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the remarker | Friday, May 17, 2013
PHOTOS COURTESTY OF JAMES WANG ’99
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COVER PHOTO James Wang ’99 (left) and Ben Mathews ’99 (right) stand next to Dr. Stephen Balog, their former AP physics teacher and long-time friend. The alumni keep in touch with Balog and other teachers regularly.
Timelines
‘It’s this thing called Facebook,’ James Wang told his science mentor Dr. Stephen Balog. Little did the two of them know that this alum would soon be doing revolutionary work in social media.
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hen James Wang ’99 told Dr. Stephen Balog that he’s working for a new company, Balog didn’t think much of it. “He said, ‘Well, it’s this thing called Facebook,’” Balog recounts, “and this was before it really exploded, still very much a college thing. He was telling me it was a way kids connect and keep track of each other. Never could I think of why that would be important.” And little did Balog expect just how “important” Wang and fellow alum Ben Mathews’ ’99 contributions would be to the world. In 2006, Wang quit his job working as an engineer for Microsoft and followed his Harvard colleagues to the then up and coming Facebook, becoming its 30th engineer and 80th employee overall. “I had a few good friends from Harvard who went to work at Microsoft with me after we all graduated,” he said. “A couple of years later, a recruiter at Facebook reached out to those friends, and when I heard they were all going to accept jobs at Facebook, I was very intrigued and learned more about the company. I really enjoyed working at Microsoft, but I felt like I could take some
risks and do something a little less conventional.” For the first one and a half years as an engineer, Wang assisted in developing the Facebook platform, news feed, privacy controls and share. “In the early days, we worked extremely long hours, seven days a week, but we also had a lot of fun,” he said. “Shortly after the launch of platform in May 2007, I became an engineering manager, and in January 2008 I started focusing on user growth.” One month later, Wang brought another alum, Mathews, to Facebook. At that point, still, Facebook only had 500 employees and just over 100 engineers. “It’s no coincidence that Ben works for Facebook – I helped recruit him to join,” Wang said. “Ben and I are very close friends. We stayed in close contact all through college even though we were on opposite coasts, and when he joined Facebook, we were actually roommates [in San Francisco] for two years.” For the first part of his career, Mathews worked on the company’s general infrastructure team, which worked to optimize the web servers
and use less CPU. As the company grew and more specialized teams were established, Mathews worked on front-end performance, trying to make Facebook’s pages load faster and maintaining the infrastructure that served static resources such as JavaScript. “Facebook has been an incredibly fast-growing company,” he said. “The experience of being part of such a fast growth has been really amazing and instructive.” He was telling it was a way kids connect and keep track of each other. Never could I think of why that would be important. Cecil H. and Ida Green Master teacher dr. Stephen Balog
During that time, Wang’s responsibilities also grew, taking on more leadership roles. From 2008 to 2011, Wang took charge of Facebook’s registration, friend-finding, virality products, translations framework and internationalization strategy. By 2010, he was promoted to director of engineering. In June 2011, however, Wang decided to take some time off. “When my sabbatical ended in February 2012, I decided to return as an individual contributor,” he
said, “so I worked as an engineer on Facebook’s iOS team, developing a new application for the iPhone and iPad. I tremendously enjoyed working at Facebook, but I eventually felt that there was more for me to learn and do beyond Facebook, so I left the company in November.” fter taking a few months off, Wang now is an engineer in residence for a venture capital firm called The Social+Capital Partnership. Former Facebook employees face the challenge of finding a meaningful career after leaving, since they’ll constantly compare the impact they make with what they made at Facebook, Wang says. “For me, I’m taking it slowly, focusing on finding a mission and a team that really fits me,” he said. “I think I’ll know it when I see it, and when that happens I’ll be ready to dive back in. [Working at The Social+Capital Partnership] is a way for me to meet a lot of startups, to share some of my advice and experience with them, and to possibly find a startup that I’d like to join on a full-time basis.” Mathews stayed with Facebook working on the security infrastructure team, which detects security issues automatically, maintain a number of common security libraries and make it easier for engineers to write safe codes. He also wrote the framework of safe and reliable
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account deletion. “Facebook has given me exposure to an incredible range of challenges and technologies, and I think that will valuable to me through the rest of my life and career,” he said. As much as these two alumni have made a difference in the largest social networking company, and thereby the world, the company has made a significant impact in their lives. Facebook later became more successful than he could have imagined, which really was just icing on the cake, Wang said. “I said many times that even if nothing came of it,” Wang said, “it was worth it just to have the experience of working at a startup with a group of close friends and amazingly smart and talented colleagues. I still remember how thrilling it was when I was on a trip in Australia in early 2008 and overheard some high school students at a nearby table talking about their photos on Facebook. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m actually having an impact on people all over the world.’”
Top Social Media Sites by active users • • •
Facebook Google+ Twitter
693,000,000 343,000,000 288,000,000
timelines story by Alex Kim, news editor, and Kevin He, staff writer
Marksmen Ball set for tomorrow at Belo Mansion By Roby Mize staff writer The Marksmen Ball will be held tomorrow evening at the Belo Mansion and Pavilion in downtown Dallas. The ball is from 6:30 p.m. to midnight and the main events of the evening will be the unveiling of the 2013 Marksmen yearbook, the announcement of the yearbook dedicatee and the mother-son dance. “The mother-son dance makes the ball very special,” Charla Smart, mother of Duncan Smart ’12 and freshman Philip Smart, said. “It’s a great tradition, and it has a special place in my heart. The dance shows our sons growing up and entering a new stage in their lives.” As the culminating school sponsored dance, the Ball is an important event in many people’s eyes. Not only mothers think this ball is special. Students do as well. “The ball will be infinitely more special because the faculty are invited by the Senior Class, parents go, guys dance with their moms, the yearbook is dedicated, and it’s just one of the last major events for the se-
niors,” senior Cameron Hillier said. The band for the dance is Professor D, a popular party band that has performed at events like the NBA finals. “Professor D is a well-known local band with good versatility and a great reputation,” Senior Class president Dylan Kirksey said, “and we heard great things about them from the people who saw them play at the Dubante Ball.” The yearbook dedication, a 54-year tradition, here, is one of the evening’s highlights. Last year’s yearbook was dedicated to Victor F. White Master Teacher David Brown.
Dedication
Besides David Brown, last year’s honoree, here are recent faculty members who have received the Marksmen dedication: 2011 Dr. Martin Stegemoeller 2010 Valencia Yarbrough 2009 Larry Cavitt 2008 Frank Jordan 2007 Warren Foxworth