Steve Kirsch

Kirsch received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.

In 1980, Kirsch and Richard F. Lyon independently invented the first versions of the optical mouse. Kirsch has started several companies. In 1993, he founded the search engine Infoseek, which in 1999 was sold to the Walt Disney Co. He co-founded Frame Technology Corp., bought by Adobe in 1995. In 2002 he was CEO of Propel Software.

In 2005 he founded Abaca, which made a spam filter.

In September 2011, he started OneID to create a user-centric Internet-scale digital identity system using public key cryptography to replace usernames and passwords with a digital identity compatible with the NSTIC goals.

Sometime before March 2021, Kirsch started M10, which markets blockchains for banks, but the board asked him to step down in the summer of 2021 amid controversy generated by his statements on COVID treatments and vaccines.

Kirsch and his wife, Michele, fund a charitable foundation, which by 2007 had given $75 million to different causes. Kirsch also was a noted contributor to Democratic Party related funds. In 2007, his personal fortune was estimated at $230 million; that same year he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer and funded research into experimental treatments for it, eventually refocusing the family foundation on medical research. As of 1998 the couple lived in Los Altos and had two children.