once created. Creating a shop on Etsy is free, however each listing that is posted in the shop costs $0.20. Each listing will remain on the shop's page for 4 months, or until someone buys the product. The sale prices of products are determined by the shop owner, but Etsy claims 3.5% of the sale price of each listing. Shop owners are sent a bill at the end of every month containing the fees they owe, and they have until the 15th day of the following month to pay the Etsy bill. Since on-line sign-up appears for every region internationally, Etsy provides a global shipping feature.

Buying

Searching for products to buy on Etsy is generally intuitive and simple. On the homepage, potential buyers can type a product description into the search bar, or they can "Browse" through a list of options on the left side of the homepage, which include Art, Home & Living, Jewelry, Women, Men, Kids, Vintage, Weddings, Craft Supplies, Trending Items, Gift Ideas, Mobile Accessories, and more. Alternatively, buyers may choose from a list of categories by clicking on the "Categories" link under "More Ways to Shop". This will bring the user to a page of over 30 categories, each containing sub-categories.

When a buyer views a product, he/she can view the positive percentage feedback of each seller to determine the reliability of the shop. Once a buyer finds a product he/she would like to buy, he/she clicks "Add to Cart", and that product is added to his/her virtual "Shopping Cart". The buyer may then continue shopping or purchase the selected item. In order to purchase items, buyers must have an account with Etsy. The account is free and can be integrated with Facebook. The total product and shipping costs are shown to the user prior to entering payment information so the user knows exactly how much is being paid. Sellers choose which payment options to offer buyers; options include credit/debit cards and PayPal, among others.

Buyers should be aware that Etsy has a very poor record in protecting customer data and privacy. As of 2016, according to the Privacy Policy Section on the Etsy website ; " By using Etsy, you authorise Etsy to use your information in the United States, Ireland and any other country where Etsy operates " .

Operations

Etsy is popular as a side-business as well as a place to buy goods made from recycled and upcycled materials, along with less expensive or more unusual versions of mass-produced items. The unique nature of many of the items for sale is part of their appeal to some shoppers. Product photos on Etsy tend to be editorial or artistic instead of commercial catalog style. Sellers can add tags to their products to help buyers find them, and buyers can choose to search for items available locally. Etsy staffers publish lists of featured items.

Etsy makes money by charging a listing fee of USD 0.20 for each item and getting 3.5% of every sale, with the average sale about $15 or $20. Most sellers are women who tend to be college-educated and in their twenties and thirties. Individual Etsy sellers decide which payment options to offer buyers; these options may include credit card, check, money order, PayPal, bank transfer, and Etsy gift card.

Etsy sellers range from hobbyists to professional artists who use the site to make a living. According to artists who have developed their Etsy stores into their primary jobs, scaling up production of handmade items can require more than full-time work, especially during the holiday shopping season.

Etsy's main office is located in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and it has hosted open crafting classes in the "Etsy Labs". The site's technology, customer support, marketing/PR, business, and communications teams operate out of this office. Etsy Labs has a workspace that provides equipment and donated materials where members gather to make items, take and teach workshops, and attend special events. Etsy also has an office in Berlin. In April 2012, Etsy announced that it was taking steps to hire more women engineers to improve the gender balance of its team, as a website with majority women users but few women engineers.

Etsy was one of the main members of the Handmade Consortium, a 2007 effort to encourage buying handmade holiday gifts. Etsy has partnered with the retail chain West Elm to sell some Etsy products in its stores. In December 2012, Etsy opened a temporary holiday storefront in SoHo, New York City.

Ethos

In an interview in August 2013, CEO Chad Dickerson emphasized the importance of human interaction and meaning from creativity in regard to his perspective on Etsy. Dickerson described the website as "a platform that provides meaning to people, and an opportunity to validate their art, their craft", and after spending time with Etsy users, Dickerson learned that "all commerce is about real human interaction". Dickerson also provided a summation of Etsy that is a further reflection of the company's relationship- and meaning-based ethos: "At the end of every transaction, you get something real from a real person. There is an existential satisfaction to that."

Competitors

As of March, 2016, Etsy's top three competitors according to Hoovers Online are Amazon, Craigslist, and eBay. Etsy has been compared to "a crafty cross between Amazon and eBay", and to "your grandma's basement". Etsy also has a number of direct competitors. DaWanda, based in Germany, focuses on growing in European countries. ezebee.com, based in Switzerland, is a global competitor, but also caters to freelancers and professionals Bonanza (formerly Bonanzle and 1000 Markets) is based in the United States and focuses on clothing and fashion, Zibbet and Made It which are based in Australia, iCraft is based in Canada, Artfire is based in the United States, and Hello Pretty is an online craft marketplace targeted at South Africans. Tindie is based in Portland, Oregon, and focuses on technology and electronics.

Asked about competitors, Etsy's European CEO said, "As far as I am concerned, the more people highlighting the value of supporting micro-producers and buying handmade and vintage directly from them, the better."

Seller issues

Privacy

In an effort to add social networking features to Etsy, the company implemented features in 2011 that allowed users to search other users' buying histories and to trace their purchasing transactions. Etsy thought that this feature would allow Etsy users to connect to individuals with similar buying and/or selling histories and an automatic opt-in was applied to all users without the attainment of prior permission. Users of the service raised concerns over the feature's violation of privacy rights, but an official response was not released by the company.

Ecologica Malibu

In April 2012, some Etsy users began requesting the removal of Ecologica Malibu from the website due to the shop's use of a wholesale manufacturer. Users complained that Ecologica Malibu's practice was contradictory to the anti-big business values of Etsy. CEO Chad Dickerson responded in an Etsy blog post:

Much of the information we learn from investigations can’t be shared with the larger community out of respect for the privacy of the seller being investigated, so there is a natural divergence between what the community sees when they report a seller and what we see as we go deeper on the case. … [T]here are times when available public evidence suggests that a violation of our policy is clear, and our investigations find that it’s actually not the case.

Many users are still not content with Dickerson's response.

Production outsourcing

On Oct 1, 2013, Etsy changed its policy to allow sellers to outsource production to third parties and factories and to use shipping or fulfillment services. The new rules allow products to be labeled "handmade" as long as the original idea for that item â€" or its "authorship" as C.E.O. Dickerson says â€" comes from its respective seller. Further, the policy changes allow Etsy businesses to hire as many employees as they deem necessary (including workers in different locations) and allow sellers to ship orders via third-party couriers rather than the post office.

The move has prompted at least one Etsy competitor to distinguish itself by committing never to sell manufactured items.

In September 2015, Etsy made further changes to its manufacturing policy with the launch of Etsy Manufacturing, a marketplace allowing sellers to connect with outside manufacturers to fabricate their products. Manufacturers must be reviewed and approved by Etsy to ensure they adhere to certain criteria, although Etsy will not conduct visits or in-person inspections. Sellers must apply and be approved to work with any partners listed on Etsy Manufacturing and are required to disclose their use of outside manufacturers on their pages.

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