The House That Memory Built

There is a particular kind of philanthropy that can only be built by someone who remembers what it was like to have nothing, and to be told, by a state, that he was not permitted to leave. Sir Leonard Blavatnik was born in Odesa in 1957 and raised in the Soviet Union at the height of the refusenik era, when Jews who applied for exit visas were denied, fired, blacklisted, and sometimes imprisoned for the crime of wanting to be Jews somewhere else. His family got out in 1978. He arrived in the United States, took a master's in computer science at Columbia in 1981, an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1989, and built Access Industries into a privately held group with a global portfolio exceeding $35 billion across natural resources, chemicals, media, telecommunications, technology, and real estate. In 2017 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, for philanthropy. That last detail is the one worth sitting with. The knighthood was not for the business. It was for what he did with it. Over the past decade, the Blavatnik Family Foundation has distributed more than $1.5 billion to over 250 institutions across the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and beyond. Its stated motto is disarmingly simple: advancing innovation, discovery, and creativity today creates a better world tomorrow. Its actual practice is more interesting than the motto, because when you lay the grants side by side, a coherent worldview emerges. This is a foundation that funds the beginning of things. Young scientists before anyone has heard of them. Archives before the witnesses die. Buildings that will outlast everyone who paid for them. Communities that are still being built. Who Runs It The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) private foundation led by a small, unusually hands-on group. Sir Leonard Blavatnik is the founder. Lady Emily Blavatnik serves as Co-Chair, with a personal focus on the arts and on charities serving underserved populations, she is not a name on a letterhead, but an active patron who has stepped in as executive producer on documentary work when the subject demanded it. Alex Blavatnik, Sir Leonard's brother, is a Senior Advisor and the driving force behind the Blavatnik Archive, which he serves as Executive Director; he also chairs the Israel Swimming Association. Sir Michael Pakenham, a former British diplomat, advises on international work. Peter Thoren is Executive Vice President and head of the family office, and Lisa Shields is Executive Vice President of Strategic Communications. The Foundation names five guiding values: discovery of early-stage research, partnership through long-term commitment, opportunity for exceptional minds, innovation and creative thinking, and a willingness to take on humanity's largest problems. Read the grant list and you will find those five words are not decorative. They are a filter. Scientific Research: Betting on People Before the World Notices Most science philanthropy funds famous laboratories. The Blavatnik Family Fou