Source: AFP
This image obtained on Dec 1, 2015 courtesy of Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg shows Mark and his wife Priscilla with their newborn daughter
Maxima. — AFP pic
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 2, 2015:
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg
announced on Tuesday he is a dad and pledged to give away his fortune to
make the world a “better place” for baby daughter Maxima and others.
In a letter to Maxima posted on his
Facebook page, Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan said they were going
to give away 99% of their company shares — estimated value US$45 billion
— during their lives in an effort to make a happy and healthy world.
“Max, we love you and feel a great
responsibility to leave the world a better place for you and all
children. We wish you a life filled with the same love, hope and joy you
give us. We can’t wait to see what you bring to this world,” the letter
said.
Zuckerberg will “gift or otherwise
direct” nearly all his shares of Facebook stock, or the after-tax
proceeds of sales of shares, to further a mission of “advancing human
potential and promoting equality” by means of activities for the public
good, the California-based social network said in a filing with the US
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Zuckerberg
“intends to retain his majority voting position in our stock for the
foreseeable future,” Facebook said in the SEC filing.
“As you begin the next generation of the
Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to
join people across the world to advance human potential and promote
equality for all children in the next generation,” the Facebook chief
and his wife said.
“Our initial areas of focus will be personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.”
– Giving Pledge –
Zuckerberg early on added his name to
those who have taken a Giving Pledge to dedicate the majority of their
wealth to philanthropy.
Names on the pledge include Microsoft
co-founder Bill Gates, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg,
Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, and IAC/InterActiveCorp powerhouse
Barry Diller.
“We believe all lives have equal value,
and that includes the many more people who will live in future
generations than live today,” Zuckerberg and Chan said in their letter
to Max.
“Our society has an obligation to invest
now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just
those already here.”
Zuckerberg, in November, said that he and
his wife are donating US$20 million to help get high-speed Internet
service to US classrooms.
The money is being given to non-profit
group Education Super Highway to help with its mission, the Facebook
chief executive said in a post on his page at the social network.
A month earlier, Zuckerberg and his
doctor wife revealed plans to start a private school in a hardscrabble
Silicon Valley town, mixing education with health care.
Zuckerberg voiced pride in his wife,
Priscilla, for the plan to create “The Primary School” in the
working-class city of East Palo Alto.
In June of last year, Zuckerberg and Chan began pumping US$120 million into San Francisco Bay Area schools.
More than five years ago, Zuckerberg
channeled US$100 million to improve schools in the New Jersey city of
Newark in an early foray into improving public education that got
failing grades.
– Dad time –
Zuckerberg plans to take two months’ paternity leave to be a dad.
“Studies show that when working parents
take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the
children and families,” Zuckerberg said in an earlier post on his
Facebook page.
Beginning with the new year, dads working
full-time for Facebook anywhere in the world will have the option of
taking four months’ paid leave.
All new dads working for Facebook outside
the US currently get a minimum of four weeks’ paternity leave, with
more time offered in locations where required by local law, according to
Facebook.
Same-sex partners, who are not primary caregivers for babies, get the same paid leave time as dads, the social network said.
The change, effective Jan 1, essentially
raises parental leave time for dads and non-custodial same-sex partners
from four weeks to four months.
Maternity leave offered to Facebook
employees around the world is already four months, and the benefit is
available to both moms and dads in the United States.
Facebook also gives a US$4,000 bonus for parents to help meet the needs of new babies.
Source therakyatpost.com
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