Melinda French Gates Changes Focus

Mark Suzman, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published a change of leadership message today.

On May 13, 2024, Suzman wrote, 'I am writing to share some important news. Melinda French Gates has decided to resign from her role as co-chair of the foundation. Her last day of work at the foundation will be June 7, 2024.

Melinda cares deeply about the foundation and is extremely proud of all of you and the work you do every day to help millions of people live better lives. She made this decision, after considerable reflection, based on how she wants to spend the next chapter of her philanthropy.

Melinda has new ideas about the role she wants to play in improving the lives of women and families in the U.S. and worldwide.'

The entire unedited message is posted at this Gates Foundation link.

And listen to the Gates Foundation's $8.6 billion budget 2024 Annual Letter, read by Suzman.

The Gates Foundation has been a global leader in expanding access to vaccines.

For example, In 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was launched, polio was present in more than 125 countries and paralyzed about 1,000 children per day.

Thanks to the Gates immunization efforts, nearly 3 billion children have been immunized, and the incidence of polio has decreased by 99%.

Gate and GPEI have recently successfully deployed the nOPV2 vaccine to over 1 billion people.