After the death of Steve Jobshis wife, Laurene Powell, became one of the richest women of the world.
This is because he inherited a fortuna from her husband, since a large part of the shares of Apple and Disney were left in their hands.
However, he announced that will donate an important fraction of their money to social assistance.
Laurene Powell and Steve Jobs’ millionaire inheritance
Beyond the fact that she became popular for marrying Jobs, the truth is that Powell was already a brilliant business woman before she met the founder of Apple.
Born in New Jersey in 1963, He graduated in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and then earned an MBA from Stanford.
After that, in addition to creating Terravera, his own healthy eating company, Powell made several impact investments and carried out philanthropy projects.
One day in October 1989, his life finally changed forever. Attended a talk given Jobs at the Stanford Business School and, because he was late, he had to take a seat near where the famous businessman was.
That’s how they both met and, that same night, they went out to dinner together.
The level of connection was such that they fell in love and, two years later, They got married and had their first child. Reed Jobs, followed by Erin (1995) and Eva (1998).
Powell and Jobs remained close until The tycoon died on October 5, 2011due to a rare variety of pancreatic cancer.
After the death of Jobs, Laurenethen 47 years old, He inherited a large part of the Apple founder’s fortunewho during his lifetime had decided to distribute it solely between his wife and his first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
In particular, Powell received Jobs’ stake in Apple and Disney. In that year, these shares were valued around 10 billion dollars.
Such a figure can be difficult to manage, but Jobs’ widow was very clear about what she was going to do with that money.
«I’m not interested in wealth accumulation projects»: what will happen to Jobs’ inheritance
According to Forbes, Powell currently has an estimated fortune of 14.7 billion dollars, which places her in position 208 on the list of richest people in the world.
Since the death of her husband until now, she increased her possessions by acquiring important shares in the magazine The Atlantic and in Monumental Sports, the company that owns the Washington Wizards and Mystics basketball teams, as well as the Washington Capitals hockey team.
Despite this, the woman announced that, regarding the fortune she inherited from Jobs, she will do what he would have liked: spend it on philanthropy.
«I am not interested in wealth accumulation projects. for the family legacy, and my children know it. Steve wasn’t interested in them either. “If I live long enough, everything will end with me,” he said in an interview with The New York Times, when referring to the businessman’s inheritance.
Powell has a history of social assistance. In 1997, he created College Track, a nonprofit organization intended to increase the high school graduation rate, college enrollment, and college completion rate of students from underserved communities.
After Jobs’ death, then, he did not hesitate: he founded Emerson Collectivean impact investing, philanthropy, and advocacy company focused on environmental justice, health, immigration, and education.
As if that were not enough, in 2021, as another means to channel the donation of her husband’s inheritance, she created the foundation Waverley Street Foundation and committed to, through it, allocate some $3.5 billion to climate projects.
With these initiatives she intends to fulfill the objective that her husband failed to achieve: that his fortune would not survive him and return to society.
