Laurene Powell Jobs was already a brilliant business woman with a promising future before she met, almost by chance, the person who would be her life partner for the next 22 years. As chance would have it, one day he arrived late to a conference in 1989 and sat next to the main speaker: Steve Jobs. What happened from that moment on is part of the history of technology.
After the death of jobsLaurene inherited much of the Apple founder’s fortune, which she only had to share with Steve’s first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. Lisa, in addition to giving the name to the failed Apple projectwas the result of Jobs’ relationship at age 23.
Most of Laurene’s inheritance was Jobs’ shareholding in Apple and Disney. In 2011, these shares were valued at around 10 billion dollarsbut Jobs’ widow was very clear about what she was going to do with that money: “I am not interested in building on the legacy of an inheritance and my children know it. Steve was not interested in that. If I live long enough, that inheritance will end with me.”
The latest movements of Laurene Powell Jobs indicate that Jobs’ widow will keep her word and spend the entire fortune she inherited as Steve would have liked: dedicating herself to philanthropy until her death.
Goal: donate $3.5 billion over the next 10 years
Just like MacKenzie Scottex-wife of Jeff Bezos, Laurene Powell Jobs did not want to join her multimillion-dollar charity project to the The Giving Pledge Philanthropic Clubled by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. He has preferred to go it alone and spend his entire fortune on his own philanthropic projects that improve people’s lives and reduce the impact of climate change.
Graduated in political science and with a master’s degree in business from Stanford, the millionaire widow She is not a novice managing funds.. In addition to creating his own healthy eating company, Powell Jobs has been able to make impact investments which have allowed it to support social and environmental projects without its fortune being significantly reduced.
The value of Disney and Apple shares has increased tenfold in the last decade, however, Laurene’s current fortune is estimated at around $14 billion. That gives an idea of the volume of donations he has made in recent years.
Since the death of Steve Jobs, Laurene has created two charitable foundations on which she concentrates all her philanthropic efforts. The first is Emerson Collective which focuses on educational projects that seek to offer equal educational opportunities for groups at risk of exclusion.
The second pillar of your charitable project is Waverley Street Foundationan international initiative aimed at protecting the groups most vulnerable to climate change, supporting education, health and preservation projects of natural spaces so that people can survive in the communities where they were born.
Jobs’ widow’s project is invest 3.5 billion dollars in the next 10 years in this latest project. “I inherited my wealth from my husband, who didn’t mind accumulating it. I do this in honor of his work and have dedicated my life to doing everything I can to distribute it effectively, helping people and communities sustainably.”
This investment objective is far from 10 billion dollars that Jeff Bezos proposed to investthe $45 billion from Mark Zuckerbergthe most 160 billion from Warren Buffet or the 90% of Bill Gates’ fortune.
Laurene’s philanthropic spirit and discretion does not prevent the widow from enjoying her fortune visiting Mallorca on the Venusa family yacht designed in 2009 by Jobs himself, valued at 120 million dollars.
Jobs’ fortune does not concern the couple’s three children either, since all of them already have established careers outside the media spotlight. Reed Paul relegated his father’s last name to the background to pursue a degree in oncology at Stanford University. Erin Siena is an architect and designer. Eve Jobs has a degree in Science, Technology and Society from Stanford, although she currently makes her living as model on the main catwalks.
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Image | Flickr (TechCrunch)
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