Friday, February 24, 2006
Google Foundation to Focus on Public Health?
I have a great personal interest in the Google Foundation and in particular, I've been wondering about what trajectory the foundation would take in terms of their focus areas. Their early investments (Acumen Fund, Technoserve etc) suggested an interest in private sector driven economic development. Rumours also abound about Google's interest in renewable energy. So, I was intrigued by their choice of Dr. Larry Brilliant to head the Foundation. Let's have a look at his background.
Is there such a thing as too much money in public health? Well, the Buffet Foundation is slowly coming online, with a $2.5 billion dollar endowment aimed almost entirely at public health issues. That endowment will grow to $40 billion plus after Buffet dies. There's the $30 billion that's at play at the Gates Foundation. Then there's the Kaiser Family Foundation and a bunch of others.
Does this mean there's too much money going into public health at the expense of other opportunities? I honestly don't know. Nonetheless, I'd prefer it if extraordinarily smart chaps like Page and Brin were more innovative with their philanthropy (rather than just follow a trend); a bit like when Gates shook up the public health space with the creation of the Gates Foundation. Of course, this entire post is based on speculation that the past of the director will influence the future trajectory of the Foundation he heads. That may well not be the case. Watch this space.
Dr. Brilliant played a key role in the successful WHO campaign to eradicate smallpox and has also worked for the UN in the fields of blindness and polio eradication. He was associate professor of International Health and Epidemiology at the University of Michigan for many years. Dr. Brilliant has been the recipient of numerous awards including a 2006 TED Prize, the "Community Peacemaker Award" from Wayne State University, the "International Health Hero Award" from the University of California, Berkeley, WHO's Order of the Bifurcated Needle, and the Government of India's Health Minister's Award.Clearly, Dr Brilliant is a public health expert and it seems like under his direction, Google.org's activities will slant towards that direction. Intriguingly, this will push them squarely into a space that is currently dominated by the Gates Foundation. Intriguing because Google and Microsoft seem to be readying itself for a major battle on each other's home turf, namely search and OS.
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Dr. Brilliant is a founder and director of The Seva Foundation, a Policy Advisory Council Member at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, and a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Kleiner-Perkin's Pandemic and Bio-Defense Fund.
Is there such a thing as too much money in public health? Well, the Buffet Foundation is slowly coming online, with a $2.5 billion dollar endowment aimed almost entirely at public health issues. That endowment will grow to $40 billion plus after Buffet dies. There's the $30 billion that's at play at the Gates Foundation. Then there's the Kaiser Family Foundation and a bunch of others.
Does this mean there's too much money going into public health at the expense of other opportunities? I honestly don't know. Nonetheless, I'd prefer it if extraordinarily smart chaps like Page and Brin were more innovative with their philanthropy (rather than just follow a trend); a bit like when Gates shook up the public health space with the creation of the Gates Foundation. Of course, this entire post is based on speculation that the past of the director will influence the future trajectory of the Foundation he heads. That may well not be the case. Watch this space.
