Highlighted Philanthropists
Veronica Atkins
Atkins is one of the top fifty most generous philanthropists. Newsweek also proclaimed her part of the “All-Star Team" in philanthropy.
Naveen Jain
Jain has been named one of the Top 20 Entrepreneurs by Red Herring, recognized for winning the Albert Einstein Technology Medal Winner, and received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2007.
George Soros
The Soros Foundations are an international network of local, Soros-founded foundations promoting sociopolitical activities.
Kenneth Langone
In 1978, he partnered with Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank to found Home Depot, which today is one of the largest and most successful chains in the home improvement industry. He has contributed almost $150 million dollars to various charities.
James Clark
James H. Clark transformed companies into billion-dollar forays— Netscape, WebMD (formerly Healtheon), Hyperion, and Silicon Graphics. Jim Clark, along with Marc Andreessen, introduced the internet browser Netscape in 1994. Until 1998, Netscape took up 80% of the market.
Once a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, James Clark first delved into the technology business when he and some Stanford pupils organized Silicon Graphics, Inc. James Clark’s Silicon Graphics Company was the go-to company in Hollywood for special effects and three-dimensional computer imagery.
Many of Jim Clark’s philanthropic gifts were contributed to Stanford University where he was an electrical engineering professor:
- James Clark was indebted to Stanford when he pledged $150 million to the university. Most of the money was used to erect the James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences for interdisciplinary biomedical research, including stem cell research. Some of the money also went to procure new educational materials, provide positions for faculty who will be a part of the research effort, and sponsor scholars among graduate students.
- Aside from Stanford, James Clark also contributed $30-million to Tulane University in New Orleans, where James Clark took classes in high school.