Melinda French Gates has stepped down from her position as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
French Gates, who will officially leave on June 7th, will continue her philanthropy elsewhere, to the tune of $12.5 billion. The money stems from an agreement with her ex-husband, Bill Gates, and does not come from the foundation’s endowment. In her X post, she says she will focus on programs “on behalf of women and families.”
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates says. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together, and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequalities around the world.”
French Gates and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates divorced in 2021. At the time, the two…