In 2003, WordPress was created as an independent project as an offshoot of another project called b2/cafelog.
Due to its open-source nature, WordPress is nowadays developed by a large community of contributors. However, if we were to trace WordPress' origins back to its beginnings, it was created as a result of a collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
Matt Mullenweg has been the face of WordPress ever since. Furthermore, he is the founder of Automattic, the company behind the for-profit WordPress.com service.