Born to Janet and Burt Silverstein in 1972, Craig Silverstein is widely known as the first employee of the company, Google. He studied alongside Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at Stanford University. Craig Silverstein dons the hat of a businessman, technology guru, and writer; he currently works at the Khan Academy.
His early association with the tech company, Google, has turned out to be very lucrative for him. According to reliable sources, as of early 2017 Craig Silverstein has an impressive net worth of $950 million. Not one to wax lyrical of his earnings, Craig has mentioned that his time at Google, ¨allowed him to take a job at a nonprofit.¨
Craig Silverstein Net Worth $950 million
Craig was brought up in Gainesville; his family moved there when he was only 6 years old. During his time there, he was enrolled in the primary school, Brentwood School. For middle school, he attended Westwood Middle School. He would then go on to graduate from Eastside High in 1990. Craig Silverstein graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the esteemed Harvard College, then moved to complete a PhD.
During his time at Stanford University while working on his doctorate in computer science, Craig formed a bond with Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He would then help them work on the algorithms that would later become the Google search engine. Forecasting massive potential in the search engine, Craig left his studies behind in 1998 and began working full-time as the company´s Director of Technology in a nearby garage. The man was instrumental in the creation of many original IT components that helped Google become what it is today. After serving the company for 14 years, his association with Google came to an end on 10 February 2012.
His next step would lead him to join the start-up company, Khan Academy. The man certainly made a bold move in his career, as he left a company that boasted 32,000 employees to join a company that had only 35. What attracted Craig to Khan Academy in the first place was the learning strategies and educational methods deployed by the company. The company excels in creating online video content, exercises, and testing materials. A few years back in 2008, the company even successfully acquired a gracious $2 million donation from Google´s Project 10 to 100. When talking about Khan Academy, Craig has said, ¨It reminds me a bit of the early days of Google. It´s very much of a startup environment.¨
Talking about his personal life, Craig is engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Mary, to whom he proposed on the top of the Eiffel Tower during the Thanksgiving holiday in 2013. Mary currently serves as an iPad app developer.
Craig is a firm believer in giving back to the society. In the year, 2009, the man donated a handsome amount of $5 million to the Sebastian Ferrero Foundation. His donation helped the non-profit organization establish a children´s hospital in Gainesville.
