Jimmy Wales

Born as Jimmy Donal Wales in Huntsville, Alabama, on August 7, 1966, the future internet success received an unconventional primary education. Till the eighth grade, he studied in a one-room school run by his mother and grandmother according to the Montessori method. One of its features was self-directed study to which he would later credit his own bent for innovation and perseverance. Another consequence of this study method was an unusual reading list, which in Wales? case included a whole range of encyclopedias.