Speaker Bio

Mr. Hoffman founded LinkedIn, the largest professional networking service with over 40 million members worldwide. An acknowledged leader in Silicon Valley, Mr. Hoffman has invested in a number of key Web 2.0 companies, including Facebook, SixApart, Digg, Wikia, Kongregate, Zynga, and believes that an entrepreneurial venture faces competition by either innovating against no competitors or bad competitors.

As Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman drives the company's vision and strategy. Prior to LinkedIn, Reid was Executive Vice President of PayPal where he was in charge of all business relationships: business development, corporate development, international, government relations, and banking/payments infrastructure. During his tenure at PayPal, Reid was instrumental in the acquisition of eBay and was responsible for partnerships with Intuit, Visa, MasterCard and Wells Fargo. Reid also has held management roles in significant technology companies including Fujitsu Software Corporation and Apple. In addition to LinkedIn, Reid serves on the Board of Directors for SixApart, Kiva.org, and Mozilla Corporation. Reid graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BS in Symbolic Systems and from Oxford University with a Master's degree in philosophy and a Marshall scholarship.