10 Things You Should Know About Billionaire Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs (2024)

Laurene Powell was born on November 6, 1963 in West Milford, New Jersey. When she was three years old, her father—a pilot—died in a plane collision, and her mother later remarried, according to Business Insider. Powell Jobs double majored in economics and political science at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1985, she spent three years working on Wall Street as a fixed-income trading strategist for Goldman Sachs, according to The New York Times. She also worked for Merrill Lynch Asset Management. Powell Jobs later went on to receive her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1991.

While attending a “View From the Top” lecture in October 1989 at Stanford, Powell Jobs snuck to the front of the lecture and started a conversation with the man sitting next to her. He then stood up and introduced himself as the guest lecturer, Steve Jobs. That same day, Jobs skipped an important business dinner to take Powell out on their first date, according to Business Insider.

“I was in the parking lot with the key in the car, and I thought to myself, ‘If this is my last night on earth, would I rather spend it at a business meeting or with this woman?” Jobs said in Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different: A Biography. “I ran across the parking lot, asked her if she'd have dinner with me. She said yes, we walked into town and we've been together ever since.”

Steve Jobs passed away due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011. “His private legacy with me and the kids is that of husband and father, and we miss him every day,” Powell Jobs said in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams.

After her husband's death, Powell Jobs inherited her husband's fortune—including 5.5 million shares of Apple stock and a 7.3 percent stake in the Walt Disney Company—making her the third richest woman in the United States and the fifth richest woman in the world, according to Forbes. Powell Jobs beneficially owned 64.3 million shares of Disney after her husband's death and through to 2016, making her the company's largest single shareholder until she reduced her shares by half in early 2017, according to Variety.

In the early '90s, Powell Jobs co-founded Terravera, a natural-food company with a focus on developing organic raw materials such as grains and oilseeds. These raw materials are then incorporated into the food and feed industries. Once she had children, the business owner stepped back from Terravera to spend more time raising her family.

In 1997, Powell Jobs co-founded College Track with Carlos Watson. This nonprofit organization still exists today and helps to prepare low-income students for college through tutoring and mentoring. The company now has nine locations across California, Colorado, and Louisiana.

Putting her degrees in business, economics, and political science to use, Powell Jobs founded Emerson Collective in 2004. Named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, the organization, which is based in Palo Alto, California, promotes social justice and environmental conservation, as well as advocating for immigration reform and policies concerning education. The private company uses grants and investments to advance modern day education through the use of technology.

“So there’s Emerson’s idea of self-reliance...I’ve always had this idea that you have to make the most of things,” Powell said last year in an interview with Vogue. “And then collective because I wanted the idea that you achieve your goals with people, because good ideas come from a lot of places.”

A political activist and philanthropist, Powell Jobs has also taken a huge interest in education reform. In addition to Emerson Collective and College Track, in September of 2016, the billionaire philanthropist launched a $50 million project called XQ: The Super School Project to create high schools with a new approach to education. She is the chairwoman of the board of directors for XQ.

Powell Jobs is also on the board of organizations such as Conservation International and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a member of Stanford University's board of trustees. She is also a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council alongside Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio.

Powell Jobs and Emerson Collective had planned a partnership with writer Leon Wieseltier to create a new magazine called Idea. In October, however, Powell Jobs prematurely ended the partnership after learning of Wieseltier's "past inappropriate work conduct," according to The Washington Post. One of Wieseltier's former colleagues at the New Republic brought the information to light when they came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Wieseltier.

“Upon receiving information related to past inappropriate workplace conduct, Emerson Collective ended its business relationship with Leon Wieseltier, including a journal planned for publication under his editorial direction,” Emerson Collective said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. “The production and distribution of the journal has been suspended.”