Tech Entrepreneurs Could Follow Gates’s Lead
June 20, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
Bill Gates’s recent decision to leave Microsoft and take up philanthropy full-time may influence other technology executives to increase their charitable giving, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
“He’s setting the standard for what wealthy entrepreneurs in this generation ought to be doing,” says Kathleen Gwynn, chief executive officer of the Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, in San Jose, Calif.
Many founders of successful technology companies, such as Google and eBay, have already diverted some of their massive profits to philanthropic efforts. Nonprofit officials say the innovative thinking that characterizes Silicon Valley companies may also be valuable in creating new solutions to persistent social problems.
