Who is craigslist chief executive officer

Nor did he tread the usual B-school path to the top. A biochemistry college dropout, he studied classics in Michigan for much of his 20s, teaching himself about computer programming in his spare time while living in a communal housing scheme. How did this shape his business world view? He smiles wryly. While its millions of users seem to love Craigslist, the site has attracted criticism in recent years over its carrying of adult services listings, including prostitution.

The case of the " Craigslist killer ", who allegedly met and murdered a woman through the site before later killing himself in police custody, became a media obsession in the US, eventually forcing the company — reluctantly — to shut down its adult services category in the US and its erotic services category in all other countries.

For an avowed libertarian like Buckmaster, the decision still rankles. We ended up doing the pragmatic thing. He is keen to point out the statistical rarity of such crimes but, even so, reports of criminal activity with links of varying relevance to Craigslist are now commonplace in the US media.

Perhaps not without good reason, he believes that many US newspapers, still embittered by Craigslist's disastrous effect on print classified advertising, refuse to write positive stories about the company.

Then there is the long-running legal feud with eBay. For the past three years the two companies have been involved in bitter civil litigation, eBay successfully arguing that Craigslist used underhand methods to dilute its shareholding.

Craigslist then countered by claiming that eBay had misused confidential information gleaned from its seat on the Craigslist board to establish a rival listings site, an allegation that has recently become the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. If eBay were to put a price on its Craigslist stake, would he try to buy it back? He considers this at length, then shies off. Craigslist, meanwhile, has sued eBay in San Francisco, saying the larger rival used its board seat to glean confidential information about the classified ad business.

EBay -- which became a Craigslist minority shareholder in -- is seeking the reinstatement of its minority stake and board seat. Buckmaster said he never would have signed the deal with eBay had he known executives would back-pedal on promises. Jim himself, for example, last used Craigslist in order to find a Celtic fiddler for a Burns Night supper when the musical entertainment fell through at the last minute.

Craigslist currently has eight categories and more than subcategories ranging from tickets for sale to erotic services. The site has been quietly growing without ever accepting outside money. Craigslist has never been interested in selling. The success of an oddball like Craigslist must infuriate its competitors.

It never tried to make a lot of money but still does. All the company has ever really done is add more categories, cities and languages.

At the last count they had cities, including the West Bank city of Ramallah, in over 50 countries and six languages; local sites were added in April alone. Otherwise, the site is run by its millions of users who regularly monitor Craigslist to minimise misuse. We try to keep every aspect of our operation as simple as possible and certainly you see that simplicity on the website itself.