Overstock.com, Inc., a Utah-based online retailer, has been publicly listed since 2002 under the leadership of Dr. Patrick M. Byrne. Byrne led the firm from $1.8 million in 1999 to $760.2 million in 2007 as a result of his leadership.
Ever since Patrick took over Overstock.com in 1999, almost every media source, including the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Fortune, CBS Marketwatch, and BusinessWeek, has been clamoring for his attention…
To begin with, Patrick M. Byrne was a senior executive at a firm that manufactured industrial torch consumables and a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary that manufactured police, fireman and military uniforms before he founded Overstock.com.
A decade later, Overstock.com launched Worldstock.com, a socially responsible marketplace for handmade goods from artists in poor countries and the United States that he helped launch. In order to give suppliers a bigger share of the sales profits, Overstock keeps the margins on certain goods low. About 60% of the proceeds goto the craftspeople on average.
Byrne thinks that a healthy society is built on the foundations of both economic freedom and education. After opening 19 schools across the world, Byrne has established himself as a spokesman for educational liberalism in the United States. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice is where he spends a lot of time. As a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University, he received a master’s degree in philosophy from the university and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University’s School of Philosophy.
For Byrne, the ideals of free market capitalism are more important than personal gain. Wall Street has reacted angrily to his call for increased SEC regulation and government enforcement actions to combat different types of securities manipulation by significant stock market players, a stance that he has strongly pushed.
Byrne holds a black belt in tae kwon do and was a professional boxer in his younger years… For the last four years, he has cycled throughout the nation. In the summer of 2000, he completed one last journey to benefit the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s cancer research efforts.
One of his lesser-known accomplishments is that he has battled cancer three times and has cycled across the nation to raise both awareness and funds for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
He also co-chairs the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice with Rose Friedman. Milton and Rose Friedman formed this non-profit organization, which advocates for school vouchers and other types of educational choice.
For starters, Patrick M. Byrne possesses a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese studies from Dartmouth College, making him an extremely well-qualified candidate. For his Master’s degree, he was awarded a Marshall Scholarship, and he went on to get a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University after that. The Beijing Normal University also awarded him a certificate of completion.