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Khan Academy hires Google's first employee

After 14 years, Craig Silverstein lights out for the not-for-profit online educational organization

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Craig Silverstein

Craig Silverstein

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

When you're the first hire at a company, your name is guaranteed to figure as a historical footnote.

Even more so when the company happens to be Google and you had a helping hand in the creation of the company's signature product. So it was that word came out today that Google's first employee, Craig Silverstein, is joining the ranks of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit educational organization.

Considered one of the key figures behind the growth of the then nascent startup -- not the least of his involvement being his collaboration with Sergey Brin and Larry Page in coding the original Google search engine -- Silverstein is remembered fondly by Google watchers who dealt with him through the years. (Steven Levy recalls Silverstein's propensity for going up and down the halls shouting out "Bread!" and then handing out loaves he'd baked.)

Check out the following video shot in 2008 at the University of North Carolina where Silverstein dishes on the early days.

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