Whitney Wolfe Herd

Whitney Wolfe Herd (born July 5, 1989) is an American entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of publicly traded Bumble, Inc, an online dating platform, launched in 2014. She is a co-founder of Tinder and was previously its Vice President of Marketing. Herd was named as one of 2017's and 2018's Forbes 30 Under 30, and, in 2018, she was named in the Time 100 List. In February 2021, Herd became the world's youngest, female, self-made billionaire when she took Bumble public. She is the youngest woman to have taken a company public in the United States, at age 31. Early life and education Wolfe Herd was born as Whitney Wolfe in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Kelly Wolfe, who was Catholic, and Michael Wolfe, a property developer, who was Jewish. Wolfe Herd attended Judge Memorial Catholic High School. When she was in sixth grade, the family went on a sabbatical in Paris, France. Wolfe Herd attended Southern Methodist University, where she majored in international studies and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. While in college and at the age of 20, she started a business selling bamboo tote bags to benefit areas affected by the BP oil spill. Wolfe Herd partnered with celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp to launch the non-profit organization called the "Help Us Project". The bags received national press after celebrities such as Rachel Zoe and Nicole Richie were photographed with them. Soon after, she introduced a second business with Aufdenkamp called "Tender Heart", a clothing line dedicated to raising awareness around human trafficking and fair trade. After graduating, Wolfe Herd traveled to Southeast Asia where she worked with orphanages.