Jimmy Wales
co-founder of Wikipedia (born 1966)
Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 8, 1966) is an American and British internet entrepreneur and former financial trader. He is best known for co-founding Wikipedia, a nonprofit free encyclopedia, and Fandom (formerly Wikia), a for-profit wiki hosting service. He has also worked on Bomis, Nupedia, WikiTribune, and Trust Café (formerly WT Social).
Born in Huntsville, Alabama, Wales attended Randolph School and earned finance degrees from Auburn University and the University of Alabama. He worked as a financial options trader in Chicago during the 1990s before shifting his focus to the internet economy. While in graduate school, he was teaching at two universities, but left before completing a PhD to work in finance, later becoming chief research officer at Chicago Options Associates.
In 1996, Wales co-founded Bomis, which funded the free peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia (2000–2003). On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, he launched Wikipedia, which grew rapidly. Wales became its promoter and public face, though he has at times disputed Sanger's role, claiming sole founder status.
Wales has served on the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees since its creation, holding its board-appointed "community founder" seat.
The public source identifies “Jimmy Wales” as co-founder of Wikipedia (born 1966). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jimmy, Wales and co-founder.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Jimmy Wales”, the useful work is to connect “co-founder of Wikipedia (born 1966)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q181. VIAF identifies the subject as 96800423. The Library of Congress control number is no2009117557. 6 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1996, 2000 and 2003.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Jimmy Wales primary sources, Jimmy Wales archive and Jimmy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Jimmy Wales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.