Charles Feeney

Charles F. Feeney, a pioneer of duty-free shops and a shrewd investor in technology start-ups who gave away nearly all of his $8 billion fortune to charity, much of it as quietly as he had made it, died on Monday October 9 2023 in San Francisco. He was 92. Chuck Feeney, the founder of both Duty Free Shoppers and private equity giant General Atlantic was one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the world. Feeney has given away more than $8 billion across the world--most of it anonymously. Feeney approached his philanthropy with the same scrappy business sense and eye for opportunity that he used to turn a gig selling alcohol to U.S. sailors into the billion-dollar Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) empire. For decades, he traveled the world in search of high-value causes. Once discovered, he’d target the problem and would go all in. Feeney’s Irish impact, while substantial, was far from isolated. Atlantic’s projects spread worldwide, with similar initiatives across the U.S., Australia, Viet Nam, and South Africa. n 1982 that Mr. Feeney established in Bermuda the foundation that would become Atlantic Philanthropies. In 1984, he transferred to the foundation his 38.75 percent stake in the company he had co-founded, Duty Free Shoppers. Since there was no sale, the company’s value was speculative, but some estimates said it may have exceeded $500 million. In December 2016, with his donation of $7 million to his alma mater, Cornell University, for student community-service work, Mr. Feeney officially emptied the Atlantic Philanthropies’ accounts. Atlantic maintained complete anonymity until 1997.