Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancé Laure Sánchez are awarding $50 Million each to Bill McRaven and Eva Longoria as part of Bezos’ annual prize to individuals who make significant contributions to society.
Bill McRaven, a retired Navy admiral and former chancellor of the University of Texas System, and Eva Longoria an actor and entrepreneur are the winners who would be awarded $100 Million as the Bezos Award.
Bezos Award
Bezos Courage and Civility Award is given to people who try to find solutions to complicated, difficult problems, attempt to be uniters, and embrace civility. The Amazon founder is the second richest man on the planet behind only LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and his fortune totals about $20 billion.
In 2021, the inaugural recipients of the the prize were Van Jones, a lawyer and CNN Commentator, and chief José Andrés, each of them received $100 million. Entertainer and philanthropist Dolly Parton was the 2022 recipient, there was no award allocated in the year 2023.
Recipients’ works and responses
On asking how Mc Raven will use his gifts, he said, “he wants to focus on three areas: first being educating the children of deceased veterans, particularly in the special operations community; the mental health and brain performances of veterans; and helping to develop future military leaders through education.
He wants to use this incredible gift to help veterans and their families is the dream of a lifetime and I am so grateful to Lauren and Jeff for giving me this Opportunity,” says Mc Raven.
For Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Mc Raven and his wife are working for it. Apart from that they also serve as national spokesperson for the Brain Health Project, which focuses on brain health and brain related performances with a concentration on veteran.
Coming to Eva Longoria who starred in the popular television series “Desperate Housewives,” has focused on education and entrepreneurship in Latino communities.
The Eva Longori Foundation aims to connect Latinos and Latinas in low-income areas with peer mentors, and Longoria has a start-up fund for Latino-owned small businesses.
Longoria says that she is highly honored and thrilled personally but she is even more excited about the impact I think we can have on this country through/by investing in the strength of the Latino community. Since Latinos are rapidly growing in US with extraordinary potential, but they disproportionately lack the infrastructure opportunity that is need and that she is excited to invest in that opportuity.
In 2022, Bezos told that he plans to give away the majority of his lifetime wealth, focusing on climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity.
However, as per reports neither Bezos nor Sánchez are yet to sign the Giving Pledge, a commitment by the world’s richest people to give away the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.
The pledge was originally created by Warren Buffet, Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates, and among the signers is MacKenzie Scott, who helped build tech giant Amazon with her ex-husband Bezos and who has given away billions of her fortune.
