Melinda French Gates has stepped down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organisation she co-founded with her former husband Bill Gates more than 20 years ago.
In a statement shared on social media, she said the decision to resign from the world’s largest private foundation, was not one she ‘came to lightly.’
French Gates will officially step down on 7 June to begin the next chapter of her philanthropic work. She will receive $12.5 billion from her former husband, which she plans to direct towards her future philanthropic endeavours focusing on women and families.
[See also: 12 biggest Bill Gates donations]
Microsoft founder Gates thanked his former wife for her ‘critical’ contributions to the foundations and said he was ‘sorry to see her leave’. The foundation will change its name to the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson said.
French Gates wrote: ‘I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.’
View this post on InstagramContent from our partners
Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates founded America’s largest transparent philanthropic trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in 2000. Since then, the trust has made donations totalling $59 billion.
In her statement on Monday, French Gates praised the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation’s board of trustees, which has significantly expanded since the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
[See also: Where did the world’s richest billionaires go to school?]
French Gates already organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, a firm she founded in 2015, which is not a nonprofit.
The Gates Foundation has committed to eradicating poverty, establishing good education, developing vaccines and fighting AIDS and malaria across the globe. It supports international institutions such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organisation, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The foundation also funds extensive research, including efforts to treat and prevent malaria, and to eradicate polio.
[See also: The biggest billionaire family feuds]
‘The announcement is a surprise for many of us, but I don’t think it’s spur of the moment,’ Latanya Mapp, president and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, said.
When Melinda French Gates officially resigns, Bill Gates will be the sole chair of the foundation’s board.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through its work in 2024.
