Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin was born in August of 1973, in Moscow, Russia. He moved with his family in 1973 to the United States to avoid growing Russian anti-Semitism. Brin is one of the founders of Google, the most popular search engine in the world. He is now a multi-billionaire at the age of thirty-three. Although he is a billionaire, he has a very modest lifestyle, drives a Toyota Prius, and also rents an apartment.

Sergey Brin first created Google as a school project at Stanford University, while studying for his doctoral degree. The search engine was first called BackRub. After it was decided to change the name to Google, Brin raised one million dollars from family, friends, and other investors and went on a leave from Stanford University. Today, Google is the most popular search engine with over 200 million users a day.

Sergey Brin met his partner Larry Page at Stanford University in 1995, who was also there for his doctoral degree. These two partners also have interesting similarities in that they both have degrees in computer science and both have university professors for fathers. Brin and Page worked on their school project together from their dormitory at Stanford University. After they realized what a useful tool this could be, they left the university, raised the money and started Google from a friend's garage. The search engine was launched on Sep 7, 1998, so the web site is only 7 1/2 years old.

I admire Sergey Brin for creating the Google search engine because he followed through to start his company, even though he had to leave the university. I think that it is interesting that he liked computers since he was 9 years old. Brin is a true wizard with computers. I also admire that he is a multi-billionaire but has a modest lifestyle. This is why Sergey Brin is my hero.