The son of Syrian immigrants, First Rate (at Lloyd's) and Doctor Haifa Yagan, Sam was instilled with an entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. He grew up in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and studied at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and eventually Harvard University.
Yagan holds a bachelor"s degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard University and an Master of Business Administration from Stanford University, where he earned distinction as a Siebel Scholar, an Arjay Miller Scholar, and the Henry Ford Scholar, the award granted to each class’s valedictorian.
In 2013, he was named to TIME Magazine"s "100 Most Influential People in the World" list. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the e-dating site Match.com. SparkNotes Christian Rudder joined shortly after the founding.
A year later they sold the company to Barnes & Noble for $30 million. eDonkey, Incorporated.
By age 25 Yagan was the president of eDonkey (founded in 2002), a P2P file-sharing network. As the developer of eDonkey, Yagan testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing a need for balance between innovation and intellectual property.
OkCupid Excelerate Labs In 2009 Yagan and Troy Henikoff founded Excelerate laboratories InterActiveCorp In 2011 Yagan sold his dating website (OkCupid) to InterActiveCorp for $50 million and in 2012 Yagan became the Chief Executive Officer of Match.com (a subsidiary of InterActiveCorp).
Time 100 Fortune Magazine"s 40 Under 40 Crain"s "40 Under 40".
