Evan Wallace is an American entrepreneur, the self-made billionaire co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Figma, the groundbreaking web-based collaborative design platform. His career is rooted in elite computer science and graphic engineering: he attended Brown University, where he studied computer science and met his co-founder, Dylan Field.

Wallace's deep expertise lies in rendering engines, vector editors, and web graphics. He gained early notoriety for his open-source work in WebGL (Web Graphics Library), creating projects like WebGL Water and WebGL Path Tracing, demonstrating an early commitment to building complex graphics solutions that run directly in the browser—the crucial technological foundation for Figma.

Evan Wallace co-founded Figma in 2012. As the primary engineer and former CTO, his contributions were instrumental, focusing on the rendering engine, multiplayer collaboration service, and the vector/text editors—the core technical components that defined Figma's unique, successful product. His innovation was developing technology that allowed professional-grade design software to run entirely in the browser in real-time.

Wallace left the company in 2021 but remains the company's second largest individual shareholder after Dylan Field. His wealth was secured by Figma's massive valuation, culminating in its successful IPO in 2025 (which saw the stock triple on debut). His commitment to philanthropy is remarkable: a month before the IPO, Wallace donated a third of his Figma stock to the nonprofit Marin Community Foundation, a gift valued at nearly $440 million based on the IPO listing price, making him a major figure in technology philanthropy.

Evan Wallace's social impact is structural, stemming from Figma's role in revolutionizing digital design and collaboration. His engineering expertise made professional design accessible to millions. His most significant social impact is his massive stock donation to the Marin Community Foundation, providing a colossal resource for various local community and social causes.

His career provides a unique example of a technically brilliant founder choosing a path of financial independence and large-scale, structural philanthropy outside of the day-to-day executive spotlight.

Evan Wallace maintains the functional, intellectual style of a world-class graphics engineer. His attire is consistently simple and pragmatic, favoring comfortable, high-quality casual wear. His aesthetic is anti-corporate, focused on open-source engineering and product performance.

Residing in San Francisco, California, his luxury is the autonomy and security derived from his multi-billion dollar fortune. His life is dedicated to continuing his work on open-source software (like esbuild) and his profound commitment to structural philanthropy.