The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday previewed a series of governance changes that include plans to bring on additional trustees and the possibility that Melinda French Gates could resign in two years if either she or Bill Gates determines they cannot work together following their divorce.
The news was coupled with the announcement that Gates and French Gates had donated an additional $15 billion to the foundation’s endowment, bringing the total to approximately $65 billion.
The Gates Foundation has been considering governance changes since the co-chairs announced in May that they were divorcing. The planned restructuring of the foundation — one of the largest in the world — comes just weeks after Warren Buffett announced he was stepping down as the third trustee.
Mark Suzman, the foundation’s CEO, said in a note to employees Wednesday that Gates and French Gates want to expand the number of trustees to help “evolve” oversight of the foundation, which now has more than 1,700 employees in offices around the world. Suzman said the trustees would be selected in collaboration with “internal and external experts” and would be announced in January 2022.
He did not say how many new trustees would be brought on but noted that the foundation is seeking people with “fresh perspectives, insight, and expertise to help guide the foundation and act as an additional resource to the Executive Leadership Team.”
He also said that French Gates would resign as co-chair and trustee of the foundation after two years if either she or Gates decides that they cannot continue to work together. In that case, French Gates would receive “personal resources from Bill for her philanthropic work” that would be separate from the foundation’s endowment, the note said.
Both Gates and French Gates have maintained their allegiance to the foundation’s work in the months since their divorce was announced and reiterated that through separate statements included in the note to employees.
The $15 billion they added to the foundation’s endowment Wednesday is their largest single contribution since 2000. The two also recently approved a $2.1 billion commitment from the foundation to address global gender equality issues, which was announced at the United Nations’ Generation Equality Forum last week.