Zuckerberg’s fortune to top $28b

Facebook Inc.'s impending initial public offering will likely net its 27-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg a fortune of $28 billion, Nypost.com reported.

According to IPO paperwork Facebook filed Wednesday, Zuckerberg owns 28.2 percent of the soon-to-be-public company, and is its single largest shareholder.

If Facebook raises money at a high-end valuation of $100 billion dollars, Zuckerberg's stock would be worth $28 billion. On top of his stock, last year Zuckerberg was paid $1.49 million in salary, bonus and other compensation for his role as chief executive, according to the filing.

A net worth of $28 billion would have placed Zuckerberg at number nine in Forbes magazine's rich list last year, following tech luminaries Bill Gates and Larry Ellison.

But even as Zuckerberg vaults into the pantheon of the world's richest people, the young entrepreneur has already proven he doesn't intend to act like a typical billionaire.

Zuckerberg grew up in Dobbs Ferry, NY, the son of a dentist and psychiatrist. He graduated from high school at the elite Phillips Exeter Academy, where he honed his talents in science and the classics.

In the nearly eight years since Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his Harvard College dorm room, the entrepreneur has grown from a college sophomore into a leading voice for a new generation of technology entrepreneurs.

In the early years after Zuckerberg moved his start-up to Palo Alto, Calif., he was known for wearing Adidas flip-flops to business meetings and placing little priority on building out an advertising business for his growing social network. He handed out business cards reading, "I'm CEO, b*tch."

Today, Zuckerberg has upgraded his wardrobe to Brooks running shoes and even dons a sports coat for special meetings, like with President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey. And his social network has become so important to many big advertisers that they run Super Bowl ads directing customers to Facebook.