Meet LinkedIn billionaire co-founder Reid Hoffman’s ultra-private wife, Michelle Yee – she gave up being a clinical speech pathologist to focus on major philanthropic projects
The couple have signed the Giving Pledge and provide financial support to various causes, while socially they enjoy fine dining – though Yee is rarely seen out with her husband
So who is Michelle Yee, and how has she escaped the spotlight for so long? Here’s what you need to know.
Reid Hoffman and Michelle Yee met at university
The New Yorker reports that Hoffman enrolled at Stanford in 1989, though Hoffman’s own LinkedIn account states he was there from 1985-1990. Both agree he studied a new major called Symbolic Systems: a combination of computer science, linguistics, psychology and philosophy.
He met Yee in his first-year. Skoll, a foundation for social entrepreneurs, reports she graduated with an honours in Linguistics and, according to the Stanford website, she then earned a doctorate in education from the University of San Francisco. Yee was described as “continuing to be a geek, a late-bloomer and a contented introvert,” on the Skoll site.
They married in 2004
In a 2015 profile of Hoffman published in The New Yorker, the billionaire said the couple had got married in 2004 and had agreed to not have children. “Our position is a reasoned position. We both think children are delightful. For me, the projects I’m doing at major scale in the world [are] the major driver. For her, she’s pretty focused on the spiritual nature of life. It doesn’t have to be her own biology. As long as she can help people grow.”