Title Executive Director Company Philanthropic Ventures Foundation Bio James Higa was born in Indiana, grew up in Okinawa, educated in Palo Alto, and has a long and storied career in Silicon Valley. He reported to Steve Jobs and worked alongside him at Apple for nearly three decades to change the face of technology and entire consumer industries. He was at the birth of the personal computer revolution as a member of the original Macintosh team. His work negotiating and launching iTunes changed music forever. He still has one foot in high tech as Mentor in Residence at Index Ventures, whose investments include Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, and Skype. But now as Executive Director of Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, known for it’s seed philanthropy and 48 hour grant cycles, he aspires to make a dent in the uni-verse and to close the growing Inequality Gap through people and communi-ties rather than products and technologies.