Early Life and Education
Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild was born on February 28, 1954. His father, William B. Rothschild, was president of M. Rothschild & Company. Jeff Rothschild received his Bachelor of Arts/Science and Master of Science degrees from Vanderbilt University in 1977 and 1979, respectively.
Rise to Success
Rothschild's career began with engineering roles at Honeywell and Intel. In 1988, he co-founded Veritas Software, later merged with Symantec in 2005. He also co-founded Mpath Interactive in 1995. In 1999, he became an advisor and venture partner at Accel Partners. In 2005, Rothschild joined Facebook as the Vice President of Infrastructure Software, and was the oldest employee at the time. He played a crucial role in Facebook's growth, particularly in scaling its infrastructure to support its rapid user growth. By 2012, he owned 18 million shares of Facebook.
Key Business Strategies
Rothschild's key contributions lie in his engineering expertise and his ability to build and scale the technical infrastructure of fast-growing companies. At Facebook, he was instrumental in designing and stabilizing the company's backend systems, ensuring reliability during its explosive growth phase. His experience as a co-founder of multiple companies provided a strong foundation for his work at Facebook.
Philanthropy
Rothschild is involved in philanthropy and serves as the vice chair of the board of trustees of Vanderbilt University. He and his wife endowed two scholarships in the School of Engineering and the College of Arts and Science in 2013. He also donated $20 million for the construction of two new buildings on campus in December 2016, contributing to the university's educational infrastructure.
