James Park (entrepreneur)
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James Park | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Park in 2015 | |
| Born | 1976 or 1977 (age 48–49)[1] |
| Alma mater | Harvard College (dropped out) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Co-founder and CEO, Fitbit |
James Park (born 1977) is an American technology entrepreneur. He co-founded Fitbit and has been its CEO and president since September 2007.[2] He was named in 2015 among Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40, an annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.[3] With a net worth of US$660 million estimated by Forbes, he was ranked #29 in the magazine's America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2015.[4] Park announced that Fitbit became part of Google in January 2021.[5]
Park is of Korean descent.[6]
He attended high school at the all-boys University School in Cleveland, Ohio.[7] His parents, who emigrated from South Korea, owned a wig shop in downtown Cleveland,[8] among other shops, such as an ice cream parlor, a fish market, a dry-cleaning business, and a clothing store. Park spent a lot of time in his parents' shops and even sold products for them, and his own work ethic was influenced by their example.[9]
He studied computer science as an undergraduate at Harvard College but dropped out his junior year to pursue his own business.[8] Before creating the company that would become Fitbit, Park created a startup B2B infrastructure software firm called Epesi Technologies, which is now defunct. Park considers Epesi Technologies his "greatest failure" and described the experience as "particularly painful".[9]
Park met Eric Friedman (a computer science Yale graduate)[10] at Epsei, but after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000[11] and Epesi closed its doors, both Park and Friedman went to work as engineers for a company called Dun & Bradstreet.[12]