Jonah Peretti

Jonah Peretti (born January 1, 1974) is an American internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of The Huffington Post in 2005 and the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, established in 2006. His career has centered on harnessing social sharing mechanics to amplify content reach, influencing the evolution of digital media through experiments in virality and audience engagement.

Peretti grew up in Oakland, California, and earned a B.S. in environmental science from the University of California, Santa Cruz, followed by an M.S. from the MIT Media Lab. In 2001, while at MIT, he conducted an early viral experiment by emailing Nike to customize shoes with the word "sweatshop" to critique labor practices, resulting in a public exchange that spread rapidly online and highlighted the potential of contagious digital communication.

Jonah Peretti was born on January 1, 1974, in California and raised in Oakland. His father, of Italian and English descent, worked as a criminal defense lawyer and painter. His mother, who was Jewish, served as a schoolteacher and had previously been on the faculty of the University of California. Peretti's parents divorced when he was six years old, after which he and his younger sister, comedian Chelsea Peretti, split their time between their mother's and father's households in Oakland. His stepmother was African-American.