BILL GATES

$87.5 B
From his perch atop the world's largest private charitable foundation, Bill Gates keeps pushing
to save lives in the developing world through efforts to eliminate polio, attack malaria and
expand childhood vaccinations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also working to
improve K-12 education in the U.S., an area in which it's had fewer tangible results. The richest
person in the world for 18 out of the past 23 years, Gates stepped down as Microsoft chairman
in 2014 but remains a technology advisor and board member of the company he cofounded in
1975. Gates sells his Microsoft shares on a regular basis and now owns 2.3% of the company,
which in turn accounts for 13% of his fortune. He also has investments in Canadian National
Railway, tractor maker Deere & Co. and car dealer AutoNation. In December 2016, Gates
announced the creation of a $1 billion Breakthrough Energy investment fund with about 20
other people - including Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and Alibaba founder Jack Ma - to invest
in new forms of clean energy.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (or the Gates Foundation, abbreviated as BMGF) is a private
foundation founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It was launched in 2000 and is said to be the
largest transparently operated private foundation in the world. The primary aims of the
foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to
expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based
in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren
Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive
Officer Susan Desmond-Hellmann.

It had an endowment of US$44.3 billion as of 31 December 2014. The scale of the foundation
and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in
venture philanthropy, though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has
limitations. In 2007, its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in
America, and Warren Buffett the first. As of May 16, 2013, Bill Gates had donated US$28
billion to the foundation.

History
In 1997, the foundation was formed as the William H. Gates Foundation. During the
foundation's following years, funding grew to US$2 billion. On June 15, 2006, Gates announced
his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft, effective July 31, 2008, to allow
him to devote more time to working with the foundation.

In 2005, Bill and Melinda Gates, along with the musician Bono, were named by Time as
Persons of the Year 2005 for their charitable work. In the case of Bill and Melinda Gates, the
work referenced was that of this foundation.
In April 2010, Gates was invited to visit and speak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
where he asked the students to take on the hard problems of the world in their futures. He also
explained the nature and philosophy of his philanthropic endeavors.

In 2010, the foundation's founders started the Commission on Education of Health Professionals
for the 21st Century, entitled "Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an
interdependent world."

A 2011 survey of grantees found that many believed the foundation did not make its goals and
strategies clear and sometimes did not understand those of the grantees; that the foundation's
decision- and grant making procedures were too opaque; and that its communications could be
more consistent and responsive. The foundation's response was to improve the clarity of its
explanations, make "orientation calls" to grantees upon awarding grants, tell grantees who their
foundation contact is, give timely feedback when they receive a grantee report, and establish a
way for grantees to provide anonymous or attributed feedback to the foundation. The foundation
also launched a podcast series.

In 2013, Hillary Clinton launched a partnership between the foundation and the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation to gather and study data on the progress of women and girls around
the world since the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This
is called "No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project