Brilliant move by Skoll

John Elkington

April 15, 2009

When I awoke this morning, several people, including Sally Osberg and Gail Taylor, had forwarded me links to the following news. Worth waking up for – and here’s some of the text from the Skoll media release.

“Jeff Skoll, founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation and Participant Media, has hired Dr. Larry Brilliant as president of a new organization Skoll is launching to address urgent threats confronting humanity and the planet. Brilliant will focus the new organization, the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, on identifying and supporting innovative high-impact initiatives to combat climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict. Brilliant will also serve as senior adviser to Skoll to ensure alignment of work on these urgent threats across Skoll’s business and philanthropic activities.

“Brilliant is renowned for his key role with the World Health Organization in eradicating smallpox from Asia. He was the founding executive director of Google.org, where he led the development of the innovative group’s strategy and, most recently, served as vice president of Google and chief philanthropy evangelist. His extensive knowledge and networks across a range of social and environmental issues will help him develop the strategy and partnerships to get the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund up and running quickly. Brilliant is familiar with Skoll’s vision for social and environmental change, having served on the Skoll Foundation board since 2007.

“‘Over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that humanity’s failure to address critical issues like climate change and nuclear proliferation aren’t just making these challenges more difficult; they’re putting life on the planet at risk,’ said Skoll. ‘This new organization is designed to make serious headway on these issues by identifying and supporting the most innovative initiatives and solutions out there. I can’t think of anyone better prepared to shape and lead this effort than Larry Brilliant.’

“’This is an extraordinary opportunity for me to bring my life’s work and experience to join with so many others who feel the urgency of the times to work on the most critical challenges facing us as global citizens,’ said Brilliant. ‘Jeff Skoll is a tremendously innovative proponent of social change, creating a unique, powerful and diverse set of both philanthropic and business tools to promote change. I look forward to working closely with him, the Skoll Foundation and his business ventures to make sure we’re as effective as we can be in changing course for our children’s future. I am also tremendously grateful to Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Sheryl Sandberg who were my first board of directors at Google.org for giving me the opportunity to work for Google.org and to learn so much from working at Google, one of the most remarkable companies in the world.’

“The Skoll Urgent Threats Fund will be a new organization, chaired by Skoll, with a mandate to identify and support initiatives, organizations and individuals driving large-scale change on these global challenges. The initial budget for the new initiative is $100 million, with additional funds available over time. Brilliant will build the new organization and develop its strategy and investment approach, leveraging the Skoll Foundation’s programmatic expertise and operating infrastructure in the process. Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation, will join Brilliant and Skoll on the board of the new entity.

“’In the Skoll Foundation’s 10 years of work, we have built a portfolio of outstanding social entrepreneurs, many of whom are attacking these urgent threats in highly innovative ways; this body of work will both benefit from and be a resource to the new Skoll Urgent Threats Fund and its activities,’ said Osberg. ‘Even for those social entrepreneurs focused on other arenas – poverty, human rights, institutional responsibility, health – the negative impact of these urgent threats makes their challenges a whole lot tougher. Clearly, these are mutually reinforcing ventures.’

“Skoll’s private company, Participant Media, produces movies such as An Inconvenient Truth and The Kite Runner and other content designed to inform and inspire audiences, with the goal of driving public engagement to make positive change. In addition, Skoll’s multi-billion dollar financial services firm, Capricorn Investment Group, brings a principled approach to its investment discipline. In his capacity as senior adviser to Skoll, Brilliant will seek opportunities to leverage these organizations and relationships to further drive positive change in the urgent threat areas.

“Brilliant served a three-year stint as the first executive director of Google.org, one of our Phoenix 50 organisations, the company’s philanthropic arm before becoming chief philanthropy evangelist for Google. He is an M.D. and M.P.H., board-certified in preventive medicine, epidemiology and public health. He was one of a four -person international team that led the successful World Health Organization smallpox eradication program in India and South Asia. He later founded the Seva Foundation of Berkeley, California, which works in dozens of countries around the world to eliminate preventable and curable blindness. Seva’s projects have given back sight to nearly 3 million people. Last year, Time magazine named Brilliant one of the 20 most influential scientists and thinkers and one of the 100 most influential people in the world

“Brilliant co-founded The Well, a pioneering virtual community, with Stewart Brand in 1985″ – whose work on The Whole Earth Catalog series had a huge effect on my own early thinking. “He also holds a telecom systems patent and has served as CEO of public and venture-backed technology companies.

“Earlier in his career, he was a professor of international health and epidemiology at the University of Michigan. He has authored two books, including The Management of Smallpox Eradication in India, and dozens of scientific articles on infectious diseases, blindness, and international health policy. He is currently writing a book for Harper-Collins on the world’s most urgent threats and how to fight them.

“Also in 2008, Brilliant was given a Global Leadership Award by the United Nations Organization. In 2006, he received the TED Prize. He was named ‘International Public Health Hero’ by the University of California in 2004. Larry worked in India for WHO for more than 10 years, on smallpox, blindness and polio. His polio work for WHO led him to create the idea for a documentary, The Final Inch, which won an Oscar nomination in 2009 and is currently running on HBO TV.

“After the September 11 attacks and the anthrax bio-terror attacks which followed, Larry left corporate jobs to volunteer as a ‘first responder’ for CDC’s smallpox bio-terrorism response effort. After the Christmas 2004 Tsunami, Larry volunteered to work in refugee camps and personally collected and carried financial contributions to refugee organizations in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. He currently chairs a task force created by presidential directive, the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee. He was elected to membership in the Council on Foreign Relations in 2009. He sits on the boards of The Skoll Foundation, Health Metrics Network, and Omidyar Networks Humanity United.”