PND (8/29/2000) -- Tech Tycoon Todd Wagner Turns Attention to Digital Divide

By the age of thirty-nine, Todd Wagner had launched a $6 billion online audio streaming company, Broadcast.com, and gained inclusion in Fortune magazine's 1999 "40 Richest Under 40" list. The Dallas-based millionaire really made headlines, however, when he turned down the chief operating officer position offered to him by Yahoo Inc., the company that bought Broadcast.com, and instead decided to focus his energies on philanthropy, reports the Dallas Morning News.

"It's like I got to pursue the American dream," Wagner explains. "You wake up and you say, 'I'm so proud of what I've just done' but then you realize that it's only available to a small segment of the population."

Wagner's current projects include providing financial support and business advice to high tech minority businesses and donating money to inner-city youth programs as part of his crusade to help bridge the digital divide.

Currently working out of a virtual office, Wagner believes technology could be the key to social progress. "To me that's what's so exciting about technology," he notes, "...it brings us a chance to level the playing field. The Internet could potentially be the equalizer for the inner-city."

Stahl, Lori. "High Profile: Todd Wagner." Dallas Morning News 8/27/2000.

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