David desJardins is an American mathematician, software engineer, investor and philanthropist. He was the 20th employee of Google, joining in 1999. After leaving the company in 2005, he invested in a number of startup companies and philanthropic endeavors with his wife, Nancy Blachman.
He is a top donor to Democratic candidates and causes. DesJardins also serves on the board of George Soros’s Democracy Alliance and is involved in DA-connected groups including the Scholars Strategy Network and Agenda Project.
Personal Life
David desJardins received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 and completed a Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley in 2002.[1]
DesJardins is married to Nancy Blachman,[2] a mathematician and computer scientist.[3] The couple has two children, Sarah and Louis.[4]
Career
In 1999, desJardins became Google’s 20th employee, working as a software engineer until 2005. He was an early investor in companies such as Cloudera,[5] ScanScout,[6] and 23andme.[7] He was a board member of Tigerlabs technology incubator.[8]
Political Activities
DesJardins has given $2,174,138 to Democratic candidates and causes between 2000 and 2016[9] including $200,000 each to the Sierra Club and House Majority PAC.[10] In both 2012 and 2014, he gave $100,000 to American Bridge 21st Century,[11] a Democratic-aligned Super PAC founded by Media Matters for America creator David Brock.[12]
In the 2012 election cycle, desJardins was one of Silicon Valley’s top ten Democratic super-donors, giving $965,100 to Democrats only.[13] During that year, he was also among the Sunlight Foundation’s “Political 1% of 1%,” putting him in the top 31,385 (.01% of the U.S. population at the time) disclosed political givers.[14]
In the 2014 race for California Superintendent of Public Instruction, desJardins gave $63,000 to back school reformer Marshall Tuck in an unsuccessful effort to unseat teacher union-backed incumbent Tom Torlakson.[15]
Philanthropy
DesJardins and his wife Nancy Blachman created the desJardins-Blachman Foundation[16] and the desJardins/Blachman Fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a donor advised fund[17] with contributions to the Center for Science in the Public Interest,[18] the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund,[19] and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities[20] which receives support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[21]
The desJardins/Blachman Fund has also supported a number of liberal organizations including the Campaign Legal Center,[22] the Roosevelt Institute,[23] and the Brennan Center for Justice.[24]
The couple is listed as a major funder of the PBS documentary series Point of View[25] and has contributed to the Sierra Club Foundation.[26]
DesJardins serves as a trustee of the UC – Berkeley Foundation[27] and a member of the Corporation of MIT.[28]
DesJardins is a board member of Democracy Alliance.[29] He is on the steering committee of the Scholars Strategy Network,[30] a group of progressive academics[31] which is among 180 organizations connected with the Democracy Alliance.[32]
In 2007, with funding from the Democracy Alliance, desJardins joined fellow DA members Daniel Berger and Guy Saperstein to found the New Ideas Fund.[33] In her 2009 book, The Practical Progressive: How to Build a Twenty-first Century Political Movement, DA co-founder Erica Payne writes that the New Ideas Fund “provides grants to promising scholars to establish a foundation for a progressive thought infrastructure in national security and foreign policy.”[34]
DesJardins is among 200 members of Patriotic Millionaires, which advocates higher taxes.[35]
Emails obtained and released by Wikileaks revealed that desJardins was among a handful of wealthy liberals considered for solicitation to fund a D.C.-based policy group called the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, founded and steered by John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chair.[36]