David Plouffe, President Obama’s talented manager of his historic presidential 2008 campaign, is leaving Uber to join the $45B Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
CZI which was founded by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, aims to cure all diseases within the next century. David Plouff served as a White House advisor until 2013 and joined Uber in 2014 as SVP of policy and strategy.
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Plouffe is no stranger to working at the nexus of policy and philanthropy: He has served as a board member of the Obama foundation and was a campaign manager for President Barack Obama. The Washington Post reported in May of last year that Plouffe would move from his operational vice president role to more of an advisory role at Uber.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is part of Zuckerberg’s push, along with his wife, to give most of his Facebook shares away to causes that “advance human potential,” like providing personalized education to everyone and curing all diseases within the next 100 years.
So far, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has led a $24 million series B investment for Andela, which helps train and place African engineers with tech companies, a $50 million investment in Indian video learning startup Byju, and $600 million of the funds towards building a “Biohub” building where researchers at Stanford University, University of Calfornia, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco will work together to understand and treat disease.
Source: CNBC, by Anita Balakrishnan, a CNBC News Associate covering technology and breaking business news.
