Jeff Skoll has a track record of creating businesses that result in positive social change. As eBay's founding President, he developed the company's first business plan, generating entrepreneurial opportunities for millions of individuals around the world. He also pioneered creation of the eBay Foundation through the allocation of pre-IPO shares.
In 1999, he launched the Skoll Foundation, for which he serves as Founder and Chairman. The Skoll Foundation provides unrestricted financing and services to leading social entrepreneurs whose innovations are poised to achieve large-scale impact. The foundation's leveraged strategy derives from his core belief that it is in everyone's interest to shift the overwhelming imbalance between the "haves" and "have-nots" in order to bring about a more peaceful and prosperous global community.
In 2004, Jeff Skoll founded Participant Productions (now Participant Media) and serves as Chairman. Inspired by classic films such as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, GANDHI and ERIN BROCKOVICH, Skoll envisioned Participant as an independent global media company focused on creating entertainment content that would have a long-term benefit to society. Since then, Skoll has served as executive producer on Participant’s films GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. (which received six Academy Award® nominations including Best Picture), NORTH COUNTRY (which received two Academy Award® nominations), SYRIANA (for which George Clooney won an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor), AMERICAN GUN, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (which won two Academy Awards®, including Best Feature Documentary), THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET, FAST FOOD NATION, ANGELS IN THE DUST, JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS, DARFUR NOW, THE KITE RUNNER (which was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Score), CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR (which was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor—Philip Seymour Hoffman), CHICAGO 10, THE VISITOR AND STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, amongst others.
In 2004, the Skoll Foundation partnered with the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford to create the Skoll World Forum. The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is an international event which convenes social entrepreneurs, thought leaders, policy makers, philanthropists and students from around the world to focus on learning, problem solving and community building. Last year, the event attracted approximately 800 delegates from 40 different countries.
In 2005, Skoll launched the Gandhi Project in conjunction with Relief International Schools Online, producer Jake Eberts, director Hanna Elias and Sir Ben Kingsley to create an Arabic version of the Academy Award® winning Best Picture, GANDHI. Their intention was to screen the film for the Palestinian people to promote Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of peaceful resistance and self-sufficiency. Over a period of two and a half years, they screened the film in cities, villages and refugee camps throughout the Palestinian territories and reached approximately 100,000 people. The film is currently being shown in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. Most recently, it was screened at the 2008 Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, where Skoll was presented with an honorary Black Pearl Award for his ethical contributions to cinema.
Skoll’s recent honors and awards include Time Magazine's 100 People of the Year (2006), Wired Magazine's Rave Award (2006), Business Week’s list of most innovative philanthropists (2002 through present), the National Leadership Award for Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley (2004), the Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the International Association of Fundraising Professionals (2003) and the Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (2002). In addition, in 2003, Jeff was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto.
Skoll serves on the board of the National Center for Arts and Technology and on the advisory board for The Elders. Earlier this year, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Skoll holds a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
First job: Pumping gas in Toronto while in high school. It was a full service station and it was so cold in winter at times that I had to put petroleum jelly on any exposed skin or it would freeze!
What he would change about the world:The world is a small and inter-connected place. We cannot ignore the plight of others in less fortunate communities or parts of the world... many of the blights of the modern world (environmental destruction, crime, drugs, terrorism) emerge from the inequities between haves and have-nots.
