Executives

Jeff Skoll

Founder and Chairman
 
Jeff Skoll founded Participant Productions in January, 2004 and serves as Chairman.  Skoll's vision for Participant is to create a longterm, independent, global media company focused on longterm benefit to society.  Citing classic films such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Gandhi and Erin Brockovich as examples, Skoll most recently served as executive producer on Participant films Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, Syriana, American Gun and An Inconvenient Truth and on upcoming films, The World According to Sesame Street and Fast Food Nation.

Skoll has been a leader in technology and philanthropy for many years.  In 1996, Skoll joined eBay as its first President and first full-time employee, and developed the company's business plan.  After helping to bring CEO Meg Whitman to the company in 1998, Skoll became the VP of Strategic Planning and Analysis at eBay and led the company's acquisition, community development and new business efforts through 2001.  In the months before eBay went public in 1998, Skoll led the company's effort to give back to the community, creating the eBay Foundation through an allocation of pre-IPO shares, an innovation that inspired a wave of similar commitments nationwide.  

But Skoll didn't stop there. In 1999, he launched his own philanthropic organization, the Skoll Foundation for which he serves as founder and chairman. He created the foundation in alignment with his core belief that it is in everyone's interest to shift the overwhelming imbalance between the "haves" and "have-nots." The foundation takes up this challenge by focusing on social entrepreneurs - people who couple innovative ideas with extraordinary determination, tackling the world's toughest problems to make things better for us all. In five short years, Skoll and the foundation have emerged as social sector leaders; in 2002 through 2005, Skoll was recognized as one of today's most innovative philanthropists by Business Week, and he is frequently cited for his leadership in advancing the work and field of social entrepreneurship.
 
His recent honors and awards include Time Magazine's 100 People of the Year (2006),  Wired Magazine's Rave Award (2006), 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.

In April 2005, Skoll launched the Gandhi Project in partnership with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kamran Elahian. Working with Palestinian voice actors and artists, an award-winning director dubbed the epic film into Arabic. It is being screened throughout Palestine in order to advance civil society goals of peaceful resistance, self-reliance, economic development and local empowerment, and plans are under way to expand screenings throughout the Arab world.
 
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!

Oddest hobby: I am an amateur hypnotist...

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.

What he likes most about his work: Every day, whether it is in the social sector, the entertainment community, or the world at large, I get to meet many inspiring, fascinating and talented people.

next: Ricky Strauss
previous: Buffy Shutt