I had the rare privilege of meeting Jeff Skoll at the Skoll forum this time. I was not able to do so last year as he was surrounded by too many people and security was too tight.
Moreover, last year both during the opening and Closing Planery of the Skoll Forum when Jeff usually makes his public appearance, either Al Gore or President Jimmy Carter were the special guests and the security surrounding these gentlemen was just crazy.
However, this time after the most touching Closing Planery, Jeff was standing around, meeting and greeting people who went up to him.
I decided I too did not want to give up on this rare opportunity. So I went up to him and said, "hi Jeff, I am Dash, from Malaysia and it was superb forum and congratulations"
Now what he said to me, though did not surprise me, showed he was savvy of the demographics of his participants...."from Malaysia? Wow ! I was just speaking to someone today and asking how come we are not getting people from that region and I have found you. How did you come to know about us and what attracted you to Skoll?"
This time, the security became a little relaxed and decided he will take my camera, examine it and decided to take these shots whilst I was having a time of my life.
"Well, I read quite a bit about Social Entrepreneurship and that's how I found out about Skoll and this is my second time here" and to that he said, "second time?" emphasizing the word "second" and asked the security man to "take 2 shots" and gave me a big smile and thanked me for being there.
But, the thanks goes to Jeff Skoll.
The man has given, according to public records, about US1billion to establish the Skoll Foundation which in turn supports the research and education on social entrepreneurship at Oxford.
There are billionaires, and there are billionaires.
May God bless this one.
Cheers Jeff ! It was great to meet you and have a few minutes of your time.
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