Joshua Gordon Silverman (born 1969) is an American entrepreneur and technology executive currently serving as chief executive officer of

Etsy Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft ...

. He is known for co-founding the invitation website Evite and serving as CEO of

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, ...

(2008–10) and

shopping.com Shopping.com is a price comparison service owned by eBay and operates websites in USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Shopping.com started out with the name DealTime.com which still operates as a related, but otherwise separate w ...

(2006–08).

Early life and education

Silverman was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Ann Arbor's Community High School graduating in 1987. Silverman earned a Bachelor of Arts in public policy from Brown University in 1991, after which he spent two years working for New Jersey Senator

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination fo ...

. In 1995 he enrolled at the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it ...

; he earned his MBA from Stanford in 1997.

Career

In November 1998, Silverman quit his job at ADAC Laboratories to work full time on building what would become Evite. Evite was acquired by

Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall ...

IAC/InterActiveCorp IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in New York City. Joey Levin, who previously led t ...

2001. In 2006, Silverman became CEO of

Shopping.com Shopping.com is a price comparison service owned by eBay and operates websites in USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Shopping.com started out with the name DealTime.com which still operates as a related, but otherwise separate w ...

, a comparison-shopping engine owned by

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

. In February 2008, he was named CEO of Skype Silverman joined the board of Etsy in November, 2016. After an activist investor took a stake in the company and called for it sale, Etsy's board ousted longtime CEO

Chad Dickerson Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Repub ...

and installed Silverman as chief executive officer.

Personal life

Silverman met his wife, Shirin in 1998; as of 2018, the couple has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silverman, Josh 1969 births Living people People from Ann Arbor, Michigan Brown University alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Chief executives in the technology industry