Plaxo

Jun 22, 2021

By the time Parker was a teenager, he was able to hack into universities and companies. He once hacked into a Fortune 500 company, but his dad confiscated his keyboard before he could log out. The FBI tracked him using his ISP, but since he was a minor, he was only sentenced to community service. A man (not Sean Parker) takes part in a hacking contest during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas. Reuters Parker cofounded the file-sharing service Napster in 1999, when he was only 19 years old. Napster became one of the fastest-growing businesses of all time, as well as one of the most controversial. Parker and his cofounder, Shawn Fanning, are often credited with revolutionizing the music industry. Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Airtime After several lawsuits from music associations eventually shut down Napster, Parker went on to found a social-networking site called Plaxo. He was ousted two years later. (Plaxo shut down in 2017.) Plaxo AP He's known for his intense focus. A former colleague told Vanity Fair that sometimes the best way to get ahold of Parker is to "war dial" him — call him 10 or 20 times in a row until he realizes someone really wants to talk to him. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Parker was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the 2010 Facebook movie "The Social Network." Parker was upset by his portrayal as a party boy, saying that Timberlake's character was "a morally reprehensible human being" and that the movie was "a complete work of fiction." Timberlake, left, and Jesse Eisenberg, who portrayed Mark Zuckerberg. Sony Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Parker's extraordinarily lavish wedding made headlines at the time, since he reportedly spent $4.5 million to create a magical world , complete with goats, a pen of bunnies, a pony, a feast laid on top of white fur, and a 9-foot-tall wedding cake . All 364 guests — including Jack Dorsey, Mark Pincus, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes — were given Tolkien-esque costumes made by "Lord of the Rings" designer Ngila Dickson to wear during the ceremony. Parker and Lenas even asked Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf in the films, if he would officiate the wedding in character, which he turned down . Renowned celebrity photographer Mark Seliger shot photos of the wedding . Parker faced backlash after the event, since he installed temporary structures in an ecologically sensitive area without obtaining the correct permits from the California Coastal Commission. "There are crazy people on Facebook typing death threats," Parker told CNET shortly after. "Psychopaths are hunting me." The couple has two children together, Winter Victoria and Zephyr Emerson. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP In 2014, the Parkers added another property to their portfolio: a nine-bedroom Los Angeles mansion called "The Brody House," which they bought from Ellen DeGeneres for $55 million. The historic property borders the Playboy Mansion and is filled with the Parkers' art collection. Redfin Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider Parker is also a philanthropist, and a friend described him to Vanity Fair as "one of the most generous people I know." In 2015, he donated $600 million to launch the Parker Foundation, which focuses on funding programs in life sciences, global public health, and civic engagement. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters In 2016, he used $250 million to establish the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He also pledged $24 million to develop the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford and donated $4.5 million to support a malaria-elimination program at the University of California San Francisco's Global Health Group. Parker cofounded the Economic Innovation Group, a think tank focused on economic challenges throughout the US. Sean Parker, right, talks with Greg Simon, executive director at the White House Cancer Task Force, after President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act in 2016. Kevin Wolf/AP Parker also pushed for the "Opportunity Zones" provisions in the 2017 Jobs Act, which aims to draw investment to struggling US communities. "It's designed to have them do something with their capital that's productive, rather than just sitting on a huge amount of Facebook stock or something," Parker said at the time. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Parker emerged as a major political donor beginning around 2010. He's made sizable donations to both Republican and Democratic political candidates, and recently backed a candidate for the New York City mayoral race: According to journalist Teddy Schleifer, he gave $250,000 to the super PAC backing Eric Adams. Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images