The Canadian billionaire who’s giving it all away

Mr. Skoll is the only Canadian among the 81 billionaires to sign The Giving Pledge in the two years since Bill Gates and Mr. Buffett called on the superrich to stop hoarding their wealth. He has already parted with half of his net worth, and expects 95 per cent to be gone when he is done.

“There's really only so much that you need, or your family needs,” he says during an wide-ranging, hour-long conversation this week. “All else is to be turned, hopefully smartly, into a benefit for the world.”

Although often singled out as a visionary, he remains, at 47, very much the entrepreneur, employing the business savvy he used to craft eBay's first business plan to tackle some of the most pressing, and thorny, global issues. In the process, he has started a global foundation, launched a media company that produces Oscar-winning movies and become one of just 20 people in the world to donate at least $1-billion to charity in their lifetime. He has financed everything from a Stairmaster-like water pump that helps African farmers irrigate their crops, to arts-education centres for at-risk American kids.

A resident of Palo Alto in California's Silicon Valley, he shuns the limelight and yet is about to expand his media company around the world.

“I don't have kids yet, but when I do, there's only so much I think they should have,” he says. “They can make their path their own.” (Theglobeandmail.com)