The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on January 26, the appointment of a board of trustees, with Strive Masiyiwa, Baroness Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Thomas J. Tierney, and Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman joining co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates as members.
The board members will work alongside Gates and French Gates, bringing independent and diverse perspectives to help strengthen the foundation’s governance.
Mark Suzman announced the board members in the foundation’s inaugural annual letter. The letter highlights the foundation’s efforts to fight poverty and disease; its goal of creating a better, fairer world; and its commitment to listening to diverse perspectives and deepening engagement with partners and communities where its work is focused.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said that this governance change comes after the death in late 2020 of Bill Gates Sr., Bill Gates’ father, an honorary co-chair, and a long-time guiding voice at the foundation, as well as the decision by Warren Buffett last year to step down as a trustee after nearly 15 years. It also represents an explicit recognition by Gates and French Gates, especially in the wake of their recent divorce, that the foundation will be well served by the addition of independent voices to help shape its work in the future. The board could include up to nine total members, with conversations ongoing about adding to the initial slate to enhance representation across gender, geography, and expertise.
Melinda French Gates said: “Our new board members are strong, qualified leaders who will support the foundation and its partners in our work to promote a healthier, safer, more equal world for all. I am deeply proud of all that we have accomplished over the past two decades and energized to work with them to drive progress on some of the most important issues the world faces today.”
Leading economist
Native of Egypt, Baroness Nemat (Minouche) Shafik is a leading economist, whose career spans public policy and academia. She is the Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, appointed to that position in September 2017. Her past positions include the youngest ever Vice President of the World Bank—at 36—the Permanent Secretary of the UK Department for International Development, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, where she sat on all the monetary, financial and prudential policy committees and was responsible for a balance sheet of over £500 billion.
Baroness Nemat Shafik has authored, edited, and co-authored a number of books and articles. Her book What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract—a rethinking of how we can better support each other to thrive—was published in 2021.
Baroness Nemat Shafik completed her BA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, her MSc at LSE and her DPhil at the University of Oxford.
Baroness Shafik said: “I am honored and delighted to be joining the board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and I look forward to working with my fellow board members to support its mission of advancing human flourishing. I’ve spent my career working in some of the world’s great international and academic institutions because, like Melinda and Bill, I realize that the hardest problems facing humanity are not confined to a single country or sector, but are universal challenges that call for reason, empathy, and cooperation. I’ve long admired the foundation for standing for those values across borders and all parts of society. The pandemic, climate change, and other crises have shown its work to be more relevant and necessary than ever. I will dedicate my service as a board member to upholding those collaborative values within an organization that exists to enable everyone to live a healthy and productive life.”
Business Tycoon
Strive T. Masiyiwa is a Zimbabwean based in London and an international business leader. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of South Africa-based Econet Group and Cassava Technologies and is one of the pioneers of the mobile telecoms industry on the African continent. Strive Masiyiwa has also been involved in the development of Africa’s independent media.
In May 2020, Strive Masiyiwa was appointed to serve as an African Union Special Envoy to help coordinate Africa’s private sector efforts to procure medical supplies and fight the spread of COVID-19. As Special Envoy he also heads up the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team. He led a similar private sector initiative to fight Ebola in West Africa in 2014-2015.
Strive Masiyiwa is a member of the Giving Pledge. In 1996, he and his wife, Tsitsi, cofounded what is now known as the Higherlife Foundation which has supported the education of over 250,000 orphaned, vulnerable, and gifted children across Africa, as well as health, disaster relief and preparedness, and rural transformation programs.
Strive Masiyiwa received a bachelor of engineering degree from the University of Cardiff.
Strive Masiyiwa said: “Over the last 20 years I have worked with the Gates Foundation, beginning with efforts to improve agricultural production for more than 400 million smallholder farmers in Africa, to improving livelihoods for the poorest people across Africa and the world. We have worked together to address global health crises like the Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics. I am honored to join the co-chairs and the incredible team at the foundation in fighting disease and poverty throughout the world.”
To help all people lead healthy, productive lives
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.
Since its establishment 21 years ago, the foundation has provided more than $60 billion in grants, with the annual payout regularly increasing year over year. With a more than $50 billion endowment; Gates and French Gates’ additional commitment of $15 billion last year; the expectation of future pledges, and the requirement to spend down the endowment after the co-founders’ deaths, the foundation is uniquely positioned to continue its work of fighting poverty, disease, and inequity in the United States and around the world, while maintaining a major role in the field of philanthropy for decades to come.
