1987). Additionally, Hugh Hefner founded Playboy Enterprises (1953), Thomas Siebel co-founded Siebel Systems (1993), and Jerry Yue founded Brain Technologies, Inc. (2010). Other prominent companies like Yelp (2004) and YouTube (2005) were co-founded by Jeremy Stoppelman, Russel Simmons, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Alumni have also led several companies, including McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, BP, Kodak, Shell, General Motors, AT&T, and General Electric and others.
Alumni have founded many organizations, including the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Project Gutenberg, and have served in a wide variety of government and public interest roles. Rafael Correa, President of The Republic of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, secured his M.S. and PhD degrees from the university's Economics Department in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Nathan C. Ricker attended U of I and in 1873 was the first person to graduate in the United States with a certificate in architecture. Mary L. Page, the first woman to obtain a degree in architecture, …
