Meet Mark Zuckerberg’s 3 sisters who are equally rich

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Mark Zuckerberg may be one of the most recognisable names and faces on the planet, but his three sisters refused to cash in on his fame and wealth.

Instead, they carved themselves a niche in professions of their choice without much help from their brother.

While Mark tasted massive success at an early age as co-founder of Facebook, his parents were financially well-placed from the start.

His mother, Karen, is a psychiatrist and his father, Edward Zuckerberg, is a renowned dentist in Dobbs Ferry, the affluent New York village where Mark and his three sisters grew up.

All the Zuckerberg kids, who are of Jewish descent, received good education and equal opportunities, and earned themselves a distinguished place in their respective fields.

While his achievements could be daunting for siblings growing up in his shadow, the Meta Platforms founder and CEO’s sisters didn’t let their billionaire brother’s success get in the way of theirs.

Here’s a look at the professional prowess of the lesser-known, high-achieving Zuckerbergs.

Meet Randi Zuckerberg

Mark’s oldest sister is one of Facebook’s first employees. She was associated with the social networking platform even before it was poised to take over the world’s online social behaviour.

Though she was instrumental in the early development of Facebook Live, a feature that has been at the centre of multiple controversies, Randi herself did not endorse the idea a few years hence, according to Nicki Swift.

She told CNN Business she was “young and idealistic” at the time and wasn’t thinking about the potential for people to live stream crimes.

In 1999, Randi began studying psychology at Harvard and had hoped to join the university’s music department. However, she was turned down.

After graduating from Harvard (unlike her brother who infamously dropped out to focus on Facebook), Randi worked in marketing for advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather for two years.

She then went on to join Forbes on Fox as a production assistant for a year before joining Facebook in 2004.

Mark, who was in the initial stages of building the social media platform, asked Randi to join the company which was short-staffed. He was in need of people who could travel and explain the vision of Facebook.

Though Randi was already working her dream job and was on track for professional progress, she relocated and accepted the Facebook job because she thought it would be temporary.

She took a pay cut while joining Facebook, but received stock options.

What started as a stop-gap in ‘Silicon Valley’ turned into a passion. Randi was excited by the many opportunities in the tech world and she went on to complete a six-year stint before resigning in 2011.

According to Business Insider, since quitting Facebook, Randi has forged her own path and is one of the first Zuckerberg sisters to admit that her brother’s professional identity was beginning to overshadow hers with publications referring to her as “Mark Zuckerberg’s sister”.

A year after leaving Facebook, she created her own production company, Zuckerberg Media, which has produced shows and digital content for renowned names such as the Clinton Global Initiative, Cirque du Soleil, the United Nations and Condé Nast.

While her production company has kept her relatively occupied, she has also managed to pen multiple books including three adult non-fiction books and two children’s picture books.

In recent years, Randy has also revisited her musical passions with a guest appearance in a 2014 production of Rock of Ages on Broadway.

The mother of two, who is married to Brent Tworetzky, the executive vice-president of product at the XO Group, also hosts a radio show called Dot Complicated where she regularly chats with entrepreneurs and leaders in the tech industry.

Meet Donna Zuckerberg

Donna Zuckerberg is the third of the four Zuckerberg siblings and the only one to shun working in Technology.

Unlike her tech-savvy siblings, according to her website, Donna is “a classicist, writer, and editor-in-chief of Eidolon, an online publication committed to non-traditional classical scholarship that is feminist, personal, and fun.”

The publication was shut down in 2020.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in classics at Princeton University in 2014.

She has served as board member and director of communications for the Paideia Institute for Humanistic Study, which she co-founded in 2012.

Her work has been published in many popular publications, including the Times Literary Supplement, Jezebel, The Establishment, and Avidl.

She is the author of several renowned books including Not All Dead White Men, about the appropriation of classics by misogynist groups on the Internet.

Though her brother is one of the pioneers in social media, Donna told The Guardian, “Social media has elevated misogyny to new levels of violence”, perhaps confirming her disapproval of the medium.

The mother of two is the recipient of the 2017–18 Award for Special Service from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.

Meet Arielle Zuckerberg

The youngest Zuckerberg sibling is a venture capitalist with a successful career and is currently serving as the general partner at Long Journey Ventures.

Arielle graduated from Claremont McKenna College and worked at two acquired startups, Wildfire Interactive and Humin. She is also a personal investor in companies including Flipkart and Houzz, according to Forbes.

Apart from her expertise in tech and investment, Arielle is also a part time DJ.

According to Business Insider, Mark tried to get Ariella to join Facebook in the early years of her career, but she set out on her own path and decided to join Wildfire instead as a product manager. Wildfire was later acquired by Google.

Ariella refused to capitalise on her successful family name, owing to the careers of her older siblings, and revealed to the New York Post why she didn’t work for Facebook.

“Who wants to work for their older brother?” she asked wryly.