Mark Zuckerberg, one of Harvard University’s most famous dropouts, is returning to campus on Thursday to deliver a commencement address and finally get a degree – if only an honorary one.
As the Facebook Inc. co-founder shares his wisdom, the Boston area is also trying to learn its own lesson from the Zuckerberg saga: how to get tech-minded students to stay put in the first place.
Zuckerberg’s much-anticipated visit demonstrates a harsh reality for the region. Boston may call itself the Hub (of the universe, that is). But it’s more of a tongue-in-cheek moniker because everyone knows it isn’t so – certainly not in the tech world.
The young, as ever, head West. Zuckerberg, who grew up in New York’s suburban Westchester County, left Harvard after two years in 2004. He moved to Silicon Valley to launch Facebook, based on a venture he started as an undergraduate.
Zuckerberg is now the world’s fifth-richest person, with a $64.2 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The world’s richest human, Bill Gates, dropped out of Harvard in 1975, the same year he co-founded Microsoft Corp. (He got his own Harvard honorary degree in 2007.)
Harvard attracts students from all over the world, and it’s no easy feat to keep the tech-minded nearby, according to Jeffrey Bussgang, a Harvard graduate and venture capitalist at Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. He started a seed fund, called The Graduate Syndicate, specifically to invest in startups by recent Harvard graduates.
“I hope to find the next Zuckerberg,” Bussgang added.
Biotech Hub
In 2010, Boston promoted a fast-developing seaport area – once a vast swath of parking lots -- as its “Innovation District.” Thrilling business leaders, General Electric Co. in 2016 relocated its headquarters there from Fairfield, Connecticut. Cambridge, the Boston suburb that is home to Harvard, is also a major center for biotechnology, including the headquarters Genzyme Corp. and Biogen Inc.
For its part, Harvard is celebrating Zuckerberg, without dwelling too heavily on his defection after leaving the school to live in Palo Alto, California, home of rival Stanford University. Sadly, for Harvard, that meant Facebook is based in nearby Menlo Park, not Cambridge.