Chris Hughes: From Facebook to The New Republic

As one of the original co-founders of Facebook, Chris Hughes was catapulted into the elite group of young millionaires who made it big with the help of the Internet.  However, Chris went beyond the distinction of being a Facebook co-founder and spokesperson and went on to carve his very own niche in history and society.  

After successfully orchestrating Barack Obama’s online presidential campaign in 2008 and founding Jumo in 2010,  Chris Hughes is now more identified with his political causes and as the new Editor-in-Chief and publisher of The New Republic magazine, which he bought in 2012.  Interestingly, Chris used his wealth from the new media to invest in the traditional media.

Family and Educational Background

Born in November 26, 1983, Chris is the only child of Ray and Brenda Hughes, a sales manager and a math teacher respectively.  Chris was raised in the small town of Hickory, North Carolina as an evangelical Lutheran.  When he was 15 years old, he got accepted to the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts on scholarship.  After excelling academically at Andover, Chris clinched a scholarship to Harvard, where he spent perhaps the most life-changing years of his life.  

Harvard and Facebook

At Harvard, Chris majored in History and Literature.  During his sophomore year, he became roommates with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, and Dustin Moskovitz.  They later became the four original co-founders of the worldwide phenomenon called Facebook.  Though Chris was not that proficient in computer programming and coding, he became interested in what his roommates were developing and offered suggestions.  Since he is outgoing and articulate, he became their group’s salesman and spokesperson during the early days of Facebook.

Like Eduardo Saverin, Chris refused to drop out from Harvard and move to Palo Alto when Facebook started to gain ground.  He finished his Bachelor of Arts in History and Literature degree from Harvard in 2006 as magna cum laude before working fulltime in Facebook’s product team.  A few months after, he left Facebook.  As Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes earned around 1% of the company’s stocks, which is estimated to worth at $850 million, making him one of the youngest millionaires in the world when he was barely 23 years old.

MyBarackObama.com, Jumo, and Beyond

Before the 2008 US Presidential Election, then-senator Obama’s personal aide, Reggie Love, asked Chris for help in putting up Obama’s Facebook page.  After leaving Facebook, Chris worked as the director of the presidential campaign’s online organizing for Obama.  He developed and ran the social media operations of Obama’s campaign.  He came up with MyBarackObama.com, the online social networking site for Obama’s presidential campaign, which was Chris’ personal project that he incorporated into Obama’s official site. 

 MyBarackObama was a kind of Facebook network for Obama’s donors, canvassers, and grassroots organizers.  Aside from engaging the young supporters for Obama, this site also helped raise around $30 million for Obama’s campaign.  In April 2009, the Fast Company magazine featured Chris and his work in the Obama campaign with its "The Kid Who Made Obama President: How Facebook Cofounder Chris Hughes Unleashed Barack's Base - and Changed Politics and Marketing Forever" headline.  Chris Hughes was 24 years old when he helped his boss into the White House.

In March 2009, the General Catalyst Partners, a venture capital firm based in Cambridge, Massachusets, named Chris as its Entrepreneur in Residence.  He also worked as Managing Director of MondayCall Solutions, as VP for Marketing of Medivo, and as Board Member of Fancy.

In 2010, he put his social media and political expertise to work by founding Jumo and working as its Executive Director.  Jumo was a non-profit social networking organization that aimed to maximize the social media to help organizations and individuals who want to change the world for the better.  In April 2011, Kerry Dolan of Forbes negotiated with Chris about Jumo and talked about helping small and medium nonprofit organizations to establish interactive online presence.  In August 2011, Jumo merged with GOOD.

Political Causes and The New Republic

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS appointed Chris Hughes to its High Level Commission, which is composed of 17 members who are renowned politicians, human rights activists, scientists, and business leaders.  In 2011, he went to St. Moritz, Switzerland to attend the Bilderberg Conference, the annual, invitation-only, and very exclusive conference attended by around 120 powerful people from around the world.

Being openly gay, he has also supported the various causes of the LGBT community. He attended the first state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama with his boyfriend Sean Eldridge, who was Freedom To Marry’s Political Director that time.  He married Sean on June 30, 2012.

In March 2012, Chris bought the majority stocks of The New Republic, a highly regarded, albeit struggling, arts and politics magazine with liberal inclination based in Washington DC.  As the Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the magazine, he promised to keep The New Republic up with the latest information technologies while upholding serious journalism.  With Chris, the guy who set off to make a better mark in the world, at the helm, The New Republic has more to celebrate in its forthcoming centennial year.