San Francisco: After then-vice president Joe Biden swore in Kamala Harris as a United States senator in January 2017, they posed for a customary photo in the Capitol with her family. Then she asked her future boss for a favour: Would he indulge in one more photo? “Come on, everybody,” Harris said, waving in a dozen others. “My extended family is here.
” The first member of Harris’ entourage to approach Biden just happened to be one of the richest people in the world: Laurene Powell Jobs. Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, right, introduces US Vice President Kamala Harris at the “In Her Hands” event in Los Angeles, California, in 2022. Credit: Bloomberg Powell Jobs, the philanthropist who controls a fortune worth more than $US11 billion, stood just behind Biden’s right shoulder, joining Harris’ best friend from kindergarten and others in her inner circle.
As the photo was snapped and the group broke up, Biden grabbed a coveted 60 seconds with Powell Jobs – asking about her son and talking about his ambitions for cancer research. Few figures have cultivated a more consequential friendship with Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, than Powell Jobs, who for decades was married to one of America’s most famous entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Over the past 20 years, she has become one of Harris’ most essential confidants, providing counsel and money, and helping to expand Harris’ public profile.
Now.
