Yahoo – AFP,
Glenn Chapman, 2 Dec 2015
 |
Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla hold their baby
daughter Maxima (AFP
Photo)
|
San
Francisco (AFP) - Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced 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 percent of their company shares -- estimated
value $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.
 |
Facebook
chief executive and founder
Mark Zuckerberg announced the birth
of daughter Max
December 1 on his
Facebook page (AFP Photo/Money
Sharma)
|
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 personalized 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.
"My
hat's off to Mark Zuckerberg for making a decision he'll never regret and
making a difference he'll forever be remembered for," pledge-signer and
former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said in an online post.
"The
traditional approach to giving –- leaving it to old age or death –- is falling
by the wayside, as it should. Mark's decision shows that when it comes to
philanthropy, 30 is the new 70."
Zuckerberg
is 31 years old, while Bloomberg is 73.
 |
Breakthrough
Prize Founders Priscilla Chan and Mark
Zuckerberg attend the Breakthrough Prize
awards
ceremony, at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain
View, California, in
November 2014 (AFP Photo/
Steve Jennings)
|
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 $20 million to help get
high-speed Internet service to US classrooms.
The money
is being given to nonprofit 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.
Last year,
Zuckerberg and Chan began pumping $120 million into San Francisco Bay Area
schools.
More than
five years ago, Zuckerberg channeled $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.
 |
Beginning
with the 2016, dads working
full-time for Facebook anywhere in the
world will
have the option of taking four
months' paid leave (AFP Photo/Justin
Sullivan)
|
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 January 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 was available to both moms and dads in the United States.
Facebook
also gives a $4,000 bonus for parents to help meet the needs of new babies.
New dad Zuckerberg vows to give away Facebook fortune https://t.co/SSrPLJRfwE pic.twitter.com/J4fs0WbKzb
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 2, 2015
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