Billionaire philanthropist McKenzie Scott has remarried after a high-profile divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
In a letter posted on the website of the charity Giving Place on Saturday, Dan Juvette, a science teacher at the prestigious Seattle School attended by his children, said he was “grateful for the extraordinary privilege of participating in it. To give. ”
What could otherwise be a completely private, personal decision, takes extraordinary importance in light of the resources at Mrs. Scott’s disposal – according to Forbes’ most recent estimate – billions of dollars – and said to give most of it.
In addition to the note on the Giving Pledge website, the published novelist Ms. Scott changed to reading her author page on the Amazon website, “She lives in Seattle with her four children and her husband Dan.”
The Giving Resolution software was launched in 2010 by mogul Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and billionaire investor Wren Run Buffett. The signatories agree to give up most of their property.
Ms. For Scott, his remarriage is the latest turn of life where he has quietly but firmly set the limits of his privacy. Instead of being anonymous, she chose to announce a Medium billion dollar grant and gift last year, with a post attached to her site.
“I am saying this sensible transparency. It’s basically transparency but entirely on the donors’ own terms, “said Benjamin Soskis, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s nonprofit and philanthropy center. “It gives the impression of transparency but it is still perfectly discreet.”
Mrs. Scott holds a unique place in the world of mega-philanthropy. She doesn’t have the experience of decades built by Mr. Gates of New York or former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But the rapid pace of her donations, and the ones that have gifted her with extremely restrictive conditions and the need for heavy reporting that have become commonplace, have helped change the discussion about Mrs. Scott’s direction. Field.
He gave a large number of YMCA and YWCA chapters across the country to food banks and historically black colleges and universities. She donated to organizations supporting women’s rights, LGBTQ equality and efforts to combat climate change and racial inequality.
Its impact was evident in a report released jointly by the Candidate and Center for Disaster Philanthropy groups last week. The groups found that billions of dollars could be considered epidemics out of the billion 1 billion given by Mr Scott last year, about three-quarters of which are related to Covid-19, given by billionaires and other high-value individuals.
“She’s made a huge impact,” said Grace Sato, the candidate’s director of research. “The way she gave it zoomed in on the trends of what we were seeing.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Mrs. Scott’s remarriage.
Ms. Scott had been married to Mr. Bezos for 25 years. They divorced in 2019 and accounted for 4% of Amazon’s stock in the divorce settlement. While her ex-husband became a tabloid mainstay after her divorce, hanging out on Supervisor with fellow magnets and celebrities, Ms. Scott largely stayed out of the discussion light.
“Dan is such a great person and I’m happy and excited for both of them,” Mr Bezos said in a statement.
It is not clear when Ms. Scott and Mr. Juvet were married. She made no comment about it in any of the publicity around her last year. Its representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
“In the shock of a happy coincidence,” Mr. Juvet wrote in his letter posted on the page for Giving Place, “I am marrying one of the most generous and kind people I have ever known – and she will join in the commitment to move forward. . ”
“I don’t think it’s surprising to me that she added her husband,” said Debra Mash, a professor at the University of Indiana Women’s Philanthropy. “He says, ‘We’re a couple now and giving up our house is happening together.’ Couples do a lot. ”
Describing himself as “the teacher of most of my life”, Mr. Juvet noted the strangeness of his declaration of objectives, saying, “No one in particular will say what kind of wealth I have sought to amass.” Meaning. Mr. Juet teaches at Lakeside School, which counts Mr. Gates among its leading students.
Mr Soskis of the Urban Institute said the events that make decisions in the past come late in life, with retirement and death at the center, in the form of a request. Leading philanthropists have now become much smaller, raising new issues. Priscilla Chan and her husband, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, cited the birth of their daughter as the motivating factor they gave.
“The fact that giving is now happening in the main part of life, it means that decision making and giving is being shaped by different life cycle events like divorce and marriage and birth which happened 0 or years ago. Was not. , ”Said Mr. Soskis.
Jack bagContributed research.
