Steve Jobs’ son has risen to the limelight after creating his own venture capital firm to invest in new cancer treatments.
Reed Jobs, 31, was studying medicine at Stanford University when his Apple CEO father died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 — something that was a catalyst for his career.
Jobs created Yosemite — and has so far raised $200 million from investors who believe in the vision to create a virtuous innovation cycle, reports DealBook.
His investors include some of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical and business landscape, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and MIT
The organization’s concept is to provide grants to scientists to fund their life-saving research, which they will hopefully one day commercialize and then return to Yosemite for venture funding.
Steve Jobs’ son Reed has thrust himself into the limelight after co-founding his own venture capital firm with his mother to invest in new cancer treatments.
Reed Jobs, 31, was studying medicine at Stanford University when his Apple CEO father (left) died of pancreatic cancer — something that was a catalyst for his career. The father and son are pictured together circa 2007
Jobs, 31, said the VC’s name was a nod to the national park where his mom and dad got married.
Before going to college, he studied oncology on a summer internship at Stanford when he was 15. He started as a pre-med student at age 18, before his father passed away.
Reed then switched to history, focusing on nuclear weapons policy, as he admitted that his father’s death hit him hard.
However, he returned to the medical field after graduation and received his master’s degree.
The new venture capital firm is a spin-off of Emerson Collective, the company that Laurene Powell Jobs, his mother, founded.
She is currently the president of the company.
Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of the Emerson Collective, right, and Reed Jobs, arrive to attend a state dinner honoring French President Emmanuel Macron
Steve Jobs pictured with Eve Jobs, Reed Jobs, Erin Siena Jobs and wife Laurene Powell
Reed served as general manager for health for the philanthropic organization.
He told DealBook, “My father succumbed to cancer when I was a student at Stanford. I was premedicated because I really wanted to become a doctor and heal people myself.
“But just being very frank, it was really hard after he passed away.
“I never wanted to be a venture capitalist.
“But I realized that if you actually hatch something and put it together, you can make a huge difference in what assets are part of it, what direction it goes and what the scientific focus will be.”
When Reed was still a teenager, he appeared on Quiz Kids, a public show that aired in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Reed and his sister Eve Jobs
He used the name “Reed Powell” and adopted his mother’s maiden name to keep a low profile.
But he soon attracted attention – not because of his father, but because of his impressive general knowledge.
According to Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, his proud parents watched in the audience.
Although the tech mogul tried to go incognito by wearing his favorite black turtleneck, he was “obviously recognizable,” Isaacson said.
Reed, who was in high school at the time, also showed how his father had influenced him when he told the Quiz Kids host what he was working on at school.
“We’re trying to find some new genes for colon cancer,” he said, “that could indicate susceptibility to that disease.”
He added that he hoped for a career as an oncologist, which would enable him to save others from the disease that killed his father at age 56.