Tom Preston-Werner

Tom Preston-Werner
Preston-Werner in June 2024
Born (1979-05-27) May 27, 1979 (age 45)
Dubuque, Iowa, U.S.
Alma materHarvey Mudd College (dropped out)
Occupation(s)Software developer, entrepreneur
Years active2008–present
TitleCo-founder & former CEO, GitHub
Term2012-2014
PredecessorChris Wanstrath
SuccessorChris Wanstrath
SpouseTheresa Preston-Werner[1][2]
Children3
Websitetom.preston-werner.com

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.

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]

  1. ^ Deamicis, Carmel (February 7, 2014). "This year at the Crunchies: Class tensions and tech-charity". PandoDaily. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
  2. ^ Preston-Werner, Tom (October 18, 2008). "How I Turned Down $300,000 from Microsoft to go Full-Time on GitHub". Tom Preston-Werner. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
  3. ^ Etherington, Darrell (January 21, 2014). "GitHub President Becomes CEO, CEO Becomes President In Executive Role Swap". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2017. GitHub has just announced that co-founder Tom Preston-Werner will be taking over the role of President from fellow co-founder Chris Wanstrath
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Follow up to the investigation results was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference bloomberg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "GitHub - toml-lang/toml: Tom's Obvious, Minimal Language". GitHub. September 26, 2021. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  7. ^ Assar, Vijith (August 7, 2013). "The Software That Builds Software". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  8. ^ Orsini, Lauren (April 21, 2014). "What Tom Preston-Werner's Departure Means For GitHub". ReadWrite. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  9. ^ Preston-Werner, Tom. "Semantic Versioning 2.0.0". Semantic Versioning. Archived from the original on April 9, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
  10. ^ "Tom and Theresa Preston-Werner - the Giving Pledge". Archived from the original on September 27, 2023. Retrieved September 27, 2023.