Melinda French Gates resigns from the Gates Foundation
Billionaire philanthropist and business executive Melinda French Gates announced Monday that she is resigning from the foundation she co-founded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, her former husband, to start her own philanthropic venture.
She was serving as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has spent nearly $54 billion since 2000 fighting “poverty, disease and inequality” around the world, according to its website. Now, three years after the couple’s divorce, French Gates is striking out on her own.
“Under the terms of my agreement with Bill, in leaving the foundation, I will have an additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families,” she said in a post Monday on LinkedIn. “I’ll be sharing more about what that will look like in the near future.”
A former product manager at Microsoft, French Gates spearheaded work at the Gates Foundation that focused on women’s issues, including empowerment. But she has said she felt her husband’s shadow looming over the foundation’s work: In a 2006 interview with the Wall Street Journal, as French Gates began to take a more public role at the foundation, she acknowledged that the public erroneously “thought the foundation was really Bill.”
When they announced their separation in 2021, the two said they planned to continue joint philanthropic work. The couple contributed more than $36 billion to the foundation from 1994 to 2018, according to the foundation’s website.
In a post on LinkedIn, Bill Gates said Monday that “Melinda has been instrumental in shaping our strategies and initiatives, significantly impacting global health and gender equality.”
“I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work,” Gates said in the post. “Looking ahead, I remain fully committed to the Foundation’s work across all our strategies, and to realizing the opportunities we have to continue improving the lives of millions around the world.”
In her statement, French Gates said she was “immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together,” and she hinted at future directions for her personal philanthropy.
“This is a critical moment for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world – and those fighting to protect and advance equality are in urgent need of support,” she said.