Melinda French Gates is stepping down as co-chair of the charitable foundation she co-founded with former husband, Bill Gates.
French Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with her then-husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 2000, and has accumulated an endowment of more than $US75 billion ($AUD113 billion) as of December last year.
On Tuesday, Melinda Gates said she will use $US12.5 billion ($18.9 billion) for her own work to uplift women and families.
“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 announced on X.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly. 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.”
“It is a critical moment for women and girls in the US and around the world,” she continued. “And those fighting to protect and advance equality are in urgent need of support.”
Bill Gates also took to X to say a few words: “I am sorry to see Melinda leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work,” he wrote.
According to CEO Mark Suzman, the foundation will now be renamed to Gates Foundation and Bill Gates will be its sole chairperson.
“After a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said.
Since its establishment more than two decades ago, the foundation has become one of the most powerful and influential organisations in global public health, contributing more than $US75 billion to combating poverty and disease.
Between 1994 and 2018, the powerful pair donated $US59.5 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In May 2021, questions surrounding the organisation’s leadership arose after the couple announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage. Months later, the pair announced they would assess whether they could work together, and that if they couldn’t, French Gates would receive money from Gates for her separate philanthropic work.
In 2015, French Gates launched her own investment company, Pivotal Ventures, which uses grants and venture capital to empower women across various sectors, including increasing female employment in STEM, getting women elected to public office, and advocating for paid family leave. At the time of her divorce, Pivotal had invested hundreds of millions of dollars across 150 organisations in the US.
In 2021, Gates joined MacKenzie Scott to donate $US40 million to four organisations that promote gender equality. The billionaire philanthropists donated the money as part of the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge hosted by Pivotal Ventures, and gave $US10 million to organisations working to advance the influence of women in the US, including a collaboration between New Mexico Community Capital and Native Women Lead; Girls Inc.; Ada Developers Academy; and the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Caring Across Generations.
At the time, French Gates said the overwhelming response to the challenge proved that there was no shortage of transformational ideas about how to accelerate progress for women and girls.
“The next step is to make sure those game-changing ideas get the support they need to become fully realised and improve people’s lives,” she said at the time.
“We can break the patterns of history and advance gender equality, but we must commit to lifting up organisations, like the ones receiving awards today, that are ready to lift up women and girls.”
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, French Gates currently has a net worth of roughly $US13.3 billion ($AUD17.1 billion). Her ex-husband, Bill, is the fifth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $US153 billion ($AUD231.5 billion).
French Gates’ last day at the foundation will be June 7.