MARK’S MORAL COMPASS

MY INTERVIEW with Priscilla Chan comes in yet another bad week for her husband’scompany.Face-book, the social networkMarkZuckerberg founded when they were students at Harvard together, has been headline news – and not in a good way.

I keep expecting Priscilla to cancel, but she doesn’t. Instead, her office asks me to avoid asking questions about Face-book because she can’t answer on behalf of her husband’s business. That’s not going to be easy when a media and political firestorm is raging and Facebook is drawing comparisons with Big Tobacco over allegations that it put profits before the health and safety of its customers and deploys algorithms that amplify divisive and potentially harmful content.

I’m meeting Priscilla in the heart of Silicon Valley – not far from the couple’s home in Palo Alto – in the shiny new Redwood City headquarters of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).

Through CZI, she and her husband plan to give away 99% of their wealth. Given they’re the largest shareholders in a trillion-dollar company, that’s a lot of money.

They have big ambitions: “to help cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century” and create a more equitable society. So far they’ve given away more than $3 billion (R45bn).

Decorated with brightly coloured murals paintings by local artists and screens flashing up stories of inspiring women, the offices are reminiscent of a well-funded primary school. It has a free cafeteria offering healthy food and themed meeting rooms with names such as Pizza and Falafel.

I find Priscilla up on the roof garden, posing for the photographer. She’s relaxed and smiley, one of those people you can’t help but