Steve Chen
CTO, YouTube
Steve Chen is one-half of the YouTube guys, who were acquired by the Google guys for $1.65 billion this past year, even though the company was only founded in 2005. As chief technology officer, he was trying to provide a more simple way to share videos online and his efforts took off in a viral explosion. He oversees all areas of both engi- neering and product development for YouTube, including managing site operations and developing features and services. He will also have to fend off attacks from powerful media companies, who are aiming at YouTube’s technology because of copyright infringement issues, even as they try to take advantage of its powerful growth. Before YouTube, Mr. Chen was one of the first product engineers at PayPal. He studied computer science at the University of Illinois.
