26 Facts About Jeff Skoll

Jeff Skoll was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly through the Skoll Foundation, and his media company Participant Media.

Jeff Skoll founded an investment firm, Capricorn Investment Group, soon after and currently serves as its chairman.

Jeff Skoll was born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Jeff Skoll's mother was a teacher and his father was a chemical company owner who sold industrial chemicals.

When Jeff Skoll was fourteen, his father was diagnosed with cancer which prompted him to discuss with his son how much he regretted not having had the time to do everything he had planned in life.

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Jeff Skoll graduated with a BASc with honours in 1987 from the University of Toronto's electrical engineering program.

Jeff Skoll paid his way through college by pumping gas in North York, Ontario.

Jeff Skoll left Canada in 1993 to earn a Master of Business Administration degree at Stanford Business School, graduating in 1995.

In 1996 Jeff Skoll met eBay's founder Pierre Omidyar, who hired him as the company's first president and first full-time employee.

Jeff Skoll remained President until the arrival of Meg Whitman in January 1998 when he became Vice President, Strategic Planning and Analysis until back problems necessitated his departure from full-time employment at the company.

In 2004, Jeff Skoll founded the company Participant to create films that increase public awareness of critical social issues and give audiences opportunities to get involved through education and social action campaigns.

Jeff Skoll has served as Executive Producer or Producer on nearly 100 Participant films, including Spotlight, Roma, and American Factory, and as of 2019 Participant has won 18 Oscars and received 73 Academy Award nominations.

Jeff Skoll is a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and a Giving Pledge signatory.

Jeff Skoll has given the eponymous Skoll Foundation approximately $1 billion of eBay stock since its formation in 1999.

In 2009, Jeff Skoll donated $100 million to create the Jeff Skoll Global Threats Fund to confront threats including climate change, water security, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, and Middle East conflict.

Jeff Skoll wanted the film be scientifically sound and encourage funding of medical experts; In 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic media coverage noted it was "shocking in its accuracy".

In January 2020, Jeff Skoll donated $20 million, and an additional $100 million in April, to the Jeff Skoll Foundation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jeff Skoll is active in "collaborative philanthropy" and has joined with other philanthropists and foundations to pool resources that then flow to non-profits focused on addressing specific issues at scale.

In 2017, Jeff Skoll, joined with philanthropists Richard Chandler, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Romesh Wadhwani, Kathy Wadhwani, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Olivia Leland, to create Co-Impact, a philanthropic funding collaborative seeded with $500 million, whose "specific aim is to fund organizations that are addressing health, education and economic opportunity in low-to-middle income countries".

Jeff Skoll has funded the creation of academic centers at two universities.

In 2003, Jeff Skoll funded the creation of the Jeff Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University's Said Business School.

In 2019, Jeff Skoll funded the creation of the Jeff Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

In 2005, Jeff Skoll financed The Gandhi Project in partnership with Relief International which created a dubbed version in Arabic of the film Gandhi.

Jeff Skoll is a member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council.

Jeff Skoll was one of the earliest proponents of socially responsible investing, called "impact investing", through which he invests in for-profit companies whose mission is to deliver both social impact and financial returns.

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In 2001, Jeff Skoll created Capricorn Investment Group "on the premise of socially responsible investing" and the firm now oversees more than $5 billion in client assets and another $3.