Jeffrey Skoll (born
January 16, 1965) is a
Canadian born
engineer and
businessman who lives in
Los Angeles, California.
[1] He was the second employee and first president of internet auction firm
eBay, and used the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist and to found the independent movie production company
Participant Media.
Jeff Skoll was born in Montreal, Quebec into a Jewish family,[2][3] his mother a teacher[4] and his father a chemical company owner who sold industrial chemicals.[5] The family settled in Toronto in the late seventies.
When Jeff Skoll was fourteen his father was diagnosed with cancer which prompted him to discuss with his son how much he regretted not having had the time to do everything he had planned in life. A keen reader, Skoll was influenced by authors such as Aldous Huxley and Ayn Rand and intended to become an author writing motivational books and books on tackling the world's problems.
He graduated with a BASc with honours in 1987 from the University of Toronto's electrical engineering program. While an undergraduate student, he co-edited the engineering students' satirical newspaper The Toike Oike. He paid his way through college by pumping gas in North York, Ontario. After graduating he backpacked around the world for several months before returning and founding two businesses in Toronto Skoll Engineering, an information technology consulting firm and Micros on the Move Ltd., a computer rental firm.
