Lantian "Jay" Graber (born 1991) is an American software engineer who has served since 2021 as the CEO of Bluesky, a microblogging social platform created in 2019 by Twitter's Jack Dorsey.
Jay Graber | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Graber in August 2024 | |
| Born | Lantian Graber 1991 (age 32–33) Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (BS) |
| Occupation | Software engineer |
| Years active | 2014–present |
Early life
editLantian Graber was born in 1991 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a mother of Chinese descent, an acupuncturist by trade, and a mathematics teacher father of Swiss descent.[1][2] Her mother, who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution and emigrated in the 1980s, named her daughter "Lantian" (蓝天), meaning "blue sky" in Mandarin Chinese, as a wish for her to have "boundless freedom".[1] The similarity between Graber's given name and Bluesky is purely coincidental; Jack Dorsey had chosen the name "Bluesky" for the research initiative before Graber became involved with the project.[3]
Graber enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 and later graduated with a BSc in Science, Technology, and Society.[1] During her senior year she won a grant to co-found a student time bank program.[1]
Career
editIn 2015, Graber began working as a software engineer for SkuChain in Mountain View, California.[1] She then worked in a factory in Moses Lake, Washington, where she soldered bitcoin mining equipment.[1] In 2016, she began working as a junior developer for the Zcash cryptocurrency.[1][4][5] In 2019, she founded the event planning website Happening, Inc.[1][4][5]
In August 2021, Graber became the first CEO of Bluesky, a microblogging social platform and public benefit company.[6][7][8] Bluesky had been conceived as a new initiative by Twitter's original owners in 2019, but evolved to become a competitor to Twitter following the 2022 acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk.[4][5][9][10]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h del Castillo, Michael (April 25, 2023). "Jack Dorsey-Backed Decentralized Twitter Rival Prepares to Launch with One Million Users". Forbes. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ Robison, Kylie (July 31, 2023). "Inside Twitter rival Bluesky's first major crisis, as investors pressured CEO Jay Graber to speak out about racist incident". Fortune. Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
- ^ "The CEO of Bluesky's Actual Name Means "Blue Sky" in Chinese". Futurism. November 18, 2024. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ a b c Campbell, Ian Carlos (August 16, 2021). "Twitter's decentralized social network project finally has a leader". The Verge. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ a b c Matney, Lucas (August 16, 2021). "Twitter taps crypto developer to lead 'bluesky' decentralized social network effort". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ del Castillo, Michael (September 11, 2022). "Jack Dorsey's Former Boss Is Building A Decentralized Twitter". Forbes. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Heath, Alex (April 17, 2023). "Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter". The Verge. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Dang, Sheila (August 16, 2021). "A Twitter-funded company trying to build a new kind of social media taps its first leader". CNBC. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Belanger, Ashley (April 28, 2023). "Top Twitter influencers flee to Bluesky amid Musk's continued debasing". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Klee, Miles (April 27, 2023). "Bluesky Becomes the Hottest Club Online as Twitter Users Fight for Invites". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
External links
edit- Jay Graber on Twitter
- Jay Graber on Bluesky
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