NEW YORK — Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the non-profit organization that she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded over the past twenty years and built into one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations.
“This is not a decision I have made lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation Bill and I have built together and the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequality around the world.”
She praised the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation’s board of directors, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move on to the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organizes some of her investments and philanthropic giving through her organization, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to foundations in a statement, saying: “I am sorry to see her go, but I am confident she will have a tremendous impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her deal with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment on whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years of seeing women’s rights decline in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on changing that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for its advocacy, especially on gender equality.
“I know how loved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation has $75.2 billion in endowments as of December 2023 and announced in January that it planned to spend $8.6 billion during its 2024 operations.
The Associated Press will receive financial support for reporting in Africa through the bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for reporting on women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
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