Like parents across the globe, when it came to announcing the birth of his first child, Marc Zuckerberg – naturally enough – took to Facebook to share the good news.
Yesterday, the Facebook founder and his wife Priscilla Chan, who have previously spoken out about their heartache of suffering three miscarriages before conceiving this time around, announced the birth of their baby girl Max –as well as that of one of the world's biggest charity initiatives.
In a Facebook open letter, penned to his newborn daughter, the young billionaire pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook shares in their lifetime, as part of the creation of a charity organization called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
The charity, which has “the mission of advancing human potential and promoting equality”, will be administered by the CEO himself and is already on track to be worth a potential $3bn by 2018.
Here is what the proud new father had to say:
Dear Max,
Your mother and I don’t yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future. Your new life is full of promise, and we hope you will be happy and healthy so you can explore it fully. You’ve already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in.
Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today.
While headlines often focus on what’s wrong, in many ways the world is getting better. Health is improving. Poverty is shrinking. Knowledge is growing. People are connecting. Technological progress in every field means your life should be dramatically better than ours today.
We will do our part to make this happen, not only because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation.
We believe all lives have equal value, and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here.
Welcome to the world, baby Max. And what a Facebook debut!
