Laurene Powell Jobs doesn’t tend to court the limelight. Over the past decade, she’s given only 10 interviews for publication. So why speak now, when there’s hardly a pressing reason for her to take the public stage? “My main reason is to cut through the misunderstanding and misconceptions,” says Powell Jobs—the ones about her 11-year-old organization, Emerson Collective, which is part philanthropy, part Sand Hill Road venture-capital powerhouse, part artistic patronage and part immigration-education-environmental advocacy group. It doesn’t help that most of Emerson’s giving has been anonymous, she says.

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