Patrick M. Byrne is an American entrepreneur who was the CEO of Overstock.com. He resigned in August 2019, following revelations that he had been in an intimate relationship with Maria Butina. Jonathan E. Johnson will serve as interim CEO until a replacement is named by the board. Byrne became known for his campaign against illegal naked short selling. He has advocated for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
About Patrick M. Byrne in brief
Patrick M. Byrne is an American entrepreneur who was the CEO of Overstock. com. In 1999, Byrne launched Overstock, after leading two smaller companies, including one owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. He resigned in August 2019, following revelations that he had been in an intimate relationship with Maria Butina and comments he made promoting the Deep State conspiracy theory. Jonathan E. Johnson will serve as interim CEO until a replacement is named by the board. Byrne became known for his campaign against illegal naked short selling. Byrne has advocated for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. In January 2014, overstock.com became the first major online retailer to accept bitcoin. Byrne was the largest donor to political causes in Utah during 2003–2006, while his father was the third-largest. He is a cancer survivor, and has ridden a bicycle across the country to raise awareness and money for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Byrne abruptly resigned his board seat and position as CEO after it was revealed he had an affair with a Russian agent. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies from Dartmouth College, a master’s degree from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph. D. in philosophy from Stanford University. He holds a certificate from Beijing Normal University, and was a teaching fellow at Stanford University from 1989 to 1991.
He served as chairman, president and CEO of Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torches, then held the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc. He is the son of John J. Byrne, former chairman of GEICO’s GEICO insurance subsidiary and White Mountains Insurance Group. In September the same year he took over as CEO, and the following month the company was renamed Overstock com. Byrne initiated a Dutch auction IPO of Over Stock. com in 2002. The company was one of the first to go public under a system advanced by WR Hambrecht + Co to retain a greater share of capital within the company rather than going to the investment bank underwriters used in conventional public offerings. Byrne said that competing banks reacted against this, attempting to obstruct the success of the offering through negative reports and by shorting the company’s stock. Byrne commented that Wall Street firms similarly pushed negative stories, but did not keep it from going forward successfully. Four years after the OpenIPO, its now former co-CEO Clay Corbus was added to Overstock’s board of directors. He said that the conspirators were part of a ‘Miscreants Ball, but said he refused to identify the master criminals’
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