Alan Eustace and Kathy Kwan
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Google
FUNDING AREAS: Educational Equity, Job Skills, Leadership & Professional Development
OVERVIEW: Alan Eustace and his wife, Kathy Kwan, do their grantmaking through the Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation, which made over $7 million in grants in a recent year. The family foundation prioritizes educational issues and social support. This includes pushing for educational equity, college access, job skills for the underprivileged and leadership and professional development.
BACKGROUND: Alan Eustace holds B.S., M.S. and a Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Central Florida. He spent a decade and a half at Digital/Compaq/HP's Western Research Laboratory, where he worked on a variety of chip design and architecture projects, including the MicroTitan Floating Point unit, BIPS, the fastest microprocessor of its era. He joined Google at the start of last decade and served as senior vice president of engineering and research. Eustace retired from Google in 2015.
ISSUES:
EDUCATIONAL EQUITY: Through their family foundation, Eustace and Kwan support a variety of youth and education outfits. In terms of K-12 education, grantees have included Fair Oaks School, Garfield School, Henry Ford School, Roosevelt School, Sequoia High School Education Foundation, Selby Lane School, St. Francis Center, and Aim High, which "closes the opportunity gap for under-resourced middle school youth by providing them with a free summer learning program." Many of these schools and organizations are in the Redwood City, Sequoia Union High and Menlo Park School Districts, in California. The couple has also funded a scholarship program via the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and supports Questbridge.
In higher education, the couple has demonstrated a strong interest in STEM diversity, including support of the UC Berkeley Center for Undergraduate Diversity. Kathy is a Berkeley graduate and serves as a university trustee. Other higher education grantees include Tufts University, Stanford University, San Francisco State University and the University of Central Florida.
JOB/TECHNICAL SKILLS: Grantees include Job Train, which provides job training and placement services in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, Health Career Connection, which "empowers undergraduate students, recent graduates and HCC alumni to successfully pursue health careers," Year Up, and DeAnza Tech Automotive.
LEADERSHIP & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: The couple supports the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and Haas Center for Public Service, among others. Giving to UCSF includes support of Global Health Sciences.
LOOKING FORWARD: Eustace and Kwan's philanthropy appears to be increasing. Expect this locally focused couple to continue to support the Bay Area, particularly in education.
CONTACT:
The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, but below is Kathy's e-mail address:
