This Q&A is part of “America: 250 Years Bold,” a CNBC multiplatform series focused on the leaders, institutions, and ideas that have shaped the United States over the past 250 years.
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, Chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation, leads one of the nation’s most influential philanthropic organizations. Founded in 1913, the organization has invested more than $26 billion around the world to improve public health, expand access to opportunity, and address global challenges. In this conversation, Shah will reflect on the Foundation’s legacy, from pioneering advances in science and medicine to shaping modern philanthropy, and discuss how its mission continues to evolve to address inequality, strengthen resilience, and expand economic opportunity in the United States and around the world.
Dr. Rajiv Shah has led the Rockefeller Foundation since 2017, focusing on climate change, global health, and economic equity.
CNBC
Q: Who is John D. Rockefeller Sr.?
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah: John D. Rockefeller Sr. was a giant. He founded America during the Industrial Revolution and, along with others, helped create modern nations like ours. He was one of the pioneers who shaped the economic transformation that gave us railroads, automobiles, gasoline, and the power to improve our quality of life. Of course, in doing so he grew from a man born of humble resources to the richest individual in the world, determined to give that wealth back to society and help shape a future of hope and optimism for everyone, not just the victors of his time.
We need to rebuild the path to the American Dream that we left behind for children across this country. That is the mission of the Rockefeller Foundation going forward.
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah
Chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation
Q: How was the Rockefeller Foundation established?
Shah: The Rockefeller Foundation was founded in 1913, long before that, when John D. Rockefeller got his first job at age 16 and started giving tithes to the church. He was a devout Baptist who believed in charitable giving. When he started the foundation, he did so with his partner Frederick Gates. He was his advisor and early director, and they decided to use the foundation to invest specifically in areas where science and innovation can change life on Earth.
Q: What is the foundation’s original mission?
Shah: The Rockefeller Foundation was founded more than 100 years ago to undertake large-scale global projects that change the nature of life and opportunity for the world’s most vulnerable people. Our company was founded as a science philanthropist because John D. Rockefeller believed that science applied to health, agriculture, energy, and even the social sciences can actually transform society and create an environment in which everyone, not just a select few, can thrive. The Foundation’s first major project was the eradication of hookworm in the southern United States. They built standards laboratories, created America’s county-based public health system, and successfully eradicated hookworm. He continued to work on malaria control, a process that led to major successes in modern public health, but also established America’s public health system county by county across the country and foreshadowed the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control.
Q: What is the Rockefeller Foundation’s current focus?
Shah: Today, we are focused on bringing science, innovation, and partnerships to uplift vulnerable people around the planet. We have four key jobs and investment areas: health, food, energy and jobs, and we engage in large-scale public-private partnerships to deliver these outcomes. We consistently invest in core sciences that we believe can make a difference, especially for the most vulnerable people on our planet, including food, nutrition, energy, energy storage and battery technologies. An example of a risk we took was to issue a social impact bond, raise $500 million, and put all that money into one project to ensure we can use renewable energy technologies to lift more people out of energy poverty. To date, we have mobilized more than $50 billion to provide energy to more than 300 million people in Africa through what we call Mission 300.
Q: As America approaches its 250th anniversary, what makes you optimistic about the future?
Shah: America has always been a frontier country, and when John D. Rockefeller created the Rockefeller Foundation, it was a time of economic transformation. Our history teaches us that we can innovate, partner and collaborate to solve the challenges we face. My parents came here as immigrants from India in the late 1960s. I was raised with the understanding, almost every day at the dinner table, that America is a country where you and your children will have a chance to thrive if you work hard and play by the rules. What has changed is that today fewer than half of American children are predicted to outperform their parents. That’s why we need to rebuild the path to the American Dream for the children of this country we leave behind. That is the mission of the Rockefeller Foundation going forward.
