Meet the Canadian billionaire who’s giving it all away
Jeffrey Skoll is a dot-com legend – perhaps less famous for being rich than for how he got that way. As past president of eBay Inc., and its first full-time employee, he became a billionaire when the iconic online auction house went public in 1998, leaving three years later to put his new fortune – and creative energy – to good use.
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Mr. Skoll is the only Canadian among the 81 billionaires to sign The Giving Pledge in the two years since Bill Gates and Mr. Buffett called on the superrich to stop hoarding their wealth. He has already parted with half of his net worth, and expects 95 per cent to be gone when he is done.
“There’s really only so much that you need, or your family needs,” he says during an wide-ranging, hour-long conversation this week. “All else is to be turned, hopefully smartly, into a benefit for the world.”
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