Los Angeles Times

Melinda French Gates leaves nonprofit

Her ex-husband, Bill, thanks her for her work as co-chair of their foundation.

-

NEW YORK — Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her exhusband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world’s largest philanthro­pic organizati­ons over the last 20 years.

“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X social media platform Monday. “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.”

She praised the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation’s board of trustees, which was significan­tly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.

“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthro­py,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organizes some of her investment­s and philanthro­pic gifts through her organizati­on, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.

Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributi­ons to the foundation in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthro­pic work.”

French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.

The Gates Foundation did not return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees Monday.

“After a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifical­ly on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.

Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy.

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 2024.

The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States