Co-chair, Board Member
As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates shapes and approves foundation strategies, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and sets the organization’s overall direction. He works with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world.
Bill co-founded Microsoft Corporation in 1975 with Paul Allen and led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software and services. In 2008, Bill transitioned to focus full-time on the foundation’s work. Through his private office, Gates Ventures, he pursues his work in climate change and clean energy innovation, Alzheimer’s research and other healthcare issues, interdisciplinary education, and technology. He is also the founder of Breakthrough Energy, which works to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies.
If we are going to change people’s lives, we need another level of innovation. Not just technology innovation – system innovation.
In 2010, Bill, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the world’s wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations during their lifetime or in their will.
Bill grew up in Seattle with two sisters. His late father, William H. Gates Sr., was an attorney and civic leader who served as a co-chair of the foundation from 2000 to 2020 His late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chair of United Way International. Bill has three children and one grandchild.
See articles by Bill Gates
We must remember this takeaway from the Great Recession
In a world of multiplying crises, we cannot neglect the fight against dangerous diseases that cause untold death and suffering in low-income countries, including HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.
By Bill Gates Co-chair, Board Member, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This organization is working to create a world without pandemics
As COVID-19 variants continue to surge around the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces a new $150 million commitment to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and make the case for faster, more equitable vaccine access.
By Bill Gates Co-chair, Board Member, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
A three-part plan to eliminate COVID-19
In order to distribute a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, Bill Gates underscores the need for capacity to produce billions of doses, funding to pay for them, and systems to deliver them.
By Bill Gates Co-chair, Board Member, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
More about the foundation
Our work
Learn about where we work around the globe and the programs we've created to address urgent issues in global health, global development, and education.
Ideas
Read the latest stories, research, and news from across the foundation and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Optimist.
