Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company
The New York Times:
Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/patagonia-climate-philanthropy-chouinard.html
Just knowing there are people with that much money who are thoroughly motivated by the same ideals they were back when they were eating cat food in a broken down car — it makes me feel a little bit less alone.
There’s also an update to their landing page with a statement from its founder Yvon Chouinard.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220916131028/https://www.patagonia.com/home/
He leads with “I never wanted to be a businessman”. This is at the core of this decision. Business for business’ sake leads to most of the economic absurdities in effect today.
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