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Foundation Says Gates, Wife Involved

Posted on: Thursday, 15 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP

SEATTLE - Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, will both increase their involvement in the philanthropic foundation that bears their name, the nonprofit organization's CEO said Thursday.

The couple set the strategic direction for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and "provide deep and thoughtful counsel on what we're learning, how we're developing and implementing solutions, and how we're measuring results," CEO Patty Stonesifer said about Gates' announcement that he will step back from day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft Corp.

She said the organization has no plans to change its management structure.

With assets totaling $29.1 billion, the Seattle-based foundation spends money on world health, poverty and increasing access to technology in developing countries. In the United States, it focuses on education and technology in public libraries.

Bill Gates founded the William H. Gates Foundation focusing on health issues in developing countries in 1994. The Gates Learning Foundation was founded in 1997 and later renamed the Gates Library Foundation. In 1999, the two foundations merged into the current organization. Bill and Melinda Gates are co-chairs of the nonprofit with his father, William H. Gates Sr.

The foundation is considered a leader in international public health, particularly in the fight against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

"We think this is excellent news," said Anne Lynam Goddard, chief of staff at CARE, the Atlanta-based nonprofit that has poverty-fighting programs in 70 countries. CARE received nearly $10 million from the Gates Foundation last year.

"I can only imagine Bill Gates giving his total attention to the Gates Foundation's work will raise the bar on what their contribution can be in the world in these areas," Goddard said.

When they started the foundation, the Gates family consulted Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a $2.2 billion foundation established by the late Andrew Carnegie.

"Bill Gates always has believed that with wealth comes responsibility, the same as Andrew Carnegie," Gregorian said. "There are people who deal with symptoms - somebody is poor, you give money. That's charity. Philanthropy ... is to solve problems through investment and planning, not (just) through generosity."

That's what Gates wanted to do, he said.

Once determined, Gates was single-minded, as evidenced by his conduct during the government's antitrust case against Microsoft.

"At the height of that lawsuit as we met in a foundation meeting, he never, ever took a phone call or went out to do other business," Gregorian recalled.

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On the Net:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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