Jeffrey Skoll

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Jeffrey Skoll (born 1965) is a Canadian born businessman who lives in San Jose, California. He was the first employee of internet auction firm eBay, and used the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist and to found the independent movie production company Participant Productions.

1 Early life
2 Skoll's eBay era
3 Participant Productions
4 Philanthropies
5 See also
6 References
- 6.1 General references
- 6.2 Specific references
7 External links

[edit] Early life

Jeff Skoll was born in Montreal, Quebec^[1], his mother a teacher ^[2] and his father a chemical company owner who sold industrial chemicals^[3]

Following the 1976 election of the Separatist Parti Québécois as the government of the Province of Quebec, like more than 400,000 other Anglo-Quebecers, Skoll's family (who were members of Montreal's Jewish community) decided to leave Quebec. The family settled in Toronto.

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. A keen reader, Skoll was influenced by authors such as Aldous Huxley and Ayn Rand and intended to become an author writing motivational books and books on tackling the world's problems.

He graduated with a B.A.Sc. in 1987 from the University of Toronto's electrical engineering program. While an undergraduate student, he co-edited the engineering students' satirical newspaper The Toike Oike. He paid his way through college by pumping gas in North York, Ontario. After graduating he backpacked around the world for several months before returning and founding two businesses in Toronto: Skoll Engineering, an information technology consulting firm and Micros on the Move Ltd., a computer rental firm. Those businesses did poorly so he decided to improve his business skills with further study.

He left Canada in 1993 to study a Masters of Business Administration at Stanford Business School, graduating in 1995. After Stanford he went to work at Knight-Ridder where he was working on internet projects for the publishing company.

[edit] Skoll's eBay era

In 1996 Skoll met eBay's founder Pierre Omidyar who hired him as the company's first president and second full-time employee. While eBay was already profitable at the time Skoll joined, he wrote the business plan that eBay followed from its emergence as a start-up to a great success. He 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 1998, he championed the creation of the eBay Foundation which was allocated pre-IPO stock now worth $32 million. Once eBay's second largest stockholder (behind only Omidyar) he subsequently cashed out of the company, yielding him around $2 billion ^[4]^[2].

[edit] Participant Productions

Skoll is also the CEO of Participant Productions, a Los Angeles based media company he created to fund feature films and documentaries that promote social values while still being commercially viable. Its first three films are Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, and North Country.

[edit] Philanthropies

Skoll is a noted philanthropist and has been honoured several times for his generosity. In 2003 he was given an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of Toronto. He gave the eponymous Skoll Foundation $250 million of eBay stock. The Foundation supports "social entrepreneurship." Skoll chairs the Foundation.

Skoll's largest charitable donation was a $7.5 million contribution to endow the first Canadian dual degree program for gifted students where they obtain a Bachelors degree in Engineering and an MBA in a special program of six years and eight months at the University of Toronto. He has also funded the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, at Said Business School, Oxford University, which undertakes research in social entrepreneurship, co-ordinates the Skoll World Forum and provides scholarships for the Oxford MBA program to five young social entrepreneurs.

Skoll is on the board of directors of the eBay Foundation and the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, the Advisory board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and several other community organizations.

In addition, Skoll has financed The Gandhi Project in partnership with Kamran Elahian which created a dubbed version in Arabic of the film Gandhi. They used Palestinian voice actors and artists to make the film particularly relevant to Palestinians. With Skoll's support, it is being screened throughout Palestine to promote non-violence, self-reliance, economic development, and empowerment.