You've GOT to be kidding me.<p>"Mr. David A. Ebersman has been Chief Financial Officer of Facebook Inc. since September 2009. Mr. Ebersman oversees Facebook's finance, accounting, investor relations and real estate functions. Prior to joining Facebook, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Genentech Inc., from March 5, 2005 to April 2009 and its Executive Vice President from January 2006 to April 2009. Mr. Ebersman also served as Senior Vice President of Finance at Genentech Inc. from January 5, 2005 to March 2005 and as Senior Vice President of Product Operations from May 2001 to January 4, 2005. He joined Genentech in February 1994 as a Business Development Analyst and served as its Senior Director of Product Development from March 1998 to February 1999, as Vice President of Product Development from February 1999 to May 2001, as Manager of Business Development from February 1995 to February 1996 and as its Director of Business Development from February 1996 to March 1998. Prior to Genentech, he served as a Research Analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division. He has been a Director of Castlight Health, Inc. since July 14, 2011. He has been a Director of Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. since July 2004 and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. since July 2009. He is a fellow in the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. Mr. Ebersman holds an A.B. in Economics and International Relations from Brown University."
The author doesn't make a very good case in favor of MBAs (or, in my opinion, college in general). He does, however, make a great case in favor of management and experience working with other people.<p>Mark Zuckerberg might not have ever run a company, but he clearly knew how to inspire the people he asked to work for him. I think the fact that he had to learn how to at least manage his small team before receiving funding worked well for Facebook, and he grew at a pace that allowed him to continue to learn.<p>Giving a 19-year-old genius enough funding to do damage before he's ever learned to manage people is a much larger risk than funding a team that has proven it can work together. By the time Mark had gotten that funding power, he had already gone through the trials of managing employees on a small scale.
64% of CEOs of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies don’t have an MBA.
Other useful facts - <a href="http://www.webpronews.com/is-an-mba-worth-it-infographic-2012-03" rel="nofollow">http://www.webpronews.com/is-an-mba-worth-it-infographic-201...</a>
I'm getting tired of Vivek Wadhwa and his elitist crap... he seems to think that if you didn't attend an Ivy League university that you are some inferior class of human who obviously cannot do anything on your own, much less do anything right.<p>I'm sure Vivek is a smart guy, but he's <i>way</i> too much of an apologist for academia. Like, does anybody else <i>really</i> believe that getting an MBA is the only way to learn the skills he thinks Zuckerberg was lacking?<p>And who's to say that Zuck was wrong to wear a hoodie to the IPO roadshow meetings? Is there any evidence that that had anything to do with, well, anything?!???
Facebook would not EXIST if Zuckerberg would have spent 6 more years in the draining rat trap that is academia. He wouldn't have been able to move to the valley, get funded by Thiel, and receive REAL WORLD business experience. Its ironic that some asshole with a degree is playing backseat driver to Mark Zuckerberg, who is STILL one of the wealthiest men in the world. MBA's are for corporate assholes. If your career aspirations are to write crap articles for the Washington Post, go ahead, get your MBA.<p>The reason Facebook's IPO failed is because of lack of consumer confidence in the company itself. The majority of IPO's throughout history have been exponentially over valued. I wouldn't touch ANY IPO with a ten foot pole. Let alone a company whose business model is based on invasive, ineffective, and overpriced advertising.