Most people place a high value on keeping a promise. For GoPro billionaire Nick Woodman’s college roommate, it turned out to be worth $229 million.
Woodman made good on a 10-year-old promise by returning 4.7 million shares to the camera company on May 11, according to a Bloomberg report.
The verbal agreement was struck in GoPro’s early days when Woodman tapped Neil Dana as his first employee and agreed to give him 10% of any proceeds Woodman received from the sale of his company’s shares.
The promise was in effect until 2011 when GoPro, which was growing quickly and seeking to go public, cancelled the agreement by giving Dana 6 million in options to be exercised at any time.
Woodman agreed to reimburse the company out of his own pocket when those options were exercised.
Dana, who attended the University of California at San Diego with Woodman, decided to exercise those options, spending $3.6 million to obtain the shares. He now owns 5% of the company.
The move, widely praised as generous, honorable and even unusual, won’t put Woodman in the poor house.
Even with the payout, his net worth stands at $2.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Last year, he learned $285.3 million, making him the highest-paid U.S. executive, Bloomberg reported.
Woodman, 39, founded GoPro in 2002 after he took a surf trip to Australia and discovered he wasn’t able to capture quality action photos.
Based in San Mateo, Calif., the company makes compact, lightweight cameras and camcorders typically used in extreme action photography that can be worn or mounted on vehicles. They capture still photos or video in high definition through a wide-angle lens and average about a few hundred dollars each.
GoPro had an initial public offering in 2014, raising more than $425 million, which was significantly more than expected. Traded on the NASDAQ as GPRO, it reported sales of $1.4 billion in 2014, up 41% from the previous year, and was considered a top gift this past holiday season.
Despite the sudden wealth, Dana keeps a low profile. He still works at GoPro as director of music and specialty sales.
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