Jeffrey Skoll, who was eBay’s first employee and first president, is a 1987 graduate of the University of Toronto’s electrical engineering program. After founding and successfully running two small computer companies in Toronto, he earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 1995 he helped launch eBay, which currently has more than 95 million buyers and sellers around the world in its online auction community.

While at eBay, Mr. Skoll created the eBay Foundation. In 1999 he started his own philanthropic foundation, the Skoll Foundation, which takes an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy, seeking out and empowering promising social entrepreneurs in order to effect lasting, positive social change worldwide.

Today, as chairman of the foundation, Mr. Skoll continues to create new opportunities to support, connect and celebrate social entrepreneurs. Among the Skoll Foundation’s initiatives are three award programs, an online community called Social Edge at, a four-part public television documentary on social entrepreneurs called “The New Heroes” and the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the newly established Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School, Oxford University, England.

Mr. Skoll’s gift of CAN$7.5 million to the University of Toronto endowed three chairs and established the Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA Program in 2000, a joint program of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering and the Rotman School of Management. The program brings together studies in engineering and management and includes two years of professional experience. Mr. Skoll recently pledged CAN$3.75 million to the university to help expand enrollment in the program.

In addition to his role as Skoll Foundation chairman, Mr. Skoll directs his investment group and leads a venture in Hollywood to produce feature films highlighting social entrepreneurs who overcome the injustice of social inequity. In addition, he serves as a board director for the eBay Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley and is a member of the advisory board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, among others.

His recent honors and awards include Canada's 1999 Leafy Award for his contributions to high technology; a 2001 Visionary Award from the Software Development Forum; the 2002 Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals; the 2003 Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the International Association of Fundraising Professionals; and, in 2003, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto. In both 2002 and 2003, Jeff was identified by Business Week as one of the most innovative philanthropists of the past decade.