A computer screen displaying Wikipedia's home page.
A computer screen displaying Wikipedia's home page.Adobe Stock
If you hadn’t heard William Chisholm’s name until Thursday morning, don’t worry — most people on the world’s best-known free encyclopedia didn’t either.
Chisholm, a private equity executive and Essex County native, is leading a group that agreed to buy the Celtics for $6.1 billion. But Boston fans hoping to learn about their team’s prospective new owner may have been surprised to find there was no Wikipedia page about him.
Wikipedians work quickly, though. An article under Chisholm’s name was created by 11:52 a.m. Thursday, just two hours after the Globe broke the news. The page was a single sentence, with an advisory at the top: “This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring.”
As of Friday morning, the page had been fleshed out to several paragraphs, adding details of the sale, the largest in North American sports history, and Chisholm’s biography.
Only a few articles link to Chisholm’s so far, including the main Celtics page and a disambiguation page for other notable William Chisholms — namely, a medieval Scottish bishop and a 19th century Canadian politician.
The creator of the article goes by the username BeanieFan11. When reached by the Globe, the person using the account declined to be quoted by name.
Under Wikipedia guidelines, public figures must be meet certain “notability” criteria to have articles written about them, such as having significant news coverage.
There were relatively few items online about Chisholm before last week, when he was announced as one of the four finalists in the bidding process. While he has been a successful investor in technology companies, for most of his career he has operated without much fanfare.
Chisholm, a native of Georgetown, is a Dartmouth College graduate who co-founded the Symphony Technology Group in 2002. STG is based in Menlo Park, Calif., though Chisholm owns a home on Nantucket and intends to buy a home in Boston.
His early business career was centered around early-stage technology investing as well as investment banking, before moving into private equity. He spent time with Boston-based Bain & Company, one of the “Big Three” management consulting companies, and cofounded the Valent Group, a venture capital and risk consulting firm.
Chisholm’s purchase of the team, which still needs to be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, will transfer majority ownership from a group headed by Wyc Grousbeck, who bought the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million. Under Grousbeck’s ownership, they won NBA championships in 2008 and 2024.
Material from previous Globe coverage was used.
Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.