Melinda French Gates is going to leave the Gates Foundation
- Posted on May 14, 2024
- News
- By Arijit Dutta
- 164 Views
Melinda French Gates announced her resignation as co-chair of the $75B Gates Foundation she co-founded, pursuing her philanthropic work focused on equality for women after reaching an agreement with her ex-husband Bill Gates.
Melinda French Gates, the billionaire philanthropist, announced on Monday that she will leave as the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the big charitable organization she co-founded together with her ex-husband Bill Gates more than two decades ago.
In a statement that was posted on the internet, Ms. Gates said the decision to leave the $75 billion foundation "is not a one that I came to lightly. Her last day will be June 7th.
The Gates Foundation is one of the most influential private foundations in the world, spending billions of dollars annually on global health, poverty, education, and other initiatives. Ms. Gates was the co-creator of it with Bill Gates in 2000 after joining him in the act of giving away the vast majority of their wealth.
The news was announced two years later after Ms. Gates and Bill Gates announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage in 2021. At that time, they pledged to keep on co-leading the foundation together. Nevertheless, Ms. Gates announced on Monday that she will now concentrate on her philanthropic activity, with an extra $12. 5 billion in resources under a contract with her ex-husband is the case.
"I am very proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together," Ms. Gates wrote, and she now wants to concentrate on "fighting for the protection and promotion of equality" for women and families all over the world through her existing Pivotal Ventures investment firm.
Bill Gates, who is still one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of over $130 billion, said he was "sorry to see Melinda leave" but he was sure of the major philanthropic impact she will have.
The resignation marks the end of an era for one of the greatest charitable forces in history, as Ms. Gates was the driving force behind the Gates Foundation becoming the leading provider of global health and development programs over more than two decades at the helm.
