Facebook
co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg burst into the public's consciousness as the
awkward, hoodie-wearing Harvard kid who cooked up a website in his dorm room
and went on to earn billions from it.
But in the past year, he's begun to leverage his deep pockets --
he's worth about $16 billion -- and high profile as an advocate for issues
beyond the company's Menlo Park, California, offices.
Whether it's pledging to spread Internet access to the world's
poorest corners, as he announced Wednesday, or plunking down millions to
encourage kids to become scientists, Zuckerberg has evolved into a big-time
player, willing to put himself forward for issues he believes in.
Here are five examples.
The Web evangelist
Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced Internet.org, a new nonprofit
devoted to spreading Web access to the nearly 5 billion people around the world
who don't have it.
Calling access to the Internet a human right, Zuckerberg said the
organization will focus on the mobile Web, which is the way many people in poor
and developing nations get online. It's also, perhaps not coincidentally, an
area where Facebook has focused heavily on expanding its reach and revenue.
But Zuckerberg says the effort isn't designed to be self-serving.
"If we really just wanted to focus on making money, the first
billion people who are already on Facebook have way more money than the next 5
or 6 billion people combined," Zuckerberg said. "It's not fair, but
it's the way that it is. And, we just believe that everyone deserves to be
connected, and on the Internet, so we're putting a lot of energy towards
this."
The immigration reformer
At first glance, immigration reform doesn't seem like a natural
cause for an Internet billionaire.
But Zuckeberg took the lead this month in bringing
together tech luminaries to form FWD.us --
a group advocating for Congress to reform the nation's immigration system.
Tech companies mostly benefit from the federal government's H1B
program, which makes it easier for highly skilled workers in fields like
computer programming to emigrate to the U.S. But the group advocates equally
for issues like helping undocumented immigrants who were brought into the
country as children.
The group has pumped millions of dollars into things like a TV ad urging Congress to "fix our broken
immigration system."
The bipartisan backer
Silicon Valley has an uneasy relationship, at best, with
Washington. But in recent months, Zuckerberg has begun spreading the wealth
around.
Does the Facebook founder "like" Democrats or
Republicans? It's complicated.
Early this year, Zuckerberg hosted a fundraiser for Republican New
Jersey governor -- and potential presidential candidate -- Chris Christie, with
whom he has partnered on education issues (see below). But he would later do
the same favor for a Jersey Democrat -- Newark Mayor Corey Booker (see same).
Zuckerberg hosted a town hall meeting at Facebook for President
Barack Obama in 2011. But his FWD.us group has helped fund campaign ads for
conservative Republican senators like Florida's Marco Rubio and South
Carolina's Lindsay Graham, considered swing votes for the immigration bill in
their chamber.
It may be unclear which lever Zuckerberg tends to pull at the
voting booth. But when he picks up the phone, politicians answer.
The health-science patron
Zuckerberg spearheaded an effort early this year designed to spur
innovation that has nothing do with social media or mobile apps. Instead, it's
for saving lives, or making them better.
He helped create the Breakthrough Prize in
Life Sciences, an annual award given to researchers whose work is
"aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life."
The award pays recipients $3 million each -- twice as much as a
Nobel Prize -- and is also funded by tech leaders like Google's Sergey Brin and
Apple board Chairman Art Levinson.
"Society has a lot of heroes for a lot of different things,
but we don't have enough heroes who are scientists and researchers and
engineers," Zuckerberg said in February. "We're just trying to set up
this ... to reward and recognize the amazing stuff these folks are doing."
The philanthropist
Zuckerberg hasn't shied away from giving back. In fact, last year
he was the second-most generous giver in the United States, according
to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He doesn't have any direct personal ties to Newark, New Jersey.
But in 2010, he pledged a whopping $100 million of his fortune to helping out
troubled schools there.
The money was the first gift from Startup: Education,
a foundation created by Zuckerberg to help schools. Joined by Booker and
Christie, Zuckerberg took to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to announce the donation and foundation.
Cynics noted that the gift came shortly before the release of
"The Social Network," the fictionalized film on Facebook's birth that
many believed cast Zuckerberg in a negative light.
But his philanthropy didn't stop there. Zuckerberg later pledged
an even bigger sum, nearly $500 million, to the Silicon Valley Community
Foundation, which issues grants for a host of causes in the San Francisco area.
In 2012, its charitable causes ranged from programs that teach immigrants
English to groups providing food and shelter to the needy to funds for victims
of the California wildfires.
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