David Cheriton is a well-known figure in the technology industry and also the richest professor in the world working at the world's top 3 universities. He built his fortune through a combination of business efforts and wise investments. However, it was a chance encounter with 2 students that put him on the path to becoming a billionaire.
Passionate about art but pursuing science
Cheriton was born in 1951 in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). From a young age, Cheriton had a strong spirit of independence, did not like to play team sports and built a wooden house in his yard so he did not have to play with the neighborhood children.
Both of his parents were engineers, but Cheriton dreamed of becoming an artist. He participated in musicals at school and performed in many local productions. Cheriton applied to the University of Alberta to study classical guitar but was rejected.
Cheriton has been a professor of computer science at Stanford since 1981.
So he switched gears, studying mathematics and computer science at the University of British Columbia, earning a bachelor's degree in 1973. He continued his graduate studies in science and earned his PhD at the University of Waterloo in 1978. After completing his studies, Cheriton joined the prestigious Stanford University in 1981, where he has been a professor of computer science ever since.
Throughout his career, Cheriton has been involved in numerous business ventures, many of which have been hugely successful. He co-founded several technology companies, including Granite Systems, which was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1996 for $220 million, and Kealia, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2004 for an undisclosed sum.
Cheriton has also been involved in numerous startups and serves on the board of several technology companies.
A fateful encounter that changed my life
A chance encounter with two students set Cheriton on the path to becoming a billionaire. In the late 1990s, Cheriton was mentoring recent Stanford graduates. Sergey Brin and Larry Page approached Cheriton with an idea for a new search engine that would eventually become Google, according to Forbes.
After that 10-minute presentation, it didn't take Cheriton long to understand the ambitious plan of the two young men. "They were having trouble raising money. I didn't think it needed to be such a big deal. The students came to me because they needed financial support to start their companies. I felt a responsibility to help them, because I myself had been helped a lot to get to where I am today," the Stanford professor shared.
Cheriton decided to write a check for $100,000 to the two graduates. The check was written in 1998, when Google was still in its infancy. The money from the check was used to fund the company's operations, and many believe that this investment was a major factor in Google's success.
Google went on to become one of the most successful technology companies in history, and Cheriton's investment has paid off handsomely. According to Forbes, Cheriton's net worth is estimated to be $9.5 billion in 2023, ranking him 206th in the world, with the bulk of his wealth coming from his early investment in Google.
Live frugally, spend money on charity
Despite being a billionaire, Cheriton is famous for his humble lifestyle.
Cheriton lives a relatively private life, not using any social media, be it Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, because he wants to stay away from the noise of society. He also does not appear in the media often and values privacy and discretion.
Despite his vast wealth, Cheriton is known for his relatively modest lifestyle. “I feel very lucky when it comes to investing, but I still have a bum mentality when it comes to spending money,” he told Forbes.
However, he is also known for his philanthropy, donating large sums of money to science and the younger generation.
In 2005, Cheriton donated $25 million to the University of British Columbia to establish the School of Computer Science in his name. The donation was the largest single gift in the school's history and was intended to support the next generation of computer scientists.
Cheriton is also a generous supporter of Stanford University, where he taught for more than 40 years. In 2016, he donated $25 million to the university to support research in computer science and other fields.
(Source: Vietnamnet/ Forbes)
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