The Billionaire Behind The Movie ‘Contagion’ Just Gave $100 Million To Fight Coronavirus

Apr 28, 2020,08:00am EDT

Jeff Skoll, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $5.1 billion, has been concerned about pandemics for a long time. He founded and owns film production company Participant Media, which co-produced the 2011 film Contagion – an eerily prescient look at how a pandemic could spread globally. He also spent $100 million, starting in 2008, to back the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which explored solutions to some of the toughest problems our civilization faces, including nuclear warfare and pandemics. The fund wound down at the end of 2017.

Together, the Skoll Foundation and the Skoll Fund, a supporting organization associated with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, currently have assets of $1.2 billion, according to a spokesperson for the foundation.

Jeff Skoll, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $5.1 billion, has been concerned about pandemics for a long time. He founded and owns film production company Participant Media, which co-produced the 2011 film Contagion – an eerily prescient look at how a pandemic could spread globally. He also spent $100 million, starting in 2008, to back the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which explored solutions to some of the toughest problems our civilization faces, including nuclear warfare and pandemics. The fund wound down at the end of 2017.

Together, the Skoll Foundation and the Skoll Fund, a supporting organization associated with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, currently have assets of $1.2 billion, according to a spokesperson for the foundation.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2020/04/28/the-billionaire-behind-the-movie-contagion-just-gave-100-million-to-fight-coronavirus/#390472f720b8