Westchester’s Zuckerberg Will Use 99% of Facebook Stock Make the World a Better Place

With the recent birth of his newborn daughter Max, Westchester native Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan?having been inspiring the world in some seemingly progressive ways.

The 31-year-old?has put?paternity leave and paid family time off in the public eye recently when?he announced that he is taking two months off for paternity leave and is granting Facebook employees across the globe four months paid parental?leave. The Chan Zuckerberg clan also defied traditional gender norms by naming their little girl Max.

In addition to all that awesome stuff,?he has pledged to make the world a better place for his daughter’s and future generations by donating 99 percent of his Facebook shares, estimated at $45 billion, to create opportunities for?”personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.”

“Your mother and I don’t yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future,” Zuckerberg wrote in a letter to his daughter posted on Facebook.

Zuckerberg, who grew up in Dobbs Ferry and White Plains (unincorporated Greenburgh) and attended the Ardsley School District, says his motives are the same as any other parent’s: to have his child grow up in a world that it is better than today.

Though Zuckerberg acknowledges that the world is getting better in some respect, which he says isn’t often reflected in the media, he says his generation has a “moral responsibility” to leave a better one for the next.

“But right now, we don’t always collectively direct our resources at the biggest opportunities and problems your generation will face,” Zuckerberg explains.

However,?Zuckerberg’s inspirational dream for the future will change that.?He envisions a world where human advancement?shows the world just how amazing life as a human can be.

He sees a future where:

• Research aims to cure and prevent disease, rather than treat it
• Technology and investment will?protect the environment, rather than destroy it
• Everyone has access to the Internet and it’s unlimited ideas and point of views
• Entrepreneurship is encouraged to solve problems and grow peace and prosperity
• Poverty and hunger don’t exist
• Equality is the norm so that everyone has access to opportunities to fulfill their potential, regardless of the circumstances they were born into.

“Our society must do this not only for justice or charity, but for the greatness of human progress,” he explains to his daughter. “Today we are robbed of the potential so many have to offer. The only way to achieve our full potential is to channel the talents, ideas and contributions of every person in the world.”

Zuckerberg says that if the correct investments are made over the next 25 to 100 years, this world can become a reality. The funds he pledged will be used to create the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that will execute strategies to achieve these goals for a?utopian future. You can learn more about the Chan Zuckerberg family’s?plans?here.

“Good people will have different views on the best path forward, and we will try many efforts before we succeed,” Zuckerberg writes. “But together we can succeed and create a more equal world.”