Inspiring Media: February 2008 Archives
eBay's roots date back to 1995 when (co-)founder Pierre Omidyar and his fiancé were talking about the difficulty she was having trying to contact other people who collect Pez candy dispensers. Omidyar realized the Internet would be the perfect vehicle to create a trading community, but on-line auctions were still more a concept than a business when Skoll and Omidyar quit their jobs a year later to work on the project full-time.
As founding President of eBay, Jeff Skoll has had a track record of launching businesses that result in positive social change. At eBay, he developed the business plan that the company still follows today, creating entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals around the world. In 1998 he inspired the company to take an active role in philanthropy, pioneering creation of the eBay Foundation through the allocation of pre-IPO shares. This innovation sparked similar initiatives by other young companies in high-technology hubs across the United States.
In 1999 Jeff created the Skoll Foundation, which takes an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy by investing in, connecting and celebrating the world's most promising social entrepreneurs in order to effect lasting, positive social change worldwide. Through its Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, the foundation provides financing and complementary services to leading social entrepreneurs whose innovations are poised for growth and replication.
In 2004 Jeff founded Participant Productions, a global media company that produces entertainment to inspire and compel social change. Participant's 2005 films, including Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana and North Country, collectively garnered 11 Academy Award nominations. One of its 2006 releases, An Inconvenient Truth, has been at the forefront in driving an unprecedented grassroots commitment to address climate change and has received two Academy Awards.
In April 2005 Jeff partnered with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kamran Elahian to launch The Gandhi Project, which dubbed the epic film Gandhi into Arabic in order to screen it throughout the Palestinian territories. Working with nongovernmental organization partners, The Gandhi Project promotes nonviolent resistance and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi through screenings combined with discussion. Plans are under way to expand the project throughout the Arab world.
Today Skoll serves as Chairman of Participant Productions and the Skoll Foundation and resides in California. In 2006 he was named as one of TIME Magazine's 100 People of the Year.
In 1904, 43 year-old engineer Henry Royce sat with a 27 year-old, pioneering car dealer, Charles Rolls to discuss the idea of selling his cars in Britain. In 1906, the pair formed their new company Rolls Royce Limited. In their first year of business, they won several awards for quality engineering.
Charles Royce was as passionate about airplanes as he was automobiles, forming the Royal Aero Club in 1903 and becoming the 2nd person to be certified by it. He broke several records in hot air balloons and aero-planes before disaster struck in 1910. Rolls was piloting a Write Flyer when the tail snapped off and he was the first Briton to die in a plane crash at just 33 years old.
Henry Rolls assumed custodianship of his partners legacy for excellence in automotive and aeronautic engineering and began manufacturing plane engines as well as cars in 1914. This proved to be a stroke of genius when war broke and Rolls Royce was able to finance its growth by making engines for planes during the war.
The company swelled and in 1931 bought out its rival, Bentley, during the great depression.
Today the Rolls Royce brand has the “Super Luxury Car” category almost entirely tied up, it works with Airbus and Boeing to provide state-of-the-art engines for their flying fleet and it's brand is one of the most well known and respected in the world.
Charles Rolls will never know the strength and importance of his legacy however by following his passion boldly he has become an immortalized figure in Briton's history.
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