Brian Acton

Brian Acton is the Executive Chairman of the Signal Foundation, based in Los Gatos, California. He is best known for co-founding the messaging application WhatsApp in 2009, which scaled to more than two billion global users before being acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. Following his departure from the social media corporation, he provided $50 million in personal funding to establish the non-profit Signal Foundation in 2018 and later served as its interim Chief Executive Officer. Earlier in his career, he spent over a decade working as a software engineer at Yahoo after earning a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University. Currently, his primary professional focus centers on advancing open-source data privacy technology, consumer messaging cryptography, and making selective venture capital investments as a partner at an early-stage venture firm.