Jeff Raikes is co-founder, with his wife Tricia, of the Raikes Foundation, which works toward a just and inclusive society, where all young people have the support they need to reach their full potential. The foundation focuses on youth-serving systems, seeking to make them work better on behalf of the most marginalized young people in our society. Based in Seattle, the Raikes Foundation focuses on using the science of learning and development to advance more equitable learning environments; preventing and ending youth and young adult homelessness; and improving the quality of expanded learning programs. The foundation recently launched an initiative focused on increasing the impact of giving by individual donors.

From 2008 to 2014, Jeff was the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was responsible for setting strategic priorities, monitoring results, and facilitating relationships with key partners for all of the foundation’s program groups including global development, global health and the U.S. program, which focuses on education and global policy. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Jeff was a member of Microsoft’s senior leadership team, which set overall strategy and direction for the company. Before joining Microsoft in 1981, Jeff was a software development manager at Apple Computer, Inc.

Jeff serves as the chair of the Stanford University Board of Trustees. He has been highly involved with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and helped establish the Mindset Scholars Network through the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS). Jeff has supported many other areas of the university as well, including the Knight‑Hennessy Scholars Program, the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Graduate School of Education, the Center on Food Security and the Environment, and the Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) Mindset Challenge. In addition, he and Tricia established the Jeff and Tricia Raikes Undergraduate Scholarship Fund to help enable students admitted to Stanford from rural and inner-city schools to have an opportunity to attend the university.

A native Nebraskan, Jeff was part of the initial conceptualization of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management, which was renamed the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management in 2008. He is currently a member of the school’s advisory board.

Jeff holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University. He and Tricia have three children, all of whom have earned Stanford degrees.