Brian Acton

Brian Acton (born 1972) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. Acton is the executive chairman of the Signal Technology Foundation, which he co-founded with Moxie Marlinspike in 2018. , Acton also serves as interim CEO of Signal Messenger LLC. He was formerly employed at Yahoo!, and co-founded WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for US$19 billion, with Jan Koum. Acton left WhatsApp in September 2017 to start the Signal Foundation. According to Forbes (2020), Acton is the 836th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Early life and education Acton grew up in Michigan, later moving to Central Florida, where he graduated from Lake Howell High School. Acton received a full scholarship to study engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, but left after a year to study at Stanford. He graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in computer science. Career In 1992, he became a systems administrator for Rockwell International, before becoming a product tester at Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems. In 1996, he joined Yahoo Inc.