Tom Preston-Werner
Thomas Preston-Werner (born May 27, 1979) is an American billionaire software developer and entrepreneur. He is an active contributor within the free and open-source software community, most prominently in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives.
Tom Preston-Werner
May 27, 1979
Harvey Mudd College (dropped out)
Software developer, entrepreneur
2008–present
Co-founder & former CEO, GitHub
2012-2014
3
He is best known as the founder and former CEO of GitHub, a Git repository web-based hosting service, which he co-founded in 2008 with Chris Wanstrath and P. J. Hyett.[3] He resigned from GitHub in 2014 when an internal investigation concluded that he and his wife harassed an employee.[4] Preston-Werner is also the creator of the avatar service Gravatar,[5] the TOML configuration file format,[6] the static site generator software Jekyll,[7][8] and the Semantic Versioning Specification (SemVer).[9] As of 2023, he and his wife have committed to The Giving Pledge—a promise to give away or donate a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.[10]
Early life[edit]
Preston-Werner grew up in Dubuque, Iowa. His father died when he was a child. His mother was a teacher and his stepfather was an engineer.[11]
He graduated from high school at Dubuque Senior High School and attended Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California for 2 years before dropping out to pursue other endeavours.[11]
Influence[edit]
As an active contributor to the open-source developer and hacker culture, most prominently in areas involving the programming language Ruby,[12] he has written articles regarding his philosophies and opinions on various issues. He has been featured as a guest on podcasts, including Rubyology and SitePoint.[13]
Preston was one of the initial members of the San Francisco group IcanhazRuby or ICHR, after he became a regular member of the San Francisco Ruby Meetups. He continued until the meetings became overwhelmed by venture capital investors searching for talent; this prompted him to seek more private gatherings.[12]
Preston-Werner is the creator of the TOML configuration file format.[14]