After Jobs,her work

It was only later,when she was a freshman at the University of California,Berkeley,that Castro read a news article and realised that Laurene was Silicon Valley royalty,the wife of Apples co-founder Steve Jobs.

The story is classic Laurene Powell Jobs. Famous because of her last name and fortune,she has always been private and publicity-averse. Her philanthropic work,especially on education causes such as College Track,the college prep organisation she helped found and through which she was Castros mentor,has been her priority and focus.

Now,less than two years after Jobss death,Powell Jobs is becoming somewhat less private. She has tiptoed into the public sphere,pushing her agenda in education as well as global conservation,nutrition and immigration policy. Last month,she sat down for a rare television interview,discussing the immigration bill. She has also taken on new issues such as gun control.

Shes been mourning for a year, said Larry Brilliant,president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund who is an old friend of Jobss. She is now emerging as a potent force on the world stage,and this is only the beginning.

Its not about getting any public recognition; its to help touch and transform individual lives, said Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen,a lecturer on philanthropy at Stanford who has been close friends with Powell Jobs for two decades. If you total up in your mind all of the philanthropic investments that Laurene has made that the public knows about,that is probably a fraction of 1 per cent of what she actually does.

In one of a series of interviews with The New York Times,Powell Jobs said: In the broadest sense,we want to use our knowledge and our network and our relationships to try to affect the greatest amount of good.

The fortune she inherited,making her the worlds ninth-wealthiest woman,according to the Bloomberg billionaires index,has catapulted her into the upper echelon of global philanthropists. Powell Jobs has a net worth estimated at 11.5 billion.

She knows that she has the standing to have a major impact on the world stage, said Peter Seligmann,chief executive of Conservation International,on whose board Powell Jobs sits.

Like many technology titans,her husband was criticised for not giving away as much money as he could. Jobs also declined to sign the Giving Pledge,the organisation started by Warren E Buffett and Bill Gates to persuade the countrys richest families to vow to give away at least half of their fortunes.

During the interview,Powell Jobs would not discuss her husband or her children. When asked whether she would join the Giving Pledge,she demurred: Whether someone signs something is not whats important.

Powell Jobs,49,and Jobs met when he visited the Stanford Business School in 1989,which she was attending. I looked to my right,and there was a beautiful girl there,so we started chatting a bit, Jobs told Walter Isaacson,the author of the biography Steve Jobs.

They married two years later and together had three children. Powell Jobs lives with her children in the same unpretentious red brick home she and Jobs bought two decades ago.

Powell Jobs is best-known in the education field for College Track,started in 1997. The group helps prepare low-income students from underserved communities for college; it has trained more than 1,400 so far and sent 90 per cent of them to college.

Her involvement with immigration flowed from College Track. In its early years,a number of her students in the programme were teenagers who had come to the country unauthorised.

Powell Jobs has become a leader in pushing for a decade-old legislation known as the DREAM Act,a measure that would provide legal status for immigrants who arrived in the country as young children. I am so motivated by the stories of the students and their families,and I dont give up because they dont give up, she says.

Powell Jobs has supported numerous causes in Africa too. In 2010,she travelled to Congo with Ben Affleck and has provided support to his organisation,the Eastern Congo Initiative.

Shes a very private person who might be more comfortable being in the back, Seligmann said,

but shes an amazing communicator who is also very effective in the front.

PETER LATTMAN amp; CLAIRE CAIN MILLER