Ashton Kutcher
Chrstopher Ashton Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the 7th February 1978. His career began as a model but soon evolved into film, in the popular TV show That 70s Show, in which he portrayed Michael Kelso for the 8 seasons that the show ran. The first feature length film that raised his awareness and popularity was the comedy Dude, Where’s My Car?. Other films he is known for include: The Butterfly effect, What Happens in Vegas, No Strings Attached and Jobs, where he was asked to take the leading role as Steve Jobs, the legendary creative mind behind many of Apple’s iconic products. More recently, Kutcher has been spending his time as a venture capitalist focusing on high technology start-ups including: Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb and Fab.com. He is the co-founder of venture capital firm A-Grade Investments.
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Engagement in Cultural Diplomacy
Humanitarian Causes
In 2009, Kutcher with then wife Demi Moore set up the DNA Foundation, an international human rights organization that helps to address the problem of sexual exploitation of children and the proliferation of child pornography on a global scale. The Foundation later changed its name to Thorn. The foundations initiatives focus on four main areas:
R&D- Partnering up with nonprofits and academic institutions to establish the role of technology in sex trafficking.
Deterrence- Support of tech initiatives that disrupt predatory behavior on the internet.
Innovation: Recruitment of the brightest minds in technology to solve specific problems in the fight against the sexual exploitation of Children
Industry Initiatives: Facilitation of sharing of information across various platforms as well as cooperation between industry leaders.
Philanthropic Donations
In 2006, Kutcher announced that for the first 50,000 MySpace users to add him as a friend he would donate a dollar to Habitat for humanity
